STANFORD, Calif. — TK Chantananuwat and the Stanford men’s golf team did well to battle through a daunting task on the first day of The Goodwin as the Cardinal took one top 20 performance into the setting sun on Thursday. The Cardinal, which shot 10-over for the day to place 19th overall, battled through both the elements and a time crunch to enter day two within striking distance of those in front of it.
Chantananuwat had one of the harder tasks of the afternoon for the Cardinal as the entire group was delayed off the tee. Mix in an average of six hours to complete the 18-hole course and the task became even more challenging. With that in mind, the freshman turned in a 1-over card after nine and streaked through the back patch of the course, rattling consecutive birdies on holes 12 and 13 before scampering into the twilight with a perfect back-nine and a 1-under, 69 for the day, placing him 17th overall.
The pack behind Chantananuwat also had some hardship, battling swirling winds and patches of rain that haunted the pace of play for a majority of the afternoon. Nathan Wang entered the turn at 2-under, but a few bad breaks early along the back-nine forced Wang into a 3-over card for the day. Meanwhile, Jay Leng turned in identical nines for the Cardinal, grabbing one birdie on hole eight and hole 16 en route to a 4-over performance for the afternoon.
Behind Leng and Wang, Ethan Gao and Logan Kim paced the afternoon groups for the Cardinal, finishing at 4-over and 6-over, respectively. Kim battled through the worst of the rain, bragging his lone birdie of the day on hole 14 as a four-over card through 10 holes was too much to overcome as Kim ultimately finished 6-over for the afternoon. Gao, however, overcame a double-bogey on hole six with a birdie on seven before subtly earning an even back-nine to finish at 4-over.
Independently, Kush Arora led the way for the Cardinal finishing 2-over in what was a back-and-forth round as the weather fluctuated throughout the morning. Arora, who came into the front nine at 1-over rattled off three bogeys within six holes before the weather forced him to turn in a 2-over card for the day. Elsewhere, Dean Greyserman and Brian Ma shot well, finishing at 4-over and 5-over, respectively, during the opening round.
Stanford is back in action tomorrow morning, teeing off from hole 10 for the team portion of the tournament at 8 a.m. PT.