Courtesy of NCGA
Not long after the final group came in to make things official,
Alex Chin shared a celebratory moment with his mom and grandmother.
Jalen Griffin, meanwhile stepped away to call his mom.
The pair, who've been connected by University of San Francisco the last few years, delivered a special Mother's Day gift, posting a sensational final round 9-under 63 at Spyglass Hill to win the annual NCGA Four-Ball Championship by four shots over the runner-up tandem of brothers
Jimmy and
Johnny Castles. The 63 was the low round of the 54-hole event and was just two shy of the championship, a 61 posted by 2021 winners Ethan Farnham and
Ethan Ashbrook.
Chin, the 2020 NCGA Player of the Year, is a 23-year-old graduate student playing at USF. The elder Griffin, 26, is an assistant for the Dons. The two, who finished at 18-under 198, were Dons teammates when Griffin was a senior and Chin was a freshman.
"It was a pretty electric weekend," Griffin said. "The first day we were ham-and-egging it. the second day we had no bogeys and today was solid. Spyglass can eat you up real quick."
Having entered the final round three shots behind the Castles and the team of
Lewis Simon and
Keith Okasaki, Chin and Griffin made their initial charge with a front-nine 32. After the turn, they'd post a 31. They'd go 6-under through holes Nos. 6-12 to take over the lead and never looked back.
"We play off of each other well," Chin said. "Keep the ball in play. If the first player is in the middle of the green, the second person can play aggressively."
The Castles, who both formerly played at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, finished second at 202 after a final round 70. Third place went to the team of Griffin Long and Matthew Sutherland at 203. Sutherland is the nephew of PGA Champions Tour member Kevin Sutherland.
The team of Garrett Wagner and
Rick Reinsberg had the second-lowest score of the day, a 64 that pushed them 26 spots up the leaderboard to 12th place. The team of
Jeff Hamm and
Ian Dahl had the day's third-lowest score with a 65.
Fresno's
Keith Rodriguez had the shot of the tournament, acing the par-3 15th in the final round using a gap wedge. It was his first career ace.
ABOUT THE NCGA Four-Ball
The NCGA Four-Ball Championship began in 1967 at
Spyglass
Hill golf course and has been played the Robert
Trent
Jones
layout ever since. The 54-hole competition consists
of two-man
teams in which both players play their own ball and
the lowest
score of the two is counted on each hole.
18 holes qualifying four-ball stroke play. The
championship
proper will be 54 holes of four-ball stroke play, 18
holes per day.
After 36 holes, the field is cut to 40 teams and ties.
Both
partners must meet eligibility requirements, holding
a handicap
index of 5.4 or less.
View Complete Tournament Information