Canyons Golf Caps Successful Season with CCCAA State Championship

After falling a stroke short of a state title last season, the College of the Canyons men's golf team bounced back in a big way this season to win the 2015 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Championship.

Canyons carded a five-man score of 733 at Kings River Golf & Country Club in Kingsburg to hold off tourney host and second place finisher Reedley College at 741. Santa Rosa Junior College took third place at 743.

Riverside City College took fourth at 743 and Santa Barbara City College finished fifth at 760.

The field also included teams from Santa Rosa, Reedley, Folsom Lake, Monterey Peninsula, College of the Desert and Santa Barbara City College — along with a number of individual qualifiers from across the state.

Canyons held an eight-stroke lead on Riverside College after the first round of play, with freshman Matt Murray and sophomore Eric Kim each turning in under par rounds of 71 to lead the Cougars over the first 18 holes.

Kim would shoot a 74 in the second round to finish with a 36-hole score of 145. That mark would tie with sophomore Sam Sloman who turned in rounds of 74 and 71 to tie Kim for the team lead.

Sloman's score ranked him seventh among the tourney's individual finishers. Despite having an identical score, Kim was slotted two spots back to finish the tourney in ninth place.

Murray shot a 75 in his second round for a 36-hole total of 146, good for third on the Canyons squad.

Freshman Braden Lewis (147) and sophomore Noa Yap (150) rounded out COC's top five. Sophomore Clayton Chatterley's score of 159 was dropped from the total.

The 2015 State Championship is the seventh in COC men's golf program history— all coming under COC head coach Gary Peterson.

Canyons also won state titles in 1993, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2013.

In 2014, the Cougars held a three-stroke lead over Riverside heading into the second round of the 36-hole tournament. However, the two teams were tied at the end of regulation, resulting in the tournament being decided by a card off. The score of Riverside's sixth player — which is traditionally dropped — was one stroke better than COC's golfer, giving RCC the title.

Earlier this season Canyons also won its sixth straight Western State Conference championship and second consecutive SoCal Championship.