May 25, 2008
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Men's Golf Postseason Guide in PDF Format
SDSU Men's Golf Prepares to Face Nation's Elite at NCAA Championships
* Fresh off its miraculous comeback at the West Regional, the San Diego State men's golf team will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., this week for the NCAA Championships, May 28-31, at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex on the campus of Purdue University.
SDSU is one of 30 teams headed to the Hoosier State, having qualified for the tournament after finishing in the top 10 at the NCAA West Regional championships, May 15-17, in Bremerton, Wash.
The four-day national championship tournament will be contested on the 7,431-yard, par-72 Kampen Course and features 72 holes of stroke play with 18 holes played each day. After the third day, the field will be whittled down to the top 15 teams and the top six individuals from non-advancing teams.
The Aztecs will be grouped with Kent State and Penn State for the first two rounds. The three teams will start on the 10th tee at 8:07 a.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, while Thursday's action gets underway on the first tee at 1:17 p.m. Pairings and tee times for the final 36 holes will be based on team standings.
SDSU will be able to log practice rounds at the Kampen Course on Monday (12:40 p.m.) and Tuesday (8:50 a.m.) before the competition begins on Wednesday.
The NCAA Men's Golf Championships will be returning to West Lafayette, Ind., for the third time in the 111-year history of the event. Purdue also served as host for the finals in both 1952 and 1961.
The Competition
* The Aztecs will obviously face their toughest competition of the season in their quest for a national championship. All of the top eight schools ranked in the latest Golfweek poll advanced from the regional tournaments.
The highest-rated squad is No. 1 Georgia, which captured the NCAA East Regional championship, while Virginia enters with the lowest ranking at No. 63. Despite their ranking, UVa finished 10th in the East Region, topping teams such as 18th-ranked Duke by 14 strokes. Meanwhile, USC (West) and Wake Forest (Central) were the other two regional winners.
SDSU will be the lone Mountain West Conference representative in the championship finals after three other schools failed to make the cut in their respective regions. UNLV, which entered postseason play as the highest ranked MWC school, finished a disappointing 24th at the West Regional, while TCU tied for 19th in the Central Regional. Over in the East Regional, league tournament champion Colorado State experienced similar frustration after ending in a distant tie for 23rd.
The Aztecs have squared off against 15 of the 29 other teams in the field during the 2007-08 campaign, compiling a 18-50-1 record in head-to-head competition. SDSU has met up with Oregon seven times this season, the most out of any school in the finals, besting the Ducks on four occasions.
Stanford, ranked sixth in the latest Golfweek poll, is the defending team champion, while USC sophomore Jamie Lovemark, a Torrey Pines High alumnus, seeks to repeat as medalist winner after carding a 17-under 271 last year at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va..
Championship Lineup
* Head coach Ryan Donovan will keep the same lineup that he has employed for most of the spring. Sitting atop the Aztecs' ladder is senior extraordinaire Aaron Goldberg (Encinitas, Calif.), who will be joined by fellow classmate Chad Moscovic (Stockton, Calif.), junior David Palm (Landvetter, Sweden), as well as freshmen deluxe Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Matt Hoffenberg (Simi Valley, Calif.). Goldberg leads the squad with an overall stroke average of 71.43 , followed closely by Hoffenberg (72.37), Carlsson (72.73) and Palm (73.17), while Moscovic (75.65) ranks sixth on the team.
Of the group, Palm is the only golfer with playing experience at the NCAA Championships. As a freshman for Georgia Southern in 2005, Palm finished in a tie for 27th on the individual leaderboard by shooting a combined 10-over 280 at Caves Valley in Owings Mills, Md. Following that season, Palm earned honorable mention PING All-America honors before transferring to SDSU in time for the 2005-06 campaign.
Goldberg and Moscovic were both on SDSU's roster in 2005 when the Aztecs made their last trip to the NCAA finals; however, neither player was active during the postseason.
NCAA Championship Coverage
* A link to Golfstat's live scoring will be available on the home page of GoAztecs.com for each round of this year's finals.
