by Gavin Hall, Santa Clara Athletics Media Relations Student Assistant

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Santa Clara men's golf had its best finish of the season this weekend as they completed the Desert Mountain Collegiate in solo 4th place out of 16 teams with Viraj Garewal being the star Bronco of the tournament.

Garewal (70-70-74--214) was able to keep his momentum going as he went into Day Two of the tournament and kept his scores in the low 70s and only dropped one place to finish in a tie for 3rd at 2-under overall. He recorded 10 birdies over the three-round stretch and his only double-bogey came in the Final Round. Also finishing in the Top-20 was Alex Conley (76-73-70--219) who gradually improved his scores to eventually have a sub-par Final Round, earning a tied-12th finish at 3-over overall. Only four shots behind Conley was Calder Overfelt (73-75-75--223) who played as an individual and came away with a T28 finish at 7-over thanks to consistent play all three days.

Julien Paltrinieri (74-76-74--224) contributed all three of his rounds to the Broncos this weekend but had a few costly holes as he finished at 8-over and in a tie for 32nd. Fellow upperclassmen Nolan Forsman (71-75-79--225) came out of the gate hot with a sub-par Round 1 but found some struggles later on in the tournament to finish in a tie for 35th at 9-over. Making his debut of the spring season, Oscar Zimmerman (73-78-79--230) had a solid first round but suffered a triple-bogey in both Rounds 2 and 3 to finish at 14-over and in tied-58th place.

The Broncos continued to separate themselves going into the second and final rounds as they ended up first in Par 5 scoring, having an average of 4.73 strokes and a combined 16 under par on the longer holes. Santa Clara's final score was a 15-over 879. The only schools that played better were the two ranked teams who participated in addition to the host of the tournament, Michigan. Mississippi State (2-over 866) not only took home the team title but also the individual honors as Ruan Pretorius (68-70-70--208) was the only player to have all three rounds under par. The Broncos' spring season will continue with the beginning of their two-tournament Oregon swing at the famed Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. 

NEXT UP

• Bandon Dunes Championship

• Mar. 12-14

• Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Bandon, Ore.)