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Davis

Davis, California

Friday, March 29, 2024

Top-10 for Graham

The Aggies have faced some extremely tough competition so far in 2010.

“It’s awesome that we get to represent UC Davis against some of the best teams in the country,” said coach Cy Williams, “and playing at this level will be great preparation for when we meet weaker competition in the Great West Tournament.”

Their most recent tournament was no exception.

The Aggies finished 11th out of 14 teams on Tuesday at the USC Collegiate Invitational – a tournament that featured seven teams ranked in the top-20.

UC Davis’ total of 868 was 31 strokes behind tournament winner No. 17 Oregon, but ahead of No. 15 Oregon State and No. 29 San Diego State.

The tournament marked another strong performance by UC Davis junior Austin Graham, who finished tied for eighth.

He shot 3 under-par for the tournament on his way to a second straight top-ten finish. As a result, he ended the tournament seven strokes behind winner Eugene Wong of Oregon, but ahead of both No. 2 Sihwan Kim of Stanford and No. 3 Diego Velasquez of Oregon State.

The San Clemente, Calif. native also tied for the best single round of any Aggie in the tournament with a 3-under 68 on the final day.

“He’s a superstar,” Williams said. “He works harder than many elite level players and he works correctly. He has great practice habits, he had a good plan for the course and he was fun to watch.”

Graham’s teammate, Tyler Raber, had the second-best UC Davis finish as he tied for 33rd at 3-over par.

Raber overcame a rocky start to finish the tournament strong. He followed a 6-over in his first round – which featured a triple bogey on the easiest hole of the course – by going 3-under and even par in his final two rounds.

On the other hand, the Aggies had multiple golfers finish in the bottom-ten for the second straight week.

“We really need to get all five guys going,” Williams said. “We have a few guys who need to clean up their mechanics and improve.”

The Aggies will have plenty of time to practice as they won’t take the course again until Mar. 22 at the Oregon Duck Invitational.

TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

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