Men's golf places 14th, gets ‘wake-up call'

By Henry Montemayor
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

The men's golf team participated in the California Gold Rush Tournament last weekend at the SCPGA Champions and Legends Golf Course in Calimesa, Calif.

UCLA claimed the team title with 841 total strokes, while Stanford finished second with an 854. The 49ers, who were Big West Conference champions last season, finished in 14th place with 883, which did not please Head Coach Bob Livingstone.

"I think it was a wake-up call," Livingstone said. "I think we learned not to take anything for granted."

Livingstone is hoping the 49ers can develop a team concept and stray away from the individual concept before the Big West Conference tournament in April.

"If you have success as a team and win a tournament it's amazing how it snowballs," Livingstone said.

The major problem for the players at the California Gold Rush Tournament seemed to come on the greens, according to Livingstone.

"It was mostly putting," Livingstone said. "It's a severe golf course … It's very difficult to read the greens."

The bright spot for the 49ers came from Junior Ryan Panich-pakdee. He finished in 37 place by virtue of a 71 that he shot in the third round, moving him up from 63rd place.

"He is not real big or long," Livingstone said of Panich-pakdee. "He is the kind of player that is going to be in the count (five players who qualify for team scores) every time."

Panichpakdee is a transfer from Long Beach City College. He helped lead the Vikings to back-to-back conference championships, and was named the South Coast Conference Player of the Year twice. Last year Panichpakdee had a stroke average of 71.3.

Junior Todd Saukkola struggled in the third round, finishing with an 80 and tied for 55th place with a 222. Saukkola is in his second year playing for the 49ers. He was a 2004 Honorable Mention All-Big West player, and won the Big West meet with a 209 last spring.

"[Saukkola] could be our best player if he wanted to be," Livingstone said. "He developed some bad habits over the summer … now he is frustrated that he is not playing better."

Nick Badel finished the first day tied for 29th place with a 144, while Jeremy Keller finished tied with a 147. Badel finished the tournament tied for 59th place with a 223 and Keller finished tied for 72nd place with a 224.

Travis Bertoni of Cal Poly and Peter Campbell of UCLA tied for the individual title with an 11-under, 205. Justin Madison of San Jose State (209), Chad Cocco of Saint Mary's (210) and Rob Grube of Stanford (211) rounded off the top-five individual finishers in the tournament.

UCLA led after the first day with an 11-under par, 565, while Stanford came in a close second with a 566. The Beach finished the first day in 11th place with a 585.

The Beach will hit the greens again Sept. 27 and 28 at the Pacific Invitational in Stockton.