After going the previous three seasons without a victory, the 2016 Cal Poly golf team took home their second title in under two months on Tuesday. The Mustangs prevailed at this week’s OGIO UCSB Intercollegiate, winning the event at Sandpiper Golf Course with an overall score of -2.
With four Mustangs finishing within the top ten, Cal Poly won rather comfortably. Under-par efforts by sophomore Jimmy Castles and junior Cole Nygren were a big part of the reason why the Mustangs boasted a 10-shot lead when the tournament’s three rounds were in the books.
Castles was the top individual finisher with a score of -3, good for a solo fourth place finish on the 7,127 yard course. Nygren continued his hot streak of play, recording the lowest round of the tournament for Cal Poly with a three-under-par score of 69 on Monday. The Colorado native finished in a tie for fifth place.
Cal Poly’s top-seeded player going into the tournament, Justin De Los Santos, was not too far behind in a tie for eighth place at +1. Redshirt sophomore Jesse Yap rounded out the scoring for the Mustangs with a two-over-par total, good for a tie for tenth place in the field of 60 players.
The two-under-par team total of 862 was one of the finest scores in recent history for the Cal Poly golf program. Ten shots clear of second-place team Grand Canyon, the Mustangs also finished ahead of Big West Conference rivals UC Santa Barbara (+10), Long Beach State (+14) and CSU Fullerton (+20).
De Los Santos leads the team with four top-ten finishes on the year. Head coach Scott Cartwright’s team also has a consistently competitive supporting cast, with six other golfers sporting scoring averages below 75.
Next on the schedule for Cal Poly is the Big West Conference Championship at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley, California on May 2 – 4.