CARLSBAD – The California men's golf team saw its 2023-24 season come to an end on the third day of the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa's North Course. The 20th-ranked Golden Bears could not come up with the shots they needed down the stretch of the third round Sunday, finishing in 19th place after shooting 16-over-par for the day and 40-over-par for the tournament.
 
The top 15 squads in the 30-team field and the top nine individuals not on an advancing team advanced for a fourth and final round of stroke play on Monday to determine the top eight teams for match-play competition.
 
The Golden Bears (304-296-304 – 904) entered the day in 16th place and just two strokes behind the cutline. They moved into the top 15 with a steady 1-over-par effort on the front-nine holes, but fell back outside of the advancing half of the field after collectively tallying just two birdies – both by Sampson Zheng – on the back nine. Freshman Ethan Fang, one of two Golden Bears who carded a team-best 3-over-par 75 on Sunday, was 1-under on the front nine following back-to-back birdies on holes 8-9.
 
Zheng, a senior playing the final event of his All-American collegiate career, sunk a birdie on the par-5 18th hole to tie for 60th overall at 8-over-par. Eric Lee (+11) and Fang joined Zheng inside the top 100 individually, placing 86th and 95th, respectively.
 
It was Cal's 16th all-time NCAA Championships appearance and its first since 2019. The Golden Bears had eight top-three finishes – including two tournament wins and four runner-up finishes – in 13 stroke-play events this season.
 
TEAM LEADERBOARD

Place	Team	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Illinois	-2	293	287	282	862
2	Virginia	+4	290	287	291	868
3	Vanderbilt	+9	297	286	290	873
4	Florida State	+10	299	289	286	874
5	Ohio State	+13	294	294	289	877
19	California	+40	304	296	304	904

 
CAL ON INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD

Place	Name	R1	R2	R3	Total
T60	Sampson Zheng	72	77	75	224 (+8)
T86	Eric Lee	79	70	78	227 (+11)
T95	Ethan Fang	77	76	75	228 (+12)
T110	Nathan Wang	76	78	76	230 (+14)
T122	Kuangyu (Tony) Chen	82	73	78	233 (+17)

 
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