RANCHO SANTA FE – No. 22 California climbed into second place and senior Sampson Zheng remained atop the individual leaderboard following a steady second-round performance at the NCAA Men's Golf Rancho Santa Fe Regional on Tuesday.
 
After a shaky front-nine holes that included 12 combined bogeys, the Golden Bears (+4) sharpened their play down the stretch on the way to a 4-over-par 284 in the second round at The Farms Golf Club. Cal, the No. 4 seed in the 14-team regional, will enter the final round Wednesday trailing only North Florida (+3), while West Virginia (+5), Oklahoma State (+6) and Oklahoma (+8) round out the top five. The top five teams and the low individual not on an advancing team at the conclusion of the regional will advance to the NCAA Championship, played at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad on May 24-29.
 
Regional host San Diego (+9) and third-ranked Arizona State (+11) sit on the outside of the top five with 18 holes to play.
 
Zheng (-5) held at least a share of the individual lead the entire day and will start the third round with a two-shot advantage on the field after carding a 1-under 69. The Golden Bear worked around bogeys on holes 5 and 10 with birdies on 3, 8 and 12, and finished his day with six consecutive pars. Zheng, who has one collegiate tournament victory – the 2023 John Burns Intercollegiate – finished seventh at the 2023 Morgan Hill Regional a year ago.
 
Eric Lee and Jeewon Park both shot 1-over 71 to bolster Zheng's performance. Lee, who carded a 2-under 68 in round one, is in seventh place, while Park jumped eight spots into a tie for 22nd. Park was key to Cal's back-nine turnaround, as he rebounded from three bogeys in his first six holes of the day by shooting 2-under-par over his final 12 holes, including birdies on 9, 11 and 14.
 
Nathan Wang made a quality contribution to Cal's second-round score with a 3-over 73 after substituting into the lineup for Kuangyu (Tony) Chen following the first round.
 
TEAM LEADERBOARD

Place	Team	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	North Florida	+3	277	286		563
2	California	+4	280	284		564
3	West Virginia	+5	285	280		565
4	Oklahoma State	+6	278	288		566
5	Oklahoma	+8	284	284		568
6	San Diego	+9	285	284		569
7	Arizona State	+11	286	285		571
T8	South Florida	+21	293	288		581
T8	Washington	+21	290	291		581
10	Chattanooga	+22	294	288		582
11	Kansas	+35	297	298		595
12	Wright State	+44	298	306		604
13	Seton Hall	+45	302	303		605
14	Winthrop	+53	305	308		613

 
CAL ON INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD

Place	Name	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Sampson Zheng	66	69		135 (-5)
7	Eric Lee	68	71		139 (-1)
T22	Jeewon Park	73	71		144 (+4)
T44	Ethan Fang	73	76		149 (+9)
74	Nathan Wang	--	73		73 (+3)

 
UP NEXT
Cal will be grouped with North Florida (+3) and West Virginia (+5) in the final round of the NCAA Rancho Santa Fe Regional on Wednesday. The three teams will tee off hole 1 between 8-8:44 a.m. PT.
 
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