USC
The Gifford Collegiate Championship
USC Extends Lead At Gifford Collegiate
November 01, 2011 | Men's Golf
Nov. 1, 2011
Sophomore Ramsey Sahyoun's 66 and senior Steve Lim's 67 helped the USC men's golf team extend its lead to 12 strokes after 36 holes of the 2011 Gifford Collegiate at the CordeValle G.C. in San Martin, Calif., on Tuesday.
The Trojans, who led by three strokes after the first round in an event in which six players play with five scores counting, padded their cushion by nine strokes and are now at 13-under 697 (345-352). UCLA is in second at 1-under 709 while Virginia is third at 12-over 722. As of this posting, some teams on the bottom half of the leader board were still on the course.
Lim, who had five birdies without a bogey on Monday, knocked in seven birdies to offset three bogeys Tuesday. He was even through nine holes, but finished the back 9 at 4-under thanks to five birdies. He caught UCLA's Patrick Cantlay for a share of the overall lead at 9-under 133 (66-67) with his second and third rounds in the 60s this year. Lim is after his first collegiate win.
Sahyoun's 5-under 66 was his best round as a Trojan by two strokes and helped him to 2-under 140 (74-66), tied for fifth. He was 2-under on the front 9 and 3-under on the back and finished with his sixth and seventh birdies of the day on the 16th and 18th holes, respectively.
"The team is playing very well," USC Coach Chris Zambri said. "Everyone is contributing significantly and that is how you win tournaments. We are all excited to play tomorrow."
Juniors Martin Trainer (73-70) and Sam Smith (70-73) are tied at 1-over 143. Trainer opened his second round at 3-under through four holes and though he ran into a little bit of trouble, managed to finish the day under par. Smith was 1-over on both the front and back 9s.
Freshman Anthony Paolucci (68-76) and sophomore Jeffrey Kang (68-76) are both at 2-over 144.
USC is after its first win since claiming the Pac-10 title last season. The Trojans won two events overall last year.
Action concludes Wednesday.
Players Mentioned
