Pepperdine surges to the front at the Western Intercollegiate

April 11, 2023 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

Sam Choi (Pepperdine Athletics photo)

Waves use a red-hot second round to open a 14-stroke lead over Oregon heading into Wednesday's final round

The Pepperdine Waves shredded the venerable Pasatiempo Golf Club on Tuesday to open a 14-stroke lead over Oregon at the 76th playing of the Western Intercollegiate.

Five subpar rounds, including a 7-under 63 by Robert Nieves and a 64 by Sam Choi, paved the way for the Waves to card a 22-under round of 328 on the six-count-five format and at 27-under for the tournament, Pepperdine will take a 14-stroke lead over Oregon into Wednesday's final round.

Pepperdine and BYU were the only two teams in red numbers on Tuesday, as the Cougars' 10-under round was 11-strokes better than the third-best score of the day which was turned in by Hawaii (+1).

All five of Pepperdine's counting players turned in subpar rounds.

Senior Sam Choi fired a 5-under 65 to move into a tie for first place with Oregon's Owen Avrit on the individual leaderboard at 9-under 131. Derek Hitchner shot 10 spots up the leaderboard into third place at 8-under after carding a 6-under 64.

The low round of the day belonged to Roberto Nieves, who clipped 14 strokes off his opening round 77 to fire a 7-under 63 on Tuesday. Nieves birdied five of his last six holes on the front nine to turn in 30 and three more birdies on the backside more than offset his lone bogey of the day on the par-5 13th hole.

Luke Gifford (67), Ian Maspat (69) and William Mouw (69) all turned in subpar rounds for the 11th-ranked Waves.

Pepperdine will look for its second win of the season as the Western Intercollegiate wraps up with final round action. Live coverage on the Golf Channel begins at 1:00 p.m. PT.

Results: Western Intercollegiate

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Derek Hitchner	Minneapolis, MN	700	68-64-71=203
T2	Yuki Moriyama	Las Vegas, NV	500	68-67-69=204
T2	Owen Avrit	Arroyo Grande, CA	500	65-66-73=204
4	Sam Choi	Anaheim, CA	400	66-65-74=205
5	Sampson Zheng	, China	400	66-70-70=206

View full results for Western Intercollegiate

About the Western Intercollegiate

Pepperdine surges to the front at the Western Intercollegiate

54-hole men's college tournament hosted by San Jose State University. “The Western” is one of the most highly recognized national collegiate tournaments, conducted since 1946 Pasatiempo Golf Club; a historic venue where a player’s talent is always we...