Year In Review: Men's GolfYear In Review: Men's Golf
Men's Golf by Logan Sass

Year In Review: Men's Golf

STANFORD, Calif. -  A return trip to the NCAA Championships, a pair of individual medalists, and a tournament win for the third consecutive season highlighted the 2023-24 season for Stanford men's golf. 

The Cardinal finished the season T-20th at the NCAA Championships at Omni La Costa in Carefree, Ariz., the 16th NCAA appearance in Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf Conrad Ray's 20 years at the helm. 

RECAPPING THE SEASON

After a slow start in the fall with the absence of PGA Tour U's top-ranked golfer Michael Thorbjornsen, Stanford found its stride during the spring slate with five top-5 finishes in the second half and a 56th NCAA Championships appearance for the program. 

Stanford's lone tournament win of the season came in the regular season finale, winning the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Club by five shots with four individuals finishing inside the top-20. Other notable performances for the Cardinal included third-place finishes at The Prestige, The Goodwin, and the Pac-12 Championships. 

One of the nation's best golfers Michael Thorbjornsen once again found the top of the leaderboard in 2024, earning individual medalist honors at the Cabo Collegiate with a 10-under 203 weekend. It was the third win of Thorbjornsen's decorated career, kicking off a stretch of five consecutive top-10 finishes for the senior. 

After 24 career top-20 finishes, Karl Vilips finally broke through for his first collegiate win, turning in a 2-under 282 scorecard at the Pac-12 Championships to become Stanford's 16th all-time individual conference champion. Vilips was also Stanford's second consecutive Pac-12 medalist after Thorbjornsen won the conference title at Stanford Golf Course in 2023. 

Stanford kicked off the postseason by hosting NCAA Regionals, tallying 11 birdies on the back nine of the final round to come back and finish one stroke above the cut line and punch its ticket to NCAA Championships. The Cardinal's season would come to an end in the third round of stroke play at the NCAA tournament with a T-20th finish, where Vilips would finish as Stanford's highest placer, shooting a 1-under 282 to finished tied for eighth. 

THOR IS TOUR BOUND

Finishing the season as the top-ranked golfer in the PGA TOUR U rankings, Michael Thorbjornsen secured his TOUR card and received PGA Tour eligibility for the remainder of the 2024 season and the entirety of the 2025 campaign. 

"PGA TOUR U is, I think, one of the best programs in all of sports," said Thorbjornsen. "What they've done, creating a pathway to the PGA TOUR and to these different tours underneath it, it's huge. It gives students and us golfers reasons to stay for four years, and you can't really pass up on the opportunities that they present to you."

Thorbjornsen became the fourth golfer to finish their collegiate career as the No. 1 player in PGA TOUR University, behind Texas Tech's Ludvig Åberg (2023), Texas' Pierceson Coody (2022) and Florida State's John Pak (2021), joining Åberg as only the second player to earn a PGA TOUR card through the PGA TOUR U pathway system. 

POSTSEASON HONORS

Following the 2023-24 season, Michael Thorbjornsen earned PING All-America honors for the third time in his career as a first team honoree, while Karl Vilips became a two-time All-American with a career-best Ping All-America Second-Team selection.

The Stanford seniors were also once again named Pac-12 First Team selections, cementing their status as some of the conference's best golfers during their Cardinal careers. 

Thorbjornsen added even more accolades to his resume as a finalist for the Jack Nicklaus Award and the Fred Haskins Award, two of the highest honors in collegiate golf. 

A two-time Ping First Team All-American, Thorbjornsen finished his career on The Farm with a 70.40 career scoring average, the third lowest individual scoring average in program history behind Maverick McNealy.

Vilips turned in a career-best season to finish just behind Thorbjornsen in the record books with a 71.00 scoring average to slot in fifth in the Stanford career scoring average rankings behind Tiger Woods' 70.96. 

NATION'S TOP CLASS COMING TO THE FARM

Widely regarded as the top recruiting class of 2024, the Cardinal inked three exciting young golfers set to arrive on The Farm next season - T.K. Chantananuwat, Jay Leng Jr., and Logan Kim. 

Chantananuwat, one of the world's best golf prospects, won the Trust Asian Mixed Cup at just 15 years of age to become the youngest player ever to win an event on a major professional tour. The Bangkok native has ranked as high as sixth in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and is the top Asian amateur golfer. 

Leng is among California's elite in junior golf, ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the state according to Junior Golf Scoreboard. The San Diego native is a multiple AJGA Junior Tour champion and a two-time AJGA First-Team Rolex All-American.

Kim rounds out the 2024 class as yet another in-state commitment coming to The Farm. The San Jose native­­ is the fourth-ranked recruit in the state of California according to Junior Golf Scoreboard, a Southern California Junior PGA Tour tournament winner, and has multiple top ten finishes on the AJGA Tour.

BOLSTERING THE STAFF

The 2023-24 season also saw the addition of two key staff hires, assistant coach Oliver Rubenstein and Director of Operations Tiffanie Yabut. 

Rubenstein arrived to The Farm after previously serving as Assistant Women's Golf Coach at Augusta University. Prior to his time at Augusta, Rubenstein spent five years at Bethany College in Kansas where he was the assistant coach for one year (2017-2018) and then transitioned to head coach for four years (2018-2022) for both the men's and the women's golf programs.

Yabut joined the Cardinal from CSU-Bakersfield, where she served as the Head Women's Golf Coach for two seasons and helped the Roadrunners improve by more than 50 spots in the national rankings. Yabut also spent time as the head coach of Winona State women's golf in Minnesota from 2019-21. 

THE STANFORD IMPACT

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Name Honors
Jake Beber-Frankel

Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll
Barclay Brown

Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll
Dean Greyserman

Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll
Anton Ouyang

Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll
Michael Thorbjornsen

Ping All-America First Team

All-Pac-12 First Team

Ping All-West Region

Jack Nicklaus Award Finalist

Fred Haskins Award Finalist

Pac-12 Golfer of the Week (March 12, 2024)

2024 Cabo Collegiate Individual Medalist
Karl Vilips

 

Ping All-America First Team

All-Pac-12 First Team

Ping All-West Region

Pac-12 Golfer of the Week (Feb. 27, 2024)

2024 Pac-12 Individual Champion