SDSU in the Rankings
* SDSU enters the 2008 NCAA Championships with a No. 36 ranking, according to the Golfweek/Sagarin performance index released May 19. Senior Aaron Goldberg is ranked 31st in the individual poll, while freshman Matt Hoffenberg checks in at No. 111.
Set Your Watches Ahead
* Ironically, the last time the Aztecs traveled east of the Rocky Mountains was for the 2005 NCAA Championships, which were held outside of Baltimore in Owings Mills, Md. Earlier that season, SDSU made another rare venture to the Eastern time zone for the Irish Spring Invitational near Orlando, Fla.
A Look at the Kampen Course
* The Kampen Course, centerpiece of the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, is a 7,431-yard, par-72 track located on the north side of the Purdue University campus. Renovated in 1998 by famed architect Pete Dye, the course features three par-5 holes, 10 par-4s and four par-3s in its links-style design.
As part of Dye's commitment to environmentally sound golf, more than 6,800 trees have been planted on the Kampen Course. Alice's Oak Forest, named after Dye's wife, runs from tee to green on the ninth hole, and trees have been planted so densely that wildlife will eventually flourish.
In recent years, the Kampen Course has played host to the 2004 NCAA Men's Central Regional Championships, 2003 NCAA Women's National Championships, 2001 NCAA Women's Central Regional Championships, 2000 Western Junior Regional and the 2000 Big Ten Men's Championships.
Back Spin: SDSU in the NCAA Finals
* The 2008 NCAA Championships will be the 25th for the Aztecs, including their appearance in 1964 at the "small college" (Div. II) level. That year, San Diego State was the College Division runner-up after falling to Southern Illinois by just two strokes.
The Aztecs are in the championship field for the first time since 2005. The Scarlet and Black had made 11 straight appearances the NCAAs through the 1984 season when Dennis Paulson led the team to a 24th-place finish.
After the program was dropped and reinstated, SDSU returned to the finals in 1999. This year marks the fourth time since regional play began in 1989 that the Aztecs have advanced to the championships.
SDSU has finished in the top 10 on two occasions at the Division I level, with their best performance coming in 1966 when the team placed sixth after shooting a combined 604 at Stanford Golf Course.
Flashback: 2005 NCAA Championships
* The San Diego State men's golf team saw its season come to an end after the third round of the 2005 NCAA Championships. The Aztecs remained in 23rd place overall after carding a 26-over-par 306 in rainy conditions at the 7,131-yard, par-70 Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md. SDSU shot a collective 53-over 893 through three rounds, falling 10 strokes shy of making the cut for the final 18 holes, which will included the the top 15 schools in the team standings.
Senior Aaron Choi finished out his Aztec career with his best performance of the tournament, firing a 2-over 72, highlighted by three birdies. Choi's 72 was the eighth-best score of the day in the field of 156 golfers, which lifted him from 118th to 68th place at 13-over 223.
Junior Andrew Scott tied Choi for the 68th spot with an identical 223, including a 77 in the third round. Scott logged the team's second-lowest score each of the tournament's three rounds.
Fellow classmate Josh Warthen shot a 78 during the third round to wind up in 57th place at 14-over 224, while seniors Gilberto Rodriguez and Linus Nilsson were at 16 and 19 over for the tournament, respectively.
San Diego State's 23rd-place finish was its highest in the last four NCAA appearances since also taking 23rd at the 1983 championships.
DéjàVu: 2008 NCAA West Regional
* The San Diego State men's golf team staged a comeback for the ages, vaulting 11 places from the 20th position into a tie for ninth to force a three-way playoff during the final round of the 2008 NCAA West Regional Championships in Bremerton, Wash. The Aztecs tied for the tournament low by carding a 5-under-par 283 over the final 18 holes of regulation, then capped off their improbable rally after a sudden-death playoff, shooting a combined 2-under par in a shotgun format, along with Texas, to eliminate Pepperdine.
