Sept. 26, 2013
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team returns to the course this weekend when it competes at the 59th annual William H. Tucker Invitational, Sept. 27-28, in Albuquerque, N.M. The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be contested on the par-72, 7,562-yard Championship Course at the University of New Mexico, with the first two rounds scheduled to get underway on Friday in a shotgun start, beginning at 7:45 a.m. MT.
The Aztecs will be afforded an early look at a pair of formidable Mountain West foes, as host New Mexico and UNLV find themselves ranked ninth and 22nd, respectively, in the latest Golfstat index. SDSU will also square off against two other conference rivals in Colorado State and Wyoming, while squads from Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and USC will represent the Pac-12. In addition, the 17-team field will feature the likes of Brigham Young, Minnesota, New Mexico State, TCU, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio, UTEP and Wichita State.
A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available both days on www.goaztecs.com.
All six golfers in head coach Ryan Donovan's lineup will be making their first-ever collegiate trip to the Land of Enchantment, including starters Riccardo Michelini, Xander Schauffele, Ricky DeSantis, Kevin Ko and Austin Kaiser, while James Holley is slated to participate as an individual.
Michelini, the 2012-13 Mountain West Freshman of the Year, will make his sophomore debut for SDSU this weekend after competing in Europe over the summer, highlighted by a victory at the South-of-England Amateur Open in July. The Carpi, Italy, native ranked third on the Aztecs last season with a 72.63 stroke average and posted five top-20 finishes, including a fourth-place performance at the MW Championships.
SDSU is coming off a top-10 showing at the season-opening Kikkor Golf Husky Invitational on Sept. 16-17 in Bremerton, Wash., where it landed in a three-way tie for seventh with Oregon and USC at 11-over 875. The Aztecs were led by the true freshman DeSantis, who tied for the 15th on the individual leaderboard after carding a combined 1-over 217 in his first collegiate event, while Ko (+2), a sophomore, finished one shot behind in a tie for 20th.
This weekend's tournament will mark the sixth time in the last nine years that SDSU has competed at the Tucker Invitational and 11 occasions overall since 2000. After posting a pair of runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2009, the Aztecs came away with the team title in 2010, rallying from a seven-stroke deficit over the final 18 holes to edge North Texas by one shot. The Scarlet and Black did not appear at last year's event after logging a third-place finish in 2011.
The Tucker Invitational, named in honor of former University of New Mexico groundskeeper William H. Tucker, is the second-oldest men's college tournament in the country behind only the New England Intercollegiate. Previous individual participants include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Armour III, Tim Herron, Duffy Waldorf, Notah Begay and Matt Kuchar.
Following the Tucker Invite, SDSU will have two weeks off before closing out its brief fall schedule up north at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, Oct. 14-15, in Sonoma, Calif.