Report by LBSU

After two rounds of play at the Big West Conference Championship in Mission Viejo, the Long Beach State men’s golf team is currently tied for third place with UC Santa Barbara.  Nine teams are competing at the par-72, 6,965 yard Mission Viejo Country Club for the conference championship and the automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

LBSU recorded a 36-hole total of 592 to remain 16 strokes behind first place UC Irvine (576) and one stroke behind second place Pacific (591).  The 49ers shot an opening round score of 295 to begin the tournament and recorded a 297 in the afternoon for the second round.

The 49ers were paced by senior Steve Gibson as he shot a 76 in the opening round to tie for 26th.  Gibson then made a strong comeback in the second round with a team best 70 to jump in the standings to tie for ninth with a two-over 146.

Following close behind, senior Michael Drake finished the day tied for 12th after shooting a 77 to begin the championship and came back in the afternoon session firing a 71.  Drake is currently four-over (148) after 36 holes.

Sophomore Kevin Roy finished the day tied for 19th after recording rounds of 74 and 77 for a seven-over (151), followed by senior Robbie Berton, currently tied for 22nd with an eight-over (152) after rounds of 73 and 79.

Freshman Benjamin Lein is tied for 30th at 10-over (154).

John Chin of UC Irvine sits on top of the leaderboard at six-under (138) as he holds a two-stroke lead over Chris Russo of Cal State Northridge (140) and four-strokes over Pace Johnson of Cal Poly (142).

Final round action concludes on Tuesday with the 49ers teeing off at 7:30 a.m. (PST).  Live action can be followed on golfstat.com.