Sept. 25, 2014
SAN DIEGO - Fresh off a third-place showing at the Husky Invitational, the San Diego State men's golf team resumes its busy schedule this weekend when it travels to the Land of Enchantment for the 60th annual William H. Tucker Invitational, Sept. 26-27, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The two-day, 54-hole event gets underway Friday with the first two rounds on the par-72, 7,562-yard UNM Championship Course, beginning at 8 a.m. MT, while the final 18 holes will be contested on Saturday. A live scoring link will be available courtesy of Golfstat.com.
Along with the Aztecs, the 15-team field features seven squads among the top 50 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, including No. 11 UNLV, 15th-ranked TCU, No. 16 Texas Tech, 20th-ranked Colorado, No. 32 Colorado State, 33rd-ranked New Mexico and No. 41 Louisiana. SDSU will also battle an additional Mountain West foe in Wyoming, while Arizona, Brigham Young, Minnesota, New Mexico State Texas-Arlington and UTEP round out the list of competing schools.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will employ the same lineup utilized earlier this week at the Husky Invitational, featuring Xander Schauffele (San Diego, Calif.), Riccardo Michelini (Carpi, Italy), PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii), Ricky DeSantis (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.). In addition, James Holley (Chatsworth, Calif.) will participate as an unattached golfer.
Schauffele is coming off a runner-up effort at the Husky Invitational where he shot a 4-under 212 for his ninth top-five finish in a Scarlet and Black uniform. In addition, Mendoza cracked the top-20 for the third time in his career, landing in the 13th position with a 3-over 219.
This weekend's event marks the seventh time in the last 10 years and 12th occasion overall that SDSU has competed in the Tucker Invitational. After logging a pair of second-place performances in 2007 and 2009, the Aztecs captured the team title in 2010, overcoming a seven-stroke deficit during the final round to edge North Texas by one shot.
Last season, SDSU finished sixth among 17 schools with a combined 33-over 897, while Schauffele tied for fourth out of 103 individuals after carding a 1-over 217. New Mexico's Gavin Green is the two-time defending individual champion who will be looking to become the first three-time winner in the tournament's history. The Lobos have also captured the team title for two years straight and 11 times overall.
The Tucker Invitational, which was 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 competitors include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Armour III, Tim Herron, Duffy Waldorf, Notah Begay and Matt Kuchar.
Following their New Mexico visit, the Aztecs will be idle for two weeks before closing off their fall slate in the Bay Area at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, scheduled for Oct. 13-14, at the prestigious Meadow Club in Fairfax, California.