Pepperdine uses record round for Alister MacKenzie title
Pepperdine men's golf (Pepperdine Athletics/Twitter photo)
FAIRFAX, Calif. (Oct. 9, 2018) – More tournament records fell Tuesday in the final round of the Alister MacKenzie Invitational. Ultimately, Pepperdine climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a 52-under team total, leaving host California in the dust.
Pepperdine trailed Cal by six shots after the first two rounds, played back-to-back on Monday. Cal had set an 18-hole scoring record of its own with its opening 26-under 258 at the par-71 Meadow Club. But on Tuesday, it was all Pepperdine. The Waves had a 22-under 262 to reach 52 under, another tournament record. California could never get as hot as it had been the previous day. With 5-under 279, the Golden Bears just couldn’t keep pace. They were 41 under for the tournament.
It helped Pepperdine considerably that R.J. Manke became the first player in Pepperdine history to shoot a round of 10 under (the previous record was a 9-under 63). His 61 on Tuesday included nine birdies, an eagle and just one bogey. The sophomore was at 6-under though 14 but eagled 15 and ended his round with birdies on 17 and 18.
He finished with a 21-under 192 (65-66-61), beating the 20-under record set by Frederick Wedel at the 2014 Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational. Manke entered the final round in a tie for third place, two shots out of the lead, but ended up winning by four strokes. It’s his first college title.
Manke led all players with 22 birdies overall. He was the tournament’s top player on par 4s (11 under) and tied for the best on par 5s (9 under).
“It was great watching them do their thing,” Pepperdine coach Michael Beard said. “I never got the feeling that when they were 1- or 2-under that they were content with that. They kept trying to make more birdies. RJ actually wasn’t hitting it that great during the practice round. But he got into a rhythm in the first round and kept going. The final round, you could tell him where to hit it, and he hit it right there.”
San Jose State was third at 26 under and Arizona State was close behind that at 25 under.
Information from Pepperdine Athletics used in this report
ABOUT THE Alister Mackenzie Invitational
54-hole men's collegiate tournament hosted by
the
University of California at Berkeley. Team (best
four
scores out of five players) and individual
competitions.
View Complete Tournament Information