Following their first-place finish in last week’s Prestige tournament, the No. 3 Stanford men’s golf team took fifth place in the Pacific-10 Conference/Big 10 Conference Challenge in Bandon, Ore., on Tuesday.

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Senior Zack Miller shot a 74,78,78 to finish in a tie for 34th individually. The Cardinal collectively finished with a 900, placing them fifth at the Pac-10 Conference/Big 10 Conference Challenge in Oregon on Tuesday. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/6407
Stanford Daily File Photo

Senior Zack Miller shot a 74,78,78 to finish in a tie for 34th individually. The Cardinal collectively finished with a 900, placing them fifth at the Pac-10 Conference/Big 10 Conference Challenge in Oregon on Tuesday.

Freshman Joseph Bramlett led the Cardinal, finishing with a three-round score of 224, good enough for a tie for fifth place individually. During an extremely windy second round, Bramlett became one of only five players in the tourney to score an eagle, eventually posting his best career finish.

“Bramlett played a great tournament,” head coach Conrad Ray said. “Finishing fifth as a freshman is awesome in the field of competition that we have been going against. This is a great start for the season.”

Senior Matt Savage also finished among the leaders, coming in fifth with his best personal finish yet this season. Though there was a light rain in the morning of the third round, both Savage and Bramlett scored 75 to put them in the top five.

“Savage quietly came on as of late,” Ray said. “He struggled a little getting into the line-up this year, but it is neat to see him play solidly at the Prestige after great summer season, and now have some success in the Pac-10/Big 10 Challenge.”

The Cardinal’s next best finisher was junior Rob Grube, who scored 266, placing him 18th overall. He scored a consistent 75 for the first two rounds, but the slight drizzle might have been a factor in his third round score of 76.

Junior Daniel Lim scored 227 overall, ranking him 23rd. Lim had a pair of tough rounds on Monday, scoring 75 and 78, as he entered Tuesday’s action 24th overall. Starting Day Two of the tournament fresh, he was able to score 74 to move up one spot in the individual ranks.

Rounding out the Cardinal starters was senior Zack Miller, who finished in a tie for 34th. Miller collected a 74, 78, 78 for his worst finish of the season.

With an overall score of 900, they placed behind some of the top schools in the nation like UCLA (885), USC (890), the University of Wisconsin (894) and Northwestern (898). Though the Cardinal were able to edge out UCLA and USC last week in the Prestige tournament, they couldn’t hold off their Pac-10 foes this week.

“This tournament was okay,” Ray said. “We played great in the first three tournaments. The Pac-10/Big 10 Challenge was dictated by missed opportunities; for example, we didn’t birdie as many holes as we usually do. Fifth place is a good place, but we feel like we should be able to win if we play our best.

“The guys enjoyed their time but wanted to play better than they did,” Ray added. “That’s golf — you never know what you’re going to get.”

On Nov. 6 and 7, the Cardinal will head to San Martin, Calif., where UCLA will host the Corde Valle Collegiate tournament.

“Any time we can compete with UCLA at their level, it is a good week,” Ray said. “They have one of the top programs in the country — which we are getting close to. They have a lot of depth to their team where they can interchange their guys frequently.

“It’s exciting to see how great the Pac-10 is this year, but we can compete with the best of them. It’s fun to play with UCLA, and we look to bring some good competition in Corde Valle.”