BODEGA, CALIF. - On Tuesday, September 19th, the Sonoma State men's golf team pulled away from the rest of the field to post a 4-under final round and win the 2023 SSU Men's Fall Invite. The Seawolves kicked off their 2023-24 season as hosts in their annual fall event. This year, they headed to the coast to host at The Links at Bodega Harbour for the first time in program history. The scenic coastal track made for a beautiful stage but also brought some unique challenges with colder weather and late afternoon gusts.
Despite the difficulties, head coach
Val Verhunce and his group sealed the deal Tuesday afternoon recording the only team round under par the entire week. The Seawolves starting five would combine for an impressive 276 (-4) in the final round and would be led by senior
Lucas Happy who put together a tournament low 66 (-4) to earn himself the individual title.
ROUND 1 AND 2
On Monday, the Seawolves posted a 288 (+8) and held an eight stroke lead over CCAA rival Chico State after the first round. First year member
Ivan Sablan made his SSU debut and would post a 1-under first round. Senior
Lucas Happy would follow for the Seawolves with an opening round of 70 even par and junior
Colin Huang would finish just 3-over-par.
All six teams would start the second round but a fog delay at the start of the day would not allow them to finish. The next morning, the teams would pick up where they left off, finishing the second round and then making the turn into the third and final round. SSU would tack on five more strokes to shoot a 293 (+13) but a 1-under second round from Huang would help maintain the Seawolves position at the top of the leaderboard.
FINAL ROUND
As the teams made the turn into the final round,
Lucas Happy would hit another gear and record five birdies on the front nine to catapult him to the top of the individual leaderboard. Happy would finish 1-over on the back side but get into the clubhouse with a tournament low 66 (-4) to help secure the individual and team title. This would go down as his first collegiate win of his career.
Colin Huang and
Ivan Sablan would also help secure the team title with under par rounds of their own. Huang posted an exciting scorecard that included five birdies and an eagle on the par 5 15th. He would finish with a 69 (-1) for the second time in the tournament. Sablan would record just one bogey in a very clean final round, also posting his second 1-under round of the tournament. Junior
Ryan Stewart would be the final counting score for the Seawolves, recording three birdies and finishing just 2-over-par.
INDIVIDUALS
Five additional SSU golfers would compete in the event as individuals. Freshman
Cole Kroeker would make his Seawolf debut and be at the top of the individual leaderboard for the entire tournament. He finished the three rounds with a 216 (+6) good for 4th place. Third year golfer
Charles Taylor would finish t-20th as the team's next best individual finisher.
Younger brother of Charles,
Aiden Taylor, would follow closely behind with a t-25th place finish at 24-over-par. Veteran
Nick Friedman and first year member
Ryan Knox would round out the top-30. Full SSU scores can be found below:
LOOKING AHEAD
The Seawolves get their first team win of the 2023-24 season after being crowned champs at the SSU Men's Fall Invite. The team will take a week off and then head north to compete in the Wildcat Classic hosted by Chico State. First round action starts on Monday, October 2nd and live scoring links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com.
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