SEASIDE, CALIF. - On Tuesday, October 18th, the Sonoma State men's golf team hung on to their third straight top-3 finish to kickoff the 2022-23 campaign as they finished t-2nd out of a deep 18-team field at this week's Otter Invitational. The Seawolves would start the tournament off strong with the lowest first round team score out of the entire field. Despite a struggling second round, SSU would bounce back with two players recording rounds under par to finish the day with a 286 (-2), climbing their way into a tie for second place.

ROUNDS 1 & 2: 

What would prove to be the lowest team score of the first round and the second lowest team score out of the entire tournament, would be highlighted by four of the team's five golfers recording rounds under par. Sonoma State senior and reining CCAA men's golfer of the week Griffin Pace would continue his dominant campaign dating back to last season and record an 69 (-3) opening round to lead the way. Closely behind though would be teammates Aidan Oliver and newcomer Moses Greene. The two would combine for 10 birdies in their first round and each finish 2-under par.

The challenging Bayonet Golf Course would appear to get to the Seawolves squad in the second round as the team shot 21 strokes higher and finished the day in third place. Not one SSU golfer would record a round of even par or better but Griffin Pace and sophomore Sean Markham would hold things together, combing to shoot 4-over in their second rounds and keep the group within the top three heading into the final day.      

ROUND 3 286 (-2):  

On the final day, head coach Val Verhunce and his group would get back to their first round form and shave off 15 strokes to climb one spot on the leaderboard and finish in a tie for second place. Once again, Pace would have a stellar round and record his second sub-70 round of the week, finishing with a team low 68 (-4) to help lead the team into a second place finish. After starting two over on the front nine, Pace would hit a gear and rattle off 6 birdies in his final nine holes to finish the tournament 6-under par, good for 4th place individually. 

The other star for the Seawolves on the final day was Sean Markham who recorded his best career finish as a Seawolf, finishing the day two under and climbing 9 spots on the individual leaderboard. Markham only got better as the week went on as his final round 70 (-2) would go down as his tournament low and allow him to finish even par on the week. Former CCAA golfer of the week and first year member Colin Huang would battle all week long but go on to birdie two of his final three holes, to record a final round of 75 (+3).  

Despite a tough second round, the Seawolves continue their terrific start to the season with their third straight top-3 finish. Sonoma State will look to continue their momentum and head over the pacific next week as they will compete in the Sharks Shootout, hosted by PacWest member Hawaii Pacific. Tournament action will kickoff on Tuesday, October 25th and the live scoring link can be found at sonomaseawolves.com. 

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