Brandon Wu ’15 and the Stanford men’s golf team defeated higher ranked Texas to win the 2019 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship yesterday, May 29 in Fayetteville, Arkansas at Blessings Golf Club. It is the ninth title in program history and the first since 2007 for the Cardinals.
Entering the 2019 NCAA tournament, the Cardinal were ranked as the 12th seed out of the 30 teams selected to the championship tournament. In the opening rounds of play, different members of the Cardinal squad stepped up in the final two rounds of play to help the team secure the sixth spot in the next round eight match play berths.
In route to the final, the Cardinal knocked off higher seeds Wake Forest and Vanderbilt 3-2 and drew fifth-seeded Texas in Wednesday’s final. The Cardinal once again took care of business, defeating the Longhorns 3-2 to claim the national title.
Brandon Wu and his upperclassmen teammates, Henry Shimp and Isaiah Salinda were the first golfers on the course in the final round for the Cardinal at 4:45 am PT (to beat thunderstorms). Each of these golfers delivered wins to secure the 3-2 victory for Stanford.
The win was particularly special for senior Wu and fellow classmate Salinda as it marked the last time each golfer would don the Cardinal uniform. Wu was quoted in the Stanford Athletics article saying, “It’s crazy. You can’t script a better ending to your career. This whole week we knew that every round could be our last so to end up on a high note is great.”
As quoted in the NCAA article on the victory Stanford coach Conrad Ray said, “Isaiah (Salinda) and Brandon’s (Wu) leadership is huge. They were rock solid all year, so we leaned on them a lot. They left a strong legacy of leadership. I’m happy they could end their career like this because they are a huge part of our success.”
Furthermore, the NCAA title culminates and impressive five event win streak, dating back to March 5th, that Wu and the Cardinal posted prior to entering NCAA Championship play.
Capturing the NCAA Men’s Golf title is only part of Wu’s golf success this season. On the amateur circuit, as announced in November 2018, Wu was selected to attend the practice sessions in December at Seminole Golf Club for the selection of team USA for the upcoming 47th Walker Cup to be played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, September 7-8, 2019. The Walker Cup is a biennial amateur team competition between the USA and a team composed of players from Great Britain and Ireland.
The United States Golf Association hopes to select the final roster by August 2019. Although, it is not a guarantee that Wu will make the final roster for the upcoming Walker Cup, it is an honor to be selected as one of the 16 players invited to the practice sessions. Hopefully, we will see Wu on Royal Liverpool Golf Club course in September.
Additionally, earlier this spring in March, Wu was named to the Arnold Palmer Cup team to represent the United States. The Cup will be played at The Alotian Club from June 7-9, 2019. Brandon is one of six golfers to be selected to the Men’s Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking.
Wu a Product Design major at Stanford has built himself an impressive resume throughout his four years as a Cardinal including; multiple All-Region, All-Pac-12 and All-American honors. He was named team MVP in 2017 for posting the best team score in the 2017-2018 season. On the Amateur circuit, he was a semifinalist at the 2018 Western Amateur Championship, and he won the 2017 Porter Cup, to name only a few of his accolades. With the Arnold Palmer Cup and Walker Cup coming up in the near future, there is lots more golf ahead for Wu and we look forward to tuning in to watch and support him along the way!
Congratulations to Brandon and the Cardinal men’s golf team on winning the 2019 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship!