VIDEO: WCC Championships Preview
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Coming off their third team title of the season and ranked No. 50 in the recent Golfstat.com poll, Santa Clara men's golf heads to Southern California to compete in the West Coast Conference Championship, opening play Monday at the 7,140-yard, par-72 Carlton Oaks Golf Club in Santee, Calif.
Five of the nine competing schools are among the top-52 in the rankings and the tournament should be one of the most closely contested in recent years. Pepperdine is ranked 30th while defending champion BYU is at No. 40. USF (45) and Saint Mary's (52) join the Broncos in the top-52.
"This has become a golf conference and it's getting stronger," head coach Rob Miller said. "Anything can happen at any given tournament. There's no doubt we can play with the top teams in the conference and we are one of the top teams.
"The real challenge becomes, when you have that many good teams, the team that's going to win is the one that plays well," Miller added. "You're not going to back into a conference championship these days in our conference. You will have to beat a couple of good teams and to do that you will have to play strong."
The Broncos will be led by their top three of senior Hayden Shieh, reigning WCC Golfer of the Month sophomore Matt McCarty and junior Derek Ackerman.
"Our top three guys have been incredibly strong and really consistent throughout the year," Miller said.
Shieh claimed runner-up honors in the previous event, shooting 6-under at the Geiberger Invitational last week, and all three placed in the top-10. Ackerman had his best finish in a team event by taking third and McCarty tied for ninth. As a team the Broncos tied BYU for the title. Check out team and individual season stats here.
Joining the trio are freshmen Jack Avrit and Zack Kaneshiro. "Competing in the conference championship and beyond, those four and five spots become even more critical and you have to get productivity out of those spots," Miller said.
First-round action gets underway Monday with tee times starting at 7:50 a.m. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Name: WCC Championship
Dates (Site): Monday-Wednesday, April 16-18 (Santee, Calif.)
Host: West Coast Conference
Tournament Field (Rank): BYU (40), Gonzaga (126), Loyola Marymount (115), Pacific (159), Pepperdine (33), Saint Mary's (52), San Diego (150), San Francisco (45), Santa Clara (50).
Details: The field will play a single 18-hole round over each of the three days with a tee time start beginning play. A total of 54 holes will be played with the low four of five scores counted each round for the team total.
Course: Carlton Oaks Golf Club
Yardage/Par: 7,140 yards / Par 72
Live Scoring: Golfstat.com
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