Sihao Cong and the Golden Bears look to start strong in the 2025 spring slate at the Southwestern Invitational.

MGOLF1/25/2025 3:02 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Tournament Field Includes 10 Top-50 Squads

BERKELEY – The California men’s golf team returns to action for the first time in the 2025 calendar year Monday at the Southwestern Invitational, hosted by Pepperdine at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.
 
The three-day, 54-hole event will extend through Wednesday and features a talented 14-team field, including 10 teams ranked among the top 50 nationally (Scoreboard). The five-man Golden Bear lineup will tee off hole 1 between 9-9:44 a.m. PT Monday.
 
TOURNAMENT INFO

• Dates: Jan. 27-29, 2025
• Format: 54 holes (18-18-18, Monday-Wednesday); 5-count-4
• Course Info: Par 71 | 7,076 Yards
• Location: Thousand Oaks, California | Sherwood Country Club
• Live Scoring: Scoreboard

 
OFF THE TEE
1. Ziqin (Eric) Zhou
2. Kuangyu (Tony) Chen
3. Sihao Cong
4. Charlie Berridge
5. Daniel Heo
 
THE FIELD
#5 Texas, #10 UCLA, #11 Arizona, #14 Florida, #15 Vanderbilt, #19 Pepperdine, #24 Duke, #32 San Diego State, #43 USC, #44 UNLV, #62 California, #67 San Jose State, #76 Chattanooga, #113 Washington
 
RECURRING PARTICIPANT
Cal is plenty familiar with the Southwestern Invitational, having competed in the tournament 22 times since 1990. The Bears won the tournament title in their first appearance (1990) and have most recently placed ninth in back-to-back years (2023-24).
 
FALL IN REVIEW
The Bears competed in four stroke-play events during the Fall, earning three straight top-four finishes – fourth at The Tindall, fourth at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational and third at the Pacific Invitational – before ending the slate with an 11th-place effort at the Preserve Golf Club Collegiate. Four Bears finished 11th or better individually throughout the fall, including two top-six finishes by junior Daniel Heo, who was one of Cal’s top performers in the four stroke-play events.
 
LINEUP AT A GLANCE
All five Bears competing in the Southwestern Invitational played in at least two of Cal’s four stroke-play events in the fall. Heo, Cal’s No. 5 this week, started his fall impressively with T6, T4, T16 finishes in the first three events, while Kuangyu (Tony) Chen tied for eighth and 16th in the final two fall tournaments at the Pacific Invitational and The Preserve Golf Club Collegiate.
 
Topping Cal’s lineup at the Southwestern will be freshman Ziqin (Eric) Zhou, who played in the final two fall tournaments after returning stateside from Japan, where he finished as runner-up at the prestigious Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Gotemba. Zhou also helped lead Team Asia-Pacific to a win over Team Europe at the Bonallack Trophy in early January; he earned three points in four matches.
 
LEADING THE CHARGE
The Bears have proven to be stiff competition in the early stages of their first season under Alex and Marie Shipman Director of Men’s Golf Michael Wilson, who was hired to the position on July 22, 2024. Wilson, a 2007 alumnus and key member of Cal’s 2004 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship team, returned to Berkeley most recently following two successful seasons at the helm of Colorado State’s program (2022-24), having led the Rams to back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances and a 2023 NCAA Championship berth. He’s in his eighth season as a Division I head coach.
 
NEW ERA TEED UP FOR CAL GOLF
A transformational gift in support of Cal Golf is setting a new course for the sport and providing a model for philanthropic engagement at a pivotal moment for Cal Athletics. The $23 million gift — the largest endowment gift in Cal Athletics history — provided by an anonymous donor and established campus friend, will fully endow the men’s and women’s teams and provide Golden Bear golfers with a world class training facility at the Stonebrae Country Club. Read more about the gift at inspire.berkeley.edu.
 
STAY POSTED
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