March 23, 2011
SAN DIEGO - The eighth-ranked San Diego State men's golf team will play host to the annual Barona Collegiate Cup, beginning this Thursday at the par-72, 7,374-yard Barona Creek Golf Club in Lakeside, Calif. The 54-hole, two-day tournament will include 16 of the nation's top teams and 100 total players. Both days will get underway with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. PDT, with teams covering 36 holes on Thursday and the final 18 on Friday.
The event will employ a unique scoring format as squads will include six players each with the low five scores per round counting toward the team total. The No. 8 Aztecs will be joined by cross-town rival No. 21 USD, as well as Arizona, Arkansas State, Colorado, Loyola Marymount, Nevada, New Mexico, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Utah, UTEP, Wyoming and Xavier.
SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan will bring seven golfers to the tournament with his starting six including senior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden), juniors Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.), Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) and J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.), sophomore Tom Berry (New Haw, England) and freshman Todd Baek (Auckland, New Zealand). Redshirt sophomore Evan Emerick (Oceanside, Calif.) will also compete as an individual.
A year ago, the Aztecs shocked No. 1 Oregon to claim the tournament title by a whopping 22 strokes with an 8-under 1,072. UC Irvine's John Chin, meanwhile, earned medalist honors with his 12-under 204, which was three strokes better than Carlsson, who was the runner-up with a 9-under 207.
Live stats for both days of the Barona Collegiate Cup will be available on golfstat.com, as well as SDSU's official website, goaztecs.com.