Cal Wins First Mens Title

Peter Tomasulo and Jeff Hood both shot under par Friday to help California make up an eight-stroke deficit in the final round and claim its first NCAA men’s golf championship.

Tomasulo shot a 67 and Hood a 69 as the Golden Bears combined for a 1-under 279 in the final round - the only team to shoot under par in the rainy, cool conditions. Cal finished with an overall score of 1,134, six strokes ahead of UCLA (1,140), the third-round leader.

Arizona (1,148) finished third followed by Texas (1,149) and Georgia Tech (1,151).

California’s surprising run came a month after finishing seventh in the Pac-10 championships. The Golden Bears tied for seventh at last week’s NCAA West Regionals.

‘To have one round to win the national championship, that’s all you can ask for,’ California coach Steve Desimone said. ‘I told the kids (Thursday) that if we played one great round, we’d win the national championship, and lo and behold, here we are.’

The rest of the top 10 were Florida and Washington (tied with 1,152), Kentucky (1,155), BYU (1,156) and Pepperdine (1,160).

UNLV’s Ryan Moore shot a 4-under-par 66 in the final round to claim the individual title.

Moore, from Puyallup, Wash., had three bogeys and seven birdies in the final round, including a chip in from the rough on the final hole for a birdie. He finished at 13 under for the championship.

‘It means a lot,’ Moore said. ‘This was the goal at the beginning of the year, just to even get here. So to pull out a victory, it’s hard to put it into words right now.’

Moore, ranked No. 2 in the nation, defeated top-ranked Bill Haas of Wake Forest. Haas shot a 68 in the final round and finished tied for second at 7 under.

Haas is the son of PGA golfer Jay Haas.

Arizona’s Chris Nallen also finished at 7 under, while Pepperdine’s Michael Putnam finished fourth at 4 under and UCLA’s Travis Johnson was fifth at 3 under.

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