PANAMA CITY, Fla. — With a combined team score of 20-under, Stanford men’s golf secured its first-ever Match Play berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s Golf Championships as the Cardinal secured the No. 1 seed following three rounds of stroke play. Stanford takes on the No. 8-seeded Duke Blue Devils for the quarterfinal round of Match Play on Sunday, April 26.
Stanford secured its match-play berth well in advance of Saturday’s third round as the Cardinal entered the day at 23-under. Leading the charge, Edan Cui headed into Saturday’s final round at 9-under to lead the field. Cui followed up his terrific second round with three birdies on the day, snagging two along the front nine as he hit the turn at 1-over. The Cardinal freshman secured one final birdie on the day to take a hold of the top spot individually at 8-under.
Cui, however, was not done for the afternoon following his round as he battled through a two-hole playoff against Duke’s Ethan Evans and Cal’s Ziqin Zhou. Cui, however, was unable to secure Stanford’s first individual ACC Champion honor, falling in the playoff as he shared the top spot overall.
Slotting in as Stanford’s substitute, Ethan Gao shot the best for the Cardinal on the final day of stroke play, firing off an even-par, 72 in his second appearance at the ACC Championships. Gao entered the turn at 2-over having earned one birdie on the front nine before snatching two birdies and an eagle on the back nine to finish at even-par.
Jay Leng snagged his third-consecutive top 10 finish following the final round of stroke play on Saturday as the sophomore turned in a 1-over, 73 card on the day. Leng solidified himself near the top of the leaderboard having grabbed his lone three birdies on the front nine to end the tournament at 5-under and in sole possession of seventh overall.
Dean Greyserman and Nathan Wang also replicated their fellow teammates at 1-over for the day to place in the top 10 overall following stroke play. Greyserman, like Leng, earned his three birdies all on the front nine as the senior battled the course to place tied for 10th overall at 3-under in stroke play. Wang, however, earned birdies on holes one and 10 along with his final birdie on hole 15 to keep the Cardinal team-lead at a sizeable margin as Wang secured his second top 10 finish of the season having finished stroke play at 3-under.
Stanford is back in action on Sunday, April 26 for the quarterfinals of the ACC Championships, taking on the eighth-seeded No. 27 Duke Blue Devils at 7:30 a.m. CT. Should Stanford advance, the Cardinal will once again tee off for the semifinal round following the conclusion of the quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. CT.