PULLMAN, Wash. – Freshmen Franklin Huang and Jeffrey Swegle joined forces to help carry the load for the Stanford men’s golf team Tuesday at the Pac-12 Conference Championships, with both student-athletes signing off on their first career red scores at the league tournament.
Huang was 1-under through seven and rattled off 10 straight pars before an eagle on the par-5 18th put him at 3-under for the day and even-par through 54 holes. Swegle had three birdies against one bogey for a stellar 2-under 68 at the par-70 Palouse Ridge Golf Club.
“I putted a lot better than my previous rounds, and my speed was really good,” Huang said. “I had 13 tap-ins, which helped my score. The eagle on 18 capped off a fun round. I hit a perfect drive down the middle and had 228 yards into the green. Hit a hybrid to the right and let it funnel down to left of the green. It would have been a tough two-putt from the fringe, but my first one went in.”
Huang and Swegle were two of four Cardinal performers to finish under par, joining Maverick McNealy (-2) and David Boote (-1).
“I didn’t get in the way of my game off the tee and kept it below the hole on the greens,” Swegle said of his round. “I tried to play my game and built off my second round yesterday to help make up some ground.”
Stanford moved up one spot to second in the team standings at 6-over after posting a 4-under 346. Only Arizona State’s 8-under bettered the score posted by the Cardinal. Arizona State is nine shots ahead of Stanford and 13 shots better than third-place USC.
Stanford will start the fourth and final round of the tournament Wednesday at 9:06 a.m. (PT). Live results will be available at GoStanford.com.
McNealy takes the individual lead into the final round. McNealy shot his second consecutive 68 to move to 9-under, four strokes better than Cal’s K.K. Limbhasut and Oregon’s Aaron Wise. McNealy was even on the front and used birdies on 12 and 18 for his 2-under.
Boote bogeyed the par-3 sixth, which was the only blemish on his scorecard. Boote added a pair of birdies to finish at 1-under and tied for 22nd overall.
Viraat Badhwar and Patrick Grimes both shot 74 and are tied for 39th.