PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The Alabama men’s golf team split its two matches on the opening day of the Cypress Point Classic on Monday. It dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 7 Duke in fourball play. Evan Katz and Chandler Eaton took a 3&2 victory over Wilson Furr and Simms Abney. Quin Riley and QiWen Wong defeated Frankie Capan III and Thomas Ponder 3&2 to seal the win for the Blue Devils. Duke’s Adrien Pendaries and Steven DiLisio finished off the sweep with a 2&1 victory over Alabama’s Davis Shore and Prescott Butler 2&1.
UA then had a 2-1 victory over No 19 USC in foursomes. Shore and Butler collected a 3&2 victory over Cameron Henry and Leon D’Souza. Capan and Ponder sealed the victory with a 2up win over Issei Tanabe and Kyle Suppa. Furr and Abney fell to Yuxin Lin and Kaito Onishi 2&1.
The two-day event features eight teams competing in a Ryder Cup-style tournament. The teams will play singles matches on Tuesday. Alabama will take on No. 22 Illinois in the fifth-place match.
The rest of the field includes host Stanford, California, UCLA, USC, Duke, Illinois and Georgia Tech.
