The Pomona-Pitzer men’s golf team came in second place at the SCIAC II tournament Sunday, marking headway in a season that has seen progress for the young squad.
The Sagehens finished with a final score of 581, putting them behind their cross-campus rivals, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and three strokes ahead of Redlands for the weekend. P-P is currently third in SCIAC standings behind Redlands and CMS.
One standout performance came from Yuki Bannai PZ ’25, who shot a team-best 142 through both rounds. The achievement propelled him to a second place finish at the tournament.
P-P men’s golf, like many other collegiate sports teams of the past two years, are recovering from the effects of the pandemic. The Sagehens came into the season looking to make a strong push.
When asked about the team’s goals, Tucker Lee PZ ’25 noted that the season marks a fresh start for the linskmen.
“I’d say we had very ambitious goals, having not been able to play the previous two seasons. The upperclassmen definitely had a lot of anticipation to get their college careers started. And so, with a lot of young players, a lot of young talent we set some ambitious goals for the program,” he said. “More specifically, we wanted to really start to build the culture around the team.”
For the Sagehens, SCIAC II was a redemption opportunity.
“At Mountain Meadows coming off of two tournaments that were plagued with pretty bad conditions,” Lee said. “We played up in Washington and it was rainy and 40 mile per hour winds and in Las Vegas, it was really high winds.”
The team was looking up going into the tournament. Strong showings from David Wong PO ’25, in fourth with an impressive first round score of three under par, as well as Matthew Lee PO ’25 and Tucker Lee PZ ’25, who tied for fourteenth, raised the bar. But the Sagehens still have room to grow.
“Coming into this weekend, we were really excited because it was obviously our home course and we had played there a lot,” Lee said. “So the main challenges we encountered weren’t really the difficulty of the course or the conditions but really, almost finishing off the job and not making as many mistakes as we made.”
The weekend was filled with a lot of positives as well. P-P shot the best overall on all par fives of the course. Looking ahead, the Sagehens are intent on passing Redland for second place in SCIAC standings at the upcoming championships.
“We really want to try to secure second place and we’re a little behind Redlands,” Lee said. “But it’s not a big margin and it’s three days of golf, so anything can happen.”