The Chico State men’s golf team had a great outing Monday and Tuesday at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout in Alameda. The teams all played three rounds at the Corica Park South Course.
The Wildcats competed against 15 other teams and were able to outscore all but one of them.
The team shot a total of 864 throughout three rounds of play to secure a second place finish behind Sonoma State and finished just ahead of the third place team Cal State East Bay.
Chico was just six shots out of first place but Sonoma State went three shots under par in the final two rounds to secure themselves the first place honors.
The Wildcat’s senior Josh McCollum did his part for the team as he shot an impressive score of 68 in two straight rounds to help them secure that second place spot.
Chico’s Kelley Sullivan also performed well in all three rounds but did particularly well in the first round as he shot two under par for the day. He followed that up with a one-under par the next round and a one over par in the final round.
McCollum’s overall score of seven under par was enough to earn him a second place among all 88 individual golfers.
McCollum wasn’t the only Wildcat to place in the top ten either. Sullivan’s total score of two shots under par landed him the seventh place spot.
The Wildcats also performed well as a whole unit. Chico shot even par for the tournament and found a little bit of success in the later rounds as both round’s scores were improvements on the first round’s score of six shots over par.
The team has been able to compete successfully as of late and with this tournament’s results have officially placed second in three of their last seven matches.
Their recent success has them ranked in the top ten in both the Golf Coaches of America poll and the Golfstat rankings.
“It feels good to continue to strive as a team toward our ultimate goal, which is a national championship,” said McCollum.
Chico will look to continue this solid run when they travel to the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational at the Turlock Golf and Country Club. The Tournament will take place on April 1 and 2.
Matthew Ferreira can be reached at [email protected] or @MattFerreira__ on Twitter.
