Last Thursday, Cal participated in one of its most anticipated events of the year: the Big Match. Both the women\u2019s and men\u2019s golf teams traveled across the San Francisco Bay to take on Stanford at the Menlo Country Club.<\/p>\n
Despite a late surge from Cal to push the match to a sudden-death playoff, the Cardinal took home the victory for the second year in a row with a final score of 4-3-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Big Match is unique in comparison to other collegiate events, as the women\u2019s and men\u2019s golf teams are paired together to participate in the head-to-head, best-ball format.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With this format, each program has seven pairings that compete to achieve the lowest score on each hole. Whoever wins the most holes takes a point for the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying beside them and really competing with them was a great opportunity to get to know (Cal women\u2019s golf),\u201d said Cal senior Daniel Heo. \u201cIn general, four-ball with a partner is always fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford\u2019s duo of Andrea Revuelta and Nathan Wang took the first win of the event, taking down the Bears\u2019 Anna Molloy and Xihuan Chang 4 and 3. The Cardinal dominated the matchup, as Cal did not win any of the 15 holes.<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 top pair of Adora Liu and Sihao Cong took on TK Chantananuwat and Kelly Xu provided Cal with its first point. The Stanford pair took an early lead, up 2 strokes after the seventh hole.<\/p>\n
Cal responded in a big way, with Cong nailing three straight birdies to put the Bears up 1. The Cardinal tied things up on the 12th hole, but the Bears duo hit back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th to clinch a 2 and 1 triumph.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cardinal\u2019s Edan Cui and Leigh Chien struck next, putting up a dominant performance against Claudia Lara Miravitlles and Charlie Bundy. Cal\u2019s tandem birdied on the seventh and eighth holes, but were unable to put anything up on the board after that, leading to a 4 and 3 loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stanford continued its early momentum with Megha Ganne and Dean Greyserman winning 3 and 2 against Charlie Berridge and Marie-Agnes Fischer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the tightest matchups of the day came from Bears Ziqin Zhou and Michelle Woo.Zhou began the match with back-to-back birdies on the first two holes. And by the end of the 12th hole, Cal was up by 1 stroke. Stanford did not waver, though, as Jay Leng birdied on the 18th hole to end the contest in a tie.<\/p>\n
Down 3-1-1, the blue and gold needed to win their remaining two matches to stay alive and force a playoff \u2014 a match-deciding duel. Going into the 18th hole, Cal\u2019s team of Trevor Cox and Camila Zignaigo-Saldarriaga was tied with Nora Sundberg and Cooper Stearns. Cox came up big in the clutch, sinking a birdie to take the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 tandem Heo and Jasmine Kahler follow suit.At one point, they found themselves down 3 strokes, but by the end of the 14th hole, the duo was only down 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heo and Kahler understood their assignments and proceeded to birdie on three straight holes to close out the Big Match with a victory, tying the event at 3-3-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know until the match is over,\u201d Heo said. \u201cWe were pretty much down the whole day just because we both got off to a bad start on the front nine. But you know, we stayed patient and we were able to get it back towards the end.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even with the momentum from Heo and Kahler, Cal could not best the Cardinal. In the playoff, Ganne hit a 60-foot putt on the very first playoff hole, effectively closing out the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Cal programs will look ahead to Oct. 13, where they will take part in the St. Andrews Links Collegiate, a prestigious event held in Scotland \u2014 the home of golf.<\/p>\n
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