Feb. 27, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its busy spring schedule this weekend when it competes in the National Invitational Tournament, Feb. 28-March 2, in Tucson, Arizona. The three-day, 54-hole event gets underway Saturday and will be contested on the par-72, 7,200-yard Catalina Course at OMNI Tucson National Golf Club.
The Aztecs, who climbed to No. 23 in the latest Golfstat rankings, will battle three other top-30 squads in the highly competitive 15-team field, including No. 22 California, 28th-ranked New Mexico and No. 30 TCU. SDSU will also get an early look three additional Mountain West adversaries in Colorado State, San José State and Wyoming, while host Arizona, Iowa State, New Mexico State, Oregon State, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara, UTEP and crosstown foe San Diego round out the list of competing schools in the 11th annual tournament.
The Aztecs will be paired with New Mexico and TCU for Saturday's opening round with a tee time of 8:45 a.m. MST on hole No. 1. A live scoring link courtesy of BirdieFire will be available on GoAztecs.com.
SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan will accompany five players to the desert, led by senior Xander Schauffele (San Diego, Calif.), who has earned a No. 18 individual ranking this week by Golfstat. In addition, the Aztec starting lineup will feature junior transfer Ryann Ree (Redondo Beach, Calif.), sophomore Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.), freshman PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii) and junior Michael Koeneke (San Diego, Calif.).
Schauffele, who owns a team-best 70.39 scoring average, followed his victory in the Barona Collegiate Cup with a second-place tie at The Prestige at PGA WEST in his last outing on Feb. 18 to capture his second straight MW Men's Golfer of the Week award.
SDSU will be making its fourth consecutive appearance at the National Invitational Tournament after tying UNLV for the fourth position in 2014 with a collective score of 13-under 851.
Following the departure of medalist Joel Stalter of defending team champion California, Schauffele and the Rebels' Carl Jonson are the field's top two returning finishers from a year ago after each carded 6-under 210 to tie for the sixth spot. Meanwhile, Mendoza is the only other Aztec veteran back from last year's event, where he shot a combined 2-over 218 to tie for 39th.
After its trek to Tucson, SDSU will return to one of its home courses when it plays host to the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic, March 9-10, at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California.