The playoff procedure featured a five-hole shotgun format with players from each of three teams playing holes 14 through 18 simultaneously. Seniors Aaron Goldberg and Chad Moscovic posted birdies on their respective holes to propel the Scarlet and Black into the finals.
"I am extremely proud of the way our players battled back," said SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan. "I never questioned the talent on this team, and our guys responded with some difficult shots in critical moments to put us in position for the playoff. You saw a lot of character out there on the course."
Spearheading the Aztecs' effort on that day were Johan Carlsson and David Palm, who each delivered clutch performances on the final hole of regulation. Carlsson posted an eagle on the par-5 ninth, while Palm sank a birdie to force the playoff after both Texas and Pepperdine completed their rounds earlier.
Not to be outdone, Goldberg also came up big during the final round, draining a team-high seven birdies in regulation en route to a 3-under 69. The Encinitas, Calif., native jumped up eight spots to finish alone in 10th place with a combined 1-under 215 for his best showing in three career regional appearances.
Carlsson, meanwhile, continued his meteoric ascent up the individual leaderboard after tying for the lowest round of the tournament with a 4-under 68 over the final 18 holes. After beginning the day in a tie for 51st, the SDSU freshman, wound up with his 10th top-20 effort of the year, climbing an additional 32 places to finish in a tie for the 19th position. In addition to his heroics on the final hole, Carlsson eagled the par-5 14th hole and sank two birdies as well.
Palm also drained three birdies of his own, while recording the Aztecs' third eagle of the day on the par-5 sixth en route to a final-round total of even-par 72. The SDSU junior shook off two shaky rounds of 76 and 80 to leap 33 places in the standings into a tie for 71st with a combined 12-over 228.
Moscovic figured in the Scarlet and Black's frantic comeback as well, firing his best round of the week with a 2-over 74. The Stockton, Calif., product survived a triple-bogey right after the turn, sinking a key birdie on the par-5 sixth, his fourth-to-last hole in regulation, to jump 21 spots into a tie for 101st at 16 over 232.
Rounding out the Aztec delegation was freshman Matt Hoffenberg , who tied for 111th at 18-over 234 after carding a final-round 77.
Second-round leader USC (-2) held off Oregon (E) to grab the team title in the 27-school field, while UO's Joey Benedetti, who led wire-to-wire, captured medalist honors with a combined 9-under 207 at the 7,111-yard, par-72 Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club.
Mountain Men
* Aaron Goldberg, Matt Hoffenberg and David Palm were each selected to the 2007-08 all-Mountain West Conference team following the league championships. SDSU also captured both individual awards as Goldberg was named the MWC golfer of the year, while Hoffenberg was voted the league's top freshman. The selections marked just the second time in the nine-year history of the MWC that two individual honorees came from the same school. In 2005, UNLV's Ryan Moore was recognized as the conference's top player, while teammate Jarred Texter received freshman of the year accolades.
Goldberg, who ranks second in the MWC with a 71.43 stroke average, has recorded 10 finishes within the top-10 during the 2007-08 campaign and is a three-time all-conference performer. The La Costa Canyon High alumnus is also the third Aztec to garner the league's top honor after Lars Johansson (2001) and John Lieber (2002).
Hoffenberg sits behind Goldberg on the MWC individual leaderboard in fourth place with a 72.37 scoring average. The talented lefty has four top-10 finishes to his credit this season en route to becoming the first MWC freshman of the year honoree to don the Scarlet and Black.
Palm, meanwhile, enjoyed a successful return to the lineup in 2007-08, posting a 73.17 stroke average and three top-10 finishes after undergoing back surgery last season. The all-league recognition was the second for Palm, who garnered second-team all-Southern Conference accolades while capturing freshmen of the year honors at Georgia Southern in 2005. Along with Goldberg and Hoffenberg, Palm's selection gave SDSU three all-MWC golfers for the first time in the same season since the league's inception in 1999-2000.
Goldberg Named to U.S. Palmer Cup Team
* Aaron Goldberg was one of eight players named to the 2008 Palmer Cup as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) on April 21. The annual competition, featuring the top collegiate golfers from the United States against their European counterparts, will be played June 26-27 in a Ryder Cup-style format at the Glasgow Golf Club's 6,903-yard, par-71 Gailes Links in Irvine, Scotland.
Joining Goldberg on the Palmer Cup squad will be UCLA's Kevin Chappell, Derek Fathauer of Louisville, Oklahoma State's Rickie Fowler, Chesson Hadley of Georgia Tech, Florida's Billy Horschel, Adam Mitchell of Georgia and Alabama's Michael Thompson. Stanford head coach Conrad Ray will serve as the team's captain.
The United States holds a 6-4-1 lead in the series dating back to 1997, including an 18-6 triumph last year at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md. The Americans, however, have lost the last two times the event has been held in Europe.
In addition, Goldberg was one of 20 Division I golfers named to the 2008 Jack Nicklaus Award watch list as announced by the GCAA on April 8. The Nicklaus Award is presented to the player of the year in NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as the NAIA.
The Nicklaus Award recipients will be named immediately following the final round of each respective national championship. All four Nicklaus Award honorees will be invited to Muirfield Village for the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, just outside Nicklaus' hometown of Columbus to receive their trophies from Mr. Nicklaus. Additionally, a 20-player All-Nicklaus Team - which will include outstanding players from NCAA Divisions I, II and III and the NAIA - will be named June 10.
San Diego State Season Notes
* The 2007-08 campaign marked the third straight season in which the Aztecs captured three tournament team titles.
* SDSU posted its lowest collective score of the year with a 24-under 828 en route to winning the Alister MacKenzie Invitational last October. The total ranks second in school history for a 54-hole team score.
* Bolstered by a trio of top-six individual finishes, the Aztecs successfully defended their crown at the Fresno State Lexus Classic on March 11. The victory was just the second time since the spring of 2000 that SDSU won the same tournament in consecutive seasons.
* Two weeks later on March 25, the Scarlet and Black came away with its fourth Oregon Duck Invitational title in the last eight years after taking home the trophy in 2001, 2004 and 2006.
* In addition to its three tournament wins, SDSU has also posted three runner-up finishes during the 2007-08 campaign at the William H. Tucker Invitational, Sycuan Intercollegiate Invitational and Barona Collegiate Cup. The Aztecs placed second in a 36-hole event as well at the all-city SDSU Intercollegiate Classic in January.
* Aaron Goldberg was named MWC Golfer of the Month for both February and March, giving him five such awards for his career. Goldberg joins Ryan Moore of UNLV as the only two players to be recognized on at least five occasions since the league's formation in 1999-2000.
* When Aaron Goldberg shot a 7-under 65 during the final round of the John Burns Intercollegiate in Hawaii on Feb. 22, he posted his lowest 18-hole score in relation to par as an Aztec, which is now tied for third on the school's all-time list. Nearly a month later on March 18, Matt Hoffenberg duplicated the feat during the final round of SDSU's third home tournament of the season, the Barona Collegiate Cup.
* SDSU's quintet of Goldberg, Moscovic, Palm, Carlsson and Hoffenberg will be playing together for the ninth straight tournament this spring. The last time the Aztecs fielded a different lineup in a 54-hole event was at the PING Arizona Intercollegiate on Jan. 28-29.
Head Coach Ryan Donovan
* For the second time in his five-year tenure, Ryan Donovan has guided San Diego State to the NCAA Championships. Under Donovan's leadership, the Aztecs posted a stellar 155-43-3 head-to-head record (.779 pct.) during the 2007-08 campaign en route to their 10th straight NCAA regional appearance, capturing three regular-season tournament titles along the way.
Prior to taking over the reins on Montezuma Mesa, Donovan served as the SDSU assistant golf coach. From 1997 to 2001 Donovan was also a four-year member of the Aztec golf team. The most successful season of his collegiate career came in 2000 when he recorded five top-30 finishes.