March 11, 2016
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its spring schedule in full swing next week when it competes in the ninth annual Lamkin San Diego Classic, March 14-15, in Chula Vista, Calif. The two-day, 54-hole tournament, co-hosted by the Aztecs and the University of San Diego, will be contested on the par-72, 7,033-yard San Diego Country Club.
The first two rounds are scheduled to commence on Monday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. PDT, while the final 18 holes are slated to begin on Tuesday with tee times as early as 8 a.m. Admission is free to the public, and a live scoring link will be available courtesy of Golfstat on GoAztecs.com.
Along with No. 21 SDSU, the highly competitive field features four additional squads ranked among the Golfstat top 100, including No. 6 Arizona State, No. 12 Texas, No. 56 New Mexico and No. 99 Minnesota. The Aztecs will also lock horns with the likes of Arizona, Brigham Young, Louisiana Tech, Loyola Marymount, Middle Tennessee, Northern Illinois, USD and Wichita State, while a pair of local schools, UC San Diego and Cal State San Marcos, round out the list of competing teams.
SDSU will have 10 players participating in next week's tournament, featuring the starting lineup of senior Riccardo Michelini (Carpi, Italy), fellow classmate Ryann Ree (Redondo Beach, Calif.), junior Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.) and sophomores Gunn Yang (Pyeongchang, South Korea) and PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii).
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will also have five unattached golfers competing in the South Bay, including senior Michael Koeneke (San Diego, Calif.), junior Brian Song (Beverly Hills, Calif.), sophomores Blake Abercrombie (Rocklin, Calif.) and Pablo Matesanz (Irun, Spain) and freshman Otto Vanhatalo (Espoo, Finland).
Ree leads the team with a 70.83 scoring average, including a 68.83 clip in two tournaments this spring. The Redondo Beach native finished second at The Prestige at PGA West last month with a 10-under 203 en route to earning Mountain West Men's Golfer of the Week honors. He also landed in the fourth position after carding a 6-under 210 at the Southwestern Jones Invitational on March 1, where he tied his collegiate best with a final-round 65.
Meanwhile, Mendoza ranks second on the squad with 70.92 strokes in nine varsity rounds this season. The Francis Parker High product notched his highest finish in a Scarlet and Black uniform at the aforementioned Southwestern Jones Invite, where he tied for second at 7-under 209.
In addition, Michelini (70.94) is enjoying another productive campaign with four top-10 finishes to his credit, including solo sixth at the Alister MacKenzie Invitational last fall in northern California.
Entering the week, Ree ranks 39th in the latest Golfstat Cup standings, followed by Michelini, who occupies the 46th position, while Mendoza checks in at No. 89.
The Lamkin San Diego Classic is entering its ninth season and sixth as a two-day, 54-hole competition. The tournament, formerly known as the San Diego Intercollegiate, was launched in 2008 primarily as an opportunity for local schools to compete against one another. The event has now expanded from local competition to host teams from all across the nation.
This is the seventh time overall and sