Golden Bears Return To Postseason For First Time Since 2019
BERKELEY – California will make its first NCAA Men’s Golf Regional appearance since 2019 as it earned an at-large bid to the Morgan Hill Regional on Wednesday. The Golden Bears will be the 10th seed in the 13-team, 54-hole regional, hosted by San Jose State on May 15-17 at The Institute LLC, just 70 miles away from Berkeley.
The top five teams and the low individual not on an advancing team from at each NCAA Regional site will advance to a field of 30 teams and six additional individuals that will play in the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 26-31.
“We’re excited. It’s been a while since we’ve been at regionals,” Alex and Marie Shipman Director of Men’s Golf Walter Chun said. “I’m excited for these guys in particular to have that experience. They work hard to get to college, and when they’re in college, they work hard to get to the postseason. Now, a lot of their hard work is coming to fruition. I’m happy for them.”
Cal has made 23 previous NCAA Regional appearances dating back to 1990, including a stretch of 10 consecutive years from 2007-16. The Bears’ two NCAA Regional victories came in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013, while they have advanced to the NCAA Championships 14 times in program history. The upcoming NCAA Regional appearance will be a first for the six golfers Cal sends to Morgan Hill.
Cal is ranked 49th and 55th nationally by Golfweek and Golfstat, respectively, following an eighth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships last weekend. The Bears totaled five top-five finishes throughout the 2022-23 campaign, including four in seven spring tournaments. Cal won the Alister MacKenzie Invitational at Sonoma Golf Club in October and made a strong push in the later stages of the spring season by placing fifth at The Goodwin and third at the Western Intercollegiate.
Junior Sampson Zheng has anchored the Bears’ lineup all season with a stroke average of 69.60 over 28 rounds and nine events played. Zheng earned five top-10 individual finishes this season, including co-medalist honors at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in February, runner-up honors at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational and back-to-back fifth-place efforts at The Goodwin and the Western Intercollegiate. He most recently shared 10th place at Pac-12s, and will enter regional play at…
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