April 9, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The 34th-ranked San Diego State men's golf team puts the finishing touches on its regular-season schedule this weekend when it travels north for the prestigious Western Intercollegiate, April 11-12, in Santa Cruz, California. The two-day, 54-hole event begins Saturday with a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m. PT on the par-70, 6,615-yard Pasatiempo Golf Course.
Now in its 69th year, the historic tournament features an impressive field with eight teams ranked in the latest Golfstat.com top-30 index, including Arizona State (2), Texas (3), Washington (8), UCLA (11), Stanford (13), Oregon (14), USC (16) and California (22). In addition, the Aztecs will battle host school and Mountain West rival San José State, while Arizona, Hawai'i, UC Irvine and UTEP round out the list of competing squads.
The Western Intercollegiate is a six-count-five tournament, with SDSU's Xander Schauffele (San Diego, Calif.), Ryann Ree (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Riccardo Michelini (Carpi, Italy), Ricky DeSantis (Carlsbad, Calif.), Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.), and PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii) comprising head coach Ryan Donovan's starting lineup. In addition, the Scarlet and Black will be represented by Brian Song (Beverly Hills, Calif.), who will participate as an unattached golfer.
The Aztecs are making their fifth straight appearance at the Western Intercollegiate, but just their sixth since 2001. Last year, SDSU placed fourth with a team score of 15-over 1065, finishing seven strokes behind third-place California (+8), while Stanford (-10) was the runaway winner after topping runner-up Washington (+6).
Schauffele and DeSantis both tied for sixth on the individual leaderboard in 2014 with a 3-under 207, while Michelini landed in the 26th position at 4-over 214, followed by Mendoza, who tied for 41st with a 6-over 216 on the picturesque Pasatiempo layout, which was originally designed by Alister McKenzie, the famed architect of Augusta National.
A total of 14 players in the 96-golfer field have combined to win 22 collegiate events this season, including Schauffele, who captured medalist honors at the Barona Collegiate Cup on Feb. 10. The Aztec senior, who leads the squad with a 70.83 scoring average, finds himself at No. 24 in the latest Golfstat Cup standings, while Ree (71.78) checks in at No. 92.
USC's Rico Hoey, Pete Fernandez of UC Irvine and Texas' Beau Hossler are the top returning individuals in this year's tournament after each tied for third at 4-under in 2014, behind the 1-2 combo of Stanford's Cameron Wilson and Patrick Rodgers, who both joined the professional ranks.
The Western Intercollegiate was launched in 1947 and is the oldest running men's college golf tournament west of the Mississippi River. Lars Johansson is the most recent SDSU individual champion at the event, taking home medalist honors in 2001 after defeating Jason Higton of Pacific on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. In addition, Kris Moe emerged triumphant at the Western in 1983, while Ron O'Connor accomplished the feat in 1960, guiding the Aztecs to their only team title in the history of the event.
Other notable winners of the Western Intercollegiate include Ken Venturi (1951, 1953), Johnny Miller (1968), Howard Twitty (1972), Peter Jacobsen (1974), Mark O'Meara (1978), Bobby Clampett (1980), Duffy Waldorf (1984), Arron Oberholser (1996), Joel Kribel (1997, 1999) and Jason Allred (2000).
Following the Western Intercollegiate, SDSU will have more than two weeks to gear up for the 2015 Mountain West championships, scheduled for May 1-3 at OMNI National Golf Club in Tucson, Arizona.