ATLANTA, Georgia – Derek Hitchner shot a 3-under 69 to lead the Pepperdine men's golf team at the East Lake Cup on Monday, finishing just one shot off the individual lead.
Pepperdine finished fourth out of the four teams at the par-72 East Lake Golf Club with a score of 292. This was the one and only round of stroke play as teams now move on to match play. Next up is a rematch of both the 2021 East Lake Cup third-place match and the 2022 NCAA semifinals as the Waves will face Arizona State in Tuesday's semifinals.
This is Pepperdine's third straight appearance at this exclusive tournament, which invites back the final four teams from the previous spring's NCAA Championships. The Waves won the East Lake Cup in 2020 (en route to winning the 2021 national title) and took third place in 2021 (before going on to reach the semifinals at the NCAA finals).
PLAYER SCORES
- Graduate Derek Hitchner (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School) initially appeared to be a tri-champion along with Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent and Arizona State's Luke Potter, but a scoring discrepancy in Sargent's favor gave him the title at 4-under. Still, Hitchner had a stellar 3-under round to tie for second place. He had four birdies and just one bogey on the day.
- Graduate Luke Gifford (Boca Raton, Fla./South Florida) tied for 11th place with a 73. He birdied two of the first three holes and had three on Monday.
- Graduate Sam Choi (Anaheim, Calif./New Mexico) and senior William Mouw (Chino, Calif./Ontario Christian HS) both tied for 15th place with 75s. Choi's round ended with an eagle on the par-5 18th hole, and he had two other birdies. Mouw eagled the par-5 6th hole and added one birdie.
- Sophomore Ian Maspat (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch HS) took 18th with a 76. He had four birdies, all of which came on the back nine.
QUOTABLE
Pepperdine Coach
Michael Beard said: "We feel so grateful to be able to be here one time, let alone three times. It obviously shows a lot about the players we have and kind of what we've done recently. It's so great to share this experience with some new players too ... Derek played unbelievably well. He shot 3-under, but it felt like it could have been much lower. We didn't play a practice round yesterday, because we played in a different tournament. We're going to have to tidy up the putting a little bit. Being only one round, I think that there was probably a little bit of overly aggressive plays that maybe you wouldn't see in a three-round tournament. But the guys looked good and we're excited to play Arizona State tomorrow."
Derek Hitchner said: "It was kind of an interesting round. I didn't hit it great on the front nine, but just kind of scraped it together and made some solid up-and-downs. It was kind of the opposite on the back. I hit it a lot better, but had some makeable short-to-midrange putts that unfortunately just didn't hole. But overall, pretty solid ... (The East Lake Cup) is as special as it gets. This place is absolutely incredible. It's honestly pretty surreal that I've played here three times, so I'm just trying to soak it in as much as I can."
UP NEXT
The Waves defeated the Sun Devils 3-2 in the 2021 East Lake Cup third-place match, but ASU posted a 4-1 victory in the NCAA semifinals this past spring. Their match will start on the first tee at 8:15 a.m. PT on Tuesday. There will be live Golf Channel coverage from 12-3 p.m. PT.
THE NUMBERS
Team Scores: 1. Arizona State 281; 2. Texas 286; 3. Vanderbilt 288;
4. Pepperdine 292.
Top Individuals: 1. Gordon Sargent (Vanderbilt) 68;
T2. Derek Hitchner (Pepperdine) 69; T2. Luke Potter (Arizona State) 69; T4. Jose Luis Ballester (Arizona State) 70; T4. Keaton Vo (Texas) 70.
