Jan. 31, 2010
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team, which ended the fall ranked 24th nationally by Golfweek, will begin its 2010 spring schedule on Monday, when the Aztecs travel to Tucson, Ariz., for the Arizona Intercollegiate at the par-71, 6,793-yard Arizona National Golf Club. SDSU will be among 14 schools competing in the 54-hole event that will include two rounds on Monday and the final round on Tuesday morning. Both days are slated to begin at 8 a.m. MST with a shotgun start.
Aztec seventh-year head coach Ryan Donovan will bring five golfers to Arizona, including juniors Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Matt Hoffenberg (Simi Valley, Calif.) and sophomore trio Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England), Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) and J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.).
San Diego State, which is also finished the fall 30th nationally by Golfstat.com, will be joined by two fellow Mountain West Conference schools, No. 43 New Mexico and No. 18 UNLV, at the Arizona Intercollegiate. Also included in the field are three other top 50 teams in No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 30 California.
A year ago, the Aztecs finished in second place at the same Arizona tournament, three strokes behind first-place Pepperdine, which won the event with a 54-hole score of 3-over 855. Hoffenberg was the team's highest finisher, taking second overall with a 9-under 204.
SDSU is coming off a first-place finish in its final fall tournament of 2009, winning by 18 strokes over nearest competitor No. 9 Illinois, at the Turtle Bay Resort College Invitational in Kahuku, Hawaii, Nov. 2-4. It was the team's first title since the 2007-08 campaign.
On Tuesday, the Aztec `Black' squad will also be in action at the annual San Diego Intercollegiate at The Farms Golf Club in nearby Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Sophomore Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.) and Tyler Morris (Encinitas, Calif.) and freshmen Tom Berry (New Haw, England) and Evan Emerick (Oceanside, Calif.) will all participate in the 36-hole event.
Live stats will be available on golfstat.com and goaztecs.com for all three rounds of the 2010 Arizona Intercollegiate.