Coach Desimone was telling me the other day how golf is a wonderful, unpredictable sport. In his words: “Tiger lost to the 29^th ranked player in the country at the Masters. Golf is a very strange game. It’s different than just about anything else. It’s hardly ever a time when the 29^th ranked team is going to win an NCAA football or basketball championship. Golf is that kind of a sport and so for us we can take heart in the fact that strange things like these things can happen.”

That strange thing happened today in the U.S. Intercollegiate at Stanford. Cal finished the first day of the two-day tournament in sole possession of fourth place. The teams that Cal trails? The leader No. 5 USC, the host No. 11 Stanford, and No. 3 UCLA.

The Bears are 17-over (anyone in the Bay Area can attest to the gale-force winds we were subjected to earlier today), but only five strokes out of second place. Freshman Stephen Hale had another banner day, finishing tied for sixth place at two-over. Junior George Gandranata’s not far behind at three-over and tied for 10th.

If Cal can put in a solid showing at the U.S. Intercollegiate, it will have a good surge of momentum to ride into the Pac-10 Championships on April 28-30. Hale told me that the team wanted to go to the Pac-10s with a higher ranking, and they were definitely working on making that happen today.

In non-Bears related news, the bright spot in an otherwise unpleasant day for the University of Nevada (they finished the day 48-over), was the hole in one notched by Chris Plappert on the third hole of the first round. Career highlight right there.

Cal will play the final round beginning at 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

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