STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford men’s golf returned to the top of the Pac-12 in 2023, winning its 12th conference championship and its first since 2019. The Cardinal was ranked in the top-10 for the entirety of the campaign and finished tied for eighth at the NCAA Championships.
RECAPPING THE SEASON
Stanford emerged from its fall season as one of the top programs in the country, scoring victories at the Fighting Illini Invitational (Sept. 16-18) and the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate (Oct. 21-23), in addition to posting match play victories over Cal and Texas. Michael Thorbjornsen led the Cardinal in Illinois with a seven-under par score to win the tournament, and he finished third in Georgia at 11-under to guide Stanford to its second team title of the fall.
The calendar turned to 2023, and Stanford carried its momentum into a third-place result at The Prestige at PGA West, an eighth-place finish at the Cabo Collegiate, a third-place finish at The Goodwin, hosted by Stanford at TPC Harding, and a fourth-place mark at the Western Intercollegiate.
The Cardinal hosted the Pac-12 Championships from April 28-30 at the Stanford Golf Course, winning its first championship since 2019. The 13-stroke victory (19-under 1,381) was the first double-digit margin of victory for a team at Pac-12 Championships since 2016, when the Cardinal bested Cal by 29 shots. More impressively, Stanford sat in sixth place and trailed Arizona State by 19 shots following 18 holes on Friday, meaning the Cardinal bested the Sun Devils by 32 strokes over the final 54 holes. On the individual side, Thorbjornsen was Stanford’s first Pac-12 champion since Maverick McNealy in 2015.
Our Pac-12 Champion!#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/fQeu8XW6cq
— Stanford Men’s Golf (@StanfordMGolf) May 1, 2023
Defended our home turf.
Pac-12 Champs at Stanford Golf Course! #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/4fZje0lUpF
— Stanford Men’s Golf (@StanfordMGolf) May 1, 2023
Stanford continued its stretch of impeccable play at the NCAA Las Vegas Regional, held at Bear’s Best Las Vegas, combining to shoot a staggering 57 strokes under par. Ethan Ng led the way for Stanford with a career-best fourth-place finish, ending the 54-hole event with an 18-under 198, the best NCAA Regional performance ever by a Cardinal. Thorbjornsen was close behind in fifth, while Barclay Brown, Nate Menon and Karl Vilips all ended at least seven under par and in the top-30 overall.
The NCAA Championships were held in…
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