SATICOY, Calif. – Cal State San Bernardino junior golfer John Kim fired a closing round 6-under-par 66 to finish in a tie for first place after 54 holes of the Bill Cullum Invitational on Tuesday at The Saticoy Club in Ventura County.
            
Kim, who won medalist honors at the season-opening Wildcat Invitational hosted by Chico State to help his team finish eighth overall, birdied five of the final nine holes on the par-72, 7008-yard course to tie Cal State Fullerton's Patrick Ordonez.
            
Ordonez prevailed in a one-hole playoff. 
            
Kim entered the final round tied for 19^th place after rounds of 75 and even-par 72 on Monday that left him three over par. He finished the front nine and 1-under-par 35 after birding three holes, including the 515-yard, par-5 sixth hole. His only two bogies on the day came on the front nine.
            
It was his fifth birdie on the back nine, at the 508-yard, par-5 18^th hole that enabled Kim to shoot a five-under 31 to gain a tie with Ordonez.
            
Last week, Kim shot three rounds of four-under-par 68 to finish the tournament at 12-under par and win medalist honors in a playoff, giving him five rounds of par or better out of the six rounds he's played during this fall season.
            
Meanwhile, three of his teammates were closely grouped but well back in the field. As a team the Yotes finished 10^th among 14 teams with a 54-hole score of 902, 54 shots of the team champion Cal State Fullerton.
            
The good news is that the Yotes finished ahead one stroke ahead of Division I UC Riverside, seven shots ahead of CCAA rival Stanislaus State and 18 shots ahead of D-1 UC Irvine. All the teams that finished in the top nine were Division 1 schools.
            
Cole Obrigewitsch finished in a tie for 61^st place with rounds of 72-80-81 for a 233 total, 17 over par. Andy Navarro and Kamron Hopson tied for 63^rd place with 54-hole totals of 234, 18 over par. 
 
Navarro shot 79-77-78 while Hopson stunned the field by shooting a four-under par 68 in the first of two rounds on Monday, the lowest score of the morning round. Hopson came back in the afternoon with a 12-over-par 84 and shot 82 Tuesday.

Trent Fitzgerald tied for 72^nd place with a 24-over par total of 240 on rounds of 86-75-79.

WORTH NOTING – The Bill Cullum Invitational is named for the man who coached golf at Cal State Northridge from 1965 to 1986 and led the Matadors to three NCAA Div. II national championships……The Saticoy Club was the first private golf course to open in Ventura County back in 1921. The course was updated in 2018 by the Arnold Palmer Design Group.
 
UP NEXT: The Yotes will be in action on Monday, Oct. 16 and Tuesday Oct. 17 at the Cal State Monterey Bay Otter Invitational to be played on the Bayonet and Blackhorse courses in Seaside.