Local report: BHS grad Patel finishes 2nd in PGA qualifier
By THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
It's three tournaments down and one more to go for local pro Bhavik Patel.
Patel shot rounds of 69-67-68-66 for a 72-hole total of 18-under 270 and finished second in the PGA Tour Second Stage Qualifying at the Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta this week. Patel's final round 66 moved him to just one shot of the medalist, Si Kim of South Korea, who finished with a 71 and a 269 total.
For Patel, it now means that he moves on to the Final Stage Qualifying in La Quinta at PGA West on the Stadium and Nicklaus courses, and it seems as he is only getting more confident with each stage.
Patel finished ninth in the Pre-Qualifying and then third in the First Stage Qualifying and now has his sites on a PGA Tour playing card for 2013.
The top 25 and ties from the Final Stage earn a 2013 PGA Tour playing card and the next 50 and ties earn playing cards to the Web.com Tour (formerly the Nationwide Tour) while the remainder of the players at the Final Stage will earn limited playing conditions on the Web.com Tour.
Over the last three years, players earning their PGA Tour cards through qualifying have averaged at least 25 tournaments, which does not include the four majors, so a top 25 finish pretty much assures a full schedule of 75-percent PGA Tour events and participation on the Web.com Tour when not eligible to compete in a PGA Tour event.
Some of the noteable players that advanced to the Final Stage along with Patel included Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos who finished at 7-under, while Derek Ernst from Clovis finished equal 17th and right on the cut line at 5-under.
Players not making the cut to advance included Duffy Waldorf of Northridge at 4-under, Nick Delio of Valencia at even-par and former PGA Tour winners Bob May of Las Vegas and Jason Gore of Valancia who both finished at 7-over-par.
The Golf Channel will air a special on Dec. 3 from 5-7 p.m. with a look back at the Q-School week. Let's hope that special includes Patel!
CSUB wrestlers split
PHOENIX -- Cal State Bakersfield split a pair of wrestling matches, losing its Pac-12 Conference opener to Arizona State, 29-10, then defeating Division II Grand Canyon, 25-10.
Tyler Iwamura, 125-pounds, Ian Nickell (133) and Timmy Box (141) earned CSUB's wins vs. ASU.
Getting Roadrunner wins vs. Grand Canyon were Box, Jake Briggs (149), Adam Fierro (157), Andrew Balch (174), Iwamura and Nickell.
Iwamura (9-0) and Box (8-0) remain undefeated while Nickell is 11-1.
JC soccer
The Taft College women's soccer team lost 1-0 at Santa Rosa College in the opening round of the Northern California playoffs.
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