Luke Vivolo of UC Davis (UC Davis Photo)
STANFORD, Calif. (March 26, 2016) -- UC Davis had never won The Goodwin or had a player take medalist honors. Sunday they broke both these spells over a field that included seven teams ranked inside the top 40 in the nation.
"With all due respect to our 1979 (NCAA Div. II) national championship victory, this is without a doubt the biggest win and most dominating performance in team history,” said head coach Cy Williams. “It’s absolutely incredible what our players accomplished. We didn't just win but we basically obliterated an incredibly strong field."
The Aggies capped off a wire-to-wire victory with a 2-under 278 which was enough for a 10-shot win over UNLV, their first win of the year. Three of five players finished inside the top 10 including the medalist Luke Vivolo, Ben Corfee (T5) and Patrick Soli (8).
Vivolo was impressive from the start, opening with a 5-under 65 and following it up with a 67 to lead by one over Oregon's Aaron Wise heading into the final-round. Wise is one of the hottest players in amateur golf right now having picked up wins at the Amer Ari and Australian Masters of Amateurs earlier this year. He posted 9-under early in the day with a final round 68 leaving Vivolo with his work cut out.
Vivolo, the reigning Big West Player of the Year, stepped up with huge birdies on holes 16 and 17 giving him a 2-shot lead heading into the difficult 18th. A bogey would be just enough to get win for the senior from Carmel, Ca. UNLV's John Oda finished two-back at 8-under to take solo third.
"Our guys work very hard and they represent our school the right way all the time,” Williams said. "This couldn't have happened to a greater group of student-athletes. It’s a proud and great day to be an Aggie!"
Host Stanford took third place while USC, one of the nation's top-ranked teams, finished 9th. Coming off a made-cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Stanford's Maverick McNealy fired a final-round 66 to finish inside the top 20.
-UC Davis athletics provided information for this story
ABOUT THE The Goodwin
54 hole men's college tournament hosted by
Stanford University. Team (best four scores out of
five
players each round) and individual competitions.
View Complete Tournament Information