BERKELEY – The No. 21 California men's golf team will begin play at the 77th edition of the Western Intercollegiate on Monday at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz. Seven Golden Bears will compete at the three-day, 54-hole tournament, which runs through Wednesday and will be televised each day on Golf Channel.
 
Cal's six-man lineup – Sampson Zheng, Aaron Du, Eric Lee, Ethan Fang, Jeewon Park and Kuangyu (Tony) Chen – will be grouped with eighth-ranked Washington in the opening round, teeing off hole 1 between 9:46-10:10 a.m. PT Monday. Charlie Berridge, playing as an individual, gets the first round started on hole 1 at 8:34 a.m. PT.
 
Live coverage on Golf Channel begins at 4 p.m. PT each day.
 
TOURNAMENT INFO

• Dates: April 15-17, 2024
• Format: 54 holes (18-18-18, Monday-Wednesday); 6-count-5
• Location: Santa Cruz, California | Pasatiempo Golf Club
• Course Info: Par 70 | 6,486 Yards
• Watch: Golf Channel
• Live Scoring: Golfstat
• Pairings: Golfstat

GOLF CHANNEL BROADCAST

• Monday: Round 1 Live Coverage – 4-7 p.m. PT | Round 1 Replay Coverage – 9 p.m. PT
• Tuesday: Round 2 Live Coverage – 4-7 p.m. PT | Round 2 Replay Coverage – 8-11 p.m. PT
• Wednesday: Round 3 Live Coverage – 4-7 p.m. PT

THE FIELD (14)
#9 Arizona, #41 BYU, #21 California, #42 Chattanooga, Hawaii, #25 Oregon, Pepperdine, #34 San Diego State, San Jose State, #38 Stanford, #17 Texas, UC Irvine, #50 UNLV, #8 Washington
 
OFF THE TEE
1. Sampson Zheng
2. Aaron Du
3. Eric Lee
4. Ethan Fang
5. Jeewon Park
6. Kuangyu (Tony) Chen
Individual: Charlie Berridge
 
CHIP SHOTS

• Cal has twice won the Western Intercollegiate in 1950 and 2013.
• Aaron Du tied a Western Intercollegiate low 18-hole record with a first-round 63 in the 2023 edition of the tournament.
• Cal placed third in the 2023 Western Intercollegiate, shooting even par. Sampson Zheng and Du finished fifth (-4) and sixth (-2), respectively.
• 10 of the 14 teams in the Western Intercollegiate field are ranked among the top 50 nationally. Only Washington (#8), Arizona (#9) and Texas (#17) are ranked ahead of the Golden Bears.
• Cal owns a 98-38-3 record with six top-five finishes and a pair of victories in nine stroke-play events this season. The two victories came back-to-back in October at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational and the Cal Poly Invitational.
• The Bears have ranked as high as No. 17 this spring and have held a national ranking for all 13 weeks of the spring season.
• Zheng enters the Western ranked 49th nationally. He has finished in the top 10 in each of his past two tournaments – Cabo Collegiate and The Goodwin – and is averaging 70.61 strokes per round in six events this season. The senior has fared well at the Western throughout his career, placing 26th, 24th and fifth the past three seasons.
• Freshmen Ethan Fang and Eric Lee have been mainstays in the Cal lineup this season. Fang has three top-10 finishes this spring, including a tie for second at the Pauma Valley Invitational on March 18-19, while Lee most recently tied for 23rd at The Goodwin. Lee won his collegiate debut at the Marquette Intercollegiate in September.
• Kuangyu (Tony) Chen also won a tournament this season, claiming individual medalist honors at the Cal Poly Invitational in October. Chen has played all 27 rounds for Cal this season and is averaging 71.22 strokes per round.
• Three Bears – Chen, Lee and Zheng – earned Pac-12 Golfer of the Week honors in the fall. All three are competing this week.
• Cal men's golf alumni Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and Byeong Hun An – all of which played in the Western Intercollegiate during their collegiate years – are among the top 10 individually entering the final day of the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia on Sunday.

STAY POSTED
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