EUGENE, Ore. – California (357-350 – 707, -3) led for much of the opening round of the Pac-12 Championships before settling for a third-place position after 36 holes of play Monday at the par-71, 7044-yard Eugene Country Club.

The Golden Bears registered the second-best round during each of the first two rounds of the 72-hole event and will start third-round action Tuesday two strokes behind second-round co-leaders Stanford (359-346 – 705, -5) and UCLA (353-352 – 705, -5). The Bruins led Cal by four strokes after 18 holes before the Cardinal shot a nine-under par team score in the second round to move from tied for fourth after the first round into the first-place tie with UCLA.

Collin Morikawa (68-70 – 138, -4) is the top Cal player on the individual leaderboard in sixth-place and is four strokes behind second-round co-leaders Kyler Dunkle of Utah (70-64 – 134, -8) and Justin Suh of USC (69-65 – 134, -8).

Sebastian Crampton (73-69 – 142, E) and Kaiwen Liu (69-73 – 142, E) lead the remainder of the Golden Bears' lineup as two of the 10 players in a tie for 12th. Jamie Cheatham (73-71 – 144, +2), KK Limbhasut (77-68 – 145, +3) and James Song (74-72 – 146, +4) are also in the Cal lineup and in ties for 26th, 32nd and 35th, respectively.

Tuesday's third-round action begins at 9 am PT with Cal scheduled to play along with Stanford and UCLA in the last group with the first of six foursomes from the trio of teams starting from the first tee at 11:06 am PT. Wednesday's fourth and final round begins at 8 am PT. The finishing holes of Wednesday's action will be televised live by Pac-12 Networks beginning at 2 pm PT.
 
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• Cal took advantage of the course's two back-nine par-fives to the tune of playing them in a combined 18-under par with its scoring players posting three eagles, 12 birdies and five pars
• Cal was six-under par through 10 holes of its opening round before playing the last eight in eight-over for its final first-round two-over team score
• Cheatham had the most birdies by a Cal player with 10 as he picked up five in each round but also had 10 bogeys and one double
• Morikawa tied for second with eight birdies and also had one of the team's three eagles in his first round on the 16th hole, with the other eagles by Kaiwen Liu on the same hole in the same round and James Song on the 13th hole of the second round with Song's eagle his fourth in his last three rounds
• Limbhasut had eight birdies to tie Morikawa and his six birdies in the second round were the most in any round by a Cal player
• The three-under par rounds of 68 shot by Morikawa in the opening round and Limbhasut in the second were Cal's best rounds of the day
• Morikawa began his day with a five-under par 32 on his first nine holes of his opening round (back nine) and closed it with a three-under par 31 on the second nine holes of his second round (front nine)
• Limbhasut keyed his second-round three-under par 68 by rattling off five birdies over a seven-hole stretch that began on the par-five 13th
• Morikawa is looking to extend his strings of top-seven finishes to all 10 of his events this season, as well as his consecutive top-10 showings to 16 and top-20 efforts to 23 dating back to the last two campaigns, respectively
• The Pac-12 Championships is the first and one of only two 72-hole events scheduled for Cal during the 2018-19 season with the other the NCAA Championships

Alex and Marie Shipman Director of Men's Golf Walter Chun

• "It was a solid day and a complete team effort. We had it going early on but left some shots out there mid-round in the morning. I liked how we bounced back in the afternoon to stay in the mix." 

Collin Morikawa

• "We've been off to slow starts most of this spring and we really wanted to start this tournament strong. I think we stuck to our game plan and are really giving ourselves a chance these next two days. Keeping it in the fairway is very important this week so as long as we do that we'll have many birdie looks."
• "It was a hot start and a solid finish but in the middle of the round I had some errant shots and just didn't give myself chances to save par. I need to take it one shot at a time and keep giving myself birdie opportunities."

PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS LEADERBOARDS
(After 1 Of 3 Days, 2 Of 4 Rounds, 36 Of 72 Holes)
Eugene Country Club (Par 71, 7044 Yards)
 
TEAM
T1. Stanford (359-346 – 705, -5); T1. UCLA (353-352 – 705, -5); 3. California (357-350 – 707, -3); 4. USC (359-354 – 713, +3); 5. Utah (365-351 – 716, +6); T6. Oregon (364-353 – 717, +7); T6. Colorado (358-359 – 717, +7); 8. Arizona State (369-354 – 723, +13); 9. Washington (362-364 – 726, +16); 10. Arizona (367-364 – 731, +21); 11. Oregon State (381-355 – 736, +26); 12. Washington State (382-375 – 757, +47)
 
PLAYER – INDIVIDUAL CO-LEADERS
T1. Kyler Dunkle – Utah (70-64 – 134, -8); T1. Justin Suh – USC (69-65 – 134, -8)
 
PLAYER – CALIFORNIA INDIVIDUALS
6. Collin Morikawa (68-70 – 138, -4); T12. Sebastian Crampton (73-69 – 142, E); T12. Kaiwen Liu (69-73 – 142, E); T26. Jamie Cheatham (73-71 – 144, +2); T32. KK Limbhasut (77-68 – 145, +3); T35. James Song (74-72 – 146, +4)