SAN FRANCSCO, Calif. – The 18th-ranked Stanford men's golf team needs a Saturday charge to successfully defend its crown in the 49th Goodwin tournament at TPC Harding Park Golf Course.
The Cardinal surrendered its first-round lead to No. 8 Oklahoma on Friday, posting a best four-out-of-five player score of 1-under 283. It took a resilient finish to do it.
"I'm happy for the guys," said Conrad Ray, the Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf. "They hung in there. They played some hard holes pretty well. At one point, I think we were 5 or 6 over. We're still in it."
The Sooners combined for a 15-under 269, as four players broke par in calm, partly cloudy conditions. Oklahoma has a 36-hole total of 20-under 548, followed by No. 10 Cal (553), Oregon (558) and Stanford (560).
"It's out there," Ray said of another low team total. "You saw that with the scores Oklahoma and Cal (-13) put up today. I'm glad there are three rounds."
The Cardinal White team (287-299) is tied for 22nd at 586.
The event is named after long-time Stanford golf coach Wally Goodwin. Twenty-six teams are competing in one of the strongest men's fields of the season.
Norman Xiong of Oregon recorded his second straight 6-under 65 and grabbed the individual lead by four strokes over Cardinal senior Jeffrey Swegle (63-71) at 12-under 130
Swegle's career-best round on Thursday matched the fifth-lowest in program history.
Junior Isaiah Salinda and freshman Ashwin Arasu tallied sub-par scores for Stanford with 1-under 70s. Salinda forged a team-high six birdies and Arasu added four. They are tied for 27th at even-par 142 with teammate Brandon Wu (73).
Franklin Huang (70-71) is tied for 18th at 1-under 141.
Henry Shimp (72-71) is knotted for 41st at 1-over 143, while David Snyder (74-75) and Bradley Knox (72-77) are tied for 92nd at 7-over 149. Christopher Meyers (74-79) is tied for 118th and Dakota McNealy (80-81) is 134th.
Stanford begins the final round at 12:55 p.m. on the first tee and will play with Colorado and UNLV. The White team goes at 7:30 a.m. off the 10th tee.
Asked what his team's mindset will be Saturday, Ray said, "Hit it in the fairway and avoid small mistakes. You can't play this course and make birdies unless you're hitting out of the fairway. That's where it starts."
Live scoring is available at GoStanford.com.
