Cal Men’s and Women’s Golf teams to repeat as Big Match champs over Stanford

The “Big Match” is the latest of the Cal vs. Stanford rivalry. Started only in 2018, this coed event have 6 pairs (one men, one women) of players from each school head-to-head in match play format from Menlo Country Club on Wednesday.

One point is awarded for each of the six head-to-head matchups. The score is determined by the lowest scoring member of each pair on each hole. The match is won by the team that wins the most holes.

Last year, it was a 2-2-2 results with 2 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws. Cal’s senior pair of Collin Morikawa and Cindy Oh then teamed (actually, Oh hit birdies on those two holes) to win the two-hole playoffs to give Golden Bears the Big Match victory.

This year, the Golden Bears won the “Big Match” outright at the end of regulation. Cal bests Stanford by a 3-2-1 result.

On the men’s side, Cal Men’s Golf has essentially a brand new lineup in 2019-2020 with the graduation of Morikawa and company (Limbhasut, Crampton, Doyle). Cal Women’s Golf only has turnover in half of their lineup.

Cal pair of redshirt freshman Connor Golembeski and sophomore Elena Arias (who did play in this format last year) beat Stanford’s Calista Reyes and Ashwin Arasu as the No.2 team. Another Cal newcomers combo of freshman Kento Yamawaki and freshman Kristine Tran also won against Stanford’s Mika Liu and Daulet Tuleubayev in the match of the No.4 team. Cooper Hunt, yet another redshirt freshman, and veteran junior Sophia Lundell won their match against Stanford’s Emily Wang and David Snyder as the No.6 pair.

The No.1 pair of Cal’s sophomore James Song and freshman Tzu-Yi Chang tied Stanford’s Angelina Ye and Ethan Ng.

The No.2 team of Cal Senior Maria Herraez Galvaz and redshirt sophomore Ryan Helgans lost to Stanford’s Aline Krauter and Nate Menon. The No.4 pair of Cal junior Kaiwen Liu and sophomore Katherine Zhu also lost to their Stanford counterparts in Andrea Lee and Henry Shimp.

Apparently, it was again a very tight competition until the end. It all came down to the 18th hole of pair 6 (Hunt/Lundell for the Bears) to decide this Big Match.

Check out the Cal team celebrating their Big Match win here:

The two teams (Cal Men’s and Women’s Golf) will resume their normal stroke tournament play. The Cal women will compete in the Stanford Intercollegiate this weekend. The Cal men, coming off a 2nd place finish in their home Alister Mackenzie Invitational last weekend, will wait a week before traveling down to Florida for the Tavistock Collegiate International (hosted by UCF).

GO BEARS! HOLE ON YOU BEARS!