The No. 50 Arizona men’s golf team went into its final tournament of the fall season hoping to finish on a high note.

The Wildcats did exactly that, playing their most complete round of the season yesterday en route to a third-place finish at the CordeValle Collegiate in San Martin, Calif.

Arizona shot an 11-under 277 in the final round. The Wildcats’ 56-hole tally of 23-under 841 was 19 strokes behind the tournament winner, No. 9 Stanford.

“”It is a step in the right direction,”” said UA assistant coach John Knauer as the team headed to the airport yesterday afternoon. “”You want to end the fall season on a good note so you have something to build on (for the spring).””

The Pacific 10 Conference claimed the top three spots as No. 13 USC finished second with a final score of 28-under 836.

Junior Travis Esway and sophomore Ben Fox both finished in the top-10 for the Wildcats. Esway and Fox posted identical scores of 7-under 209 for the tournament to finish tied for eighth place.

Senior Josh Esler finished in a tie for 25th place with a 1-under 215, and junior Creighton Honeck and senior Josh Wilks finished tied for 38th and 43rd places, respectively.

Honeck finished with a 1-over 217 while Wilks shot a 2-over 218 in his first varsity tournament of the year, as Wilks was brought up from the junior varsity squad last week.