Mark Noonan appears poised to have a very productive collegiate golf career ahead of him at Chico State. The true freshman provided local golf fans with a glimpse of his skill set last week with an 11th-place finish at the Sierra Central Wildcat Classic at Butte Creek Country Club. Noonan carded rounds of 74, 73, and 71 to lead Chico State's four-man "B Team" to an eighth-place finish out of 14 teams and land Noonan Wildcat of the Week honors.
Noonan's 71 was the team's low score of last Tuesday's final round. The product of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Vernon Hills, Illinois, has now posted the team low round twice in the first nine rounds of his collegiate career.
This week Noonan finished the Otter Invitational with a final-round 71, which matched the low score of the day in the 84-player field.
In his first three collegiate tournaments, Noonan has now finished tied for 16th, tied for 11th, and tied for 43rd, and is averaging 75.11 strokes per round.
Noonan and the Wildcats are now off until they open the spring portion of their campaign at the Cal State San Marcos Fujikura Invitational at Shadowridge Golf Course in Vista on Feb. 3–4. With a deep team and lots of friendly competition, there's no guarantee that Noonan will qualify in practice to make the team roster for that event. But if the way his career has started is any indication, those opportunities are coming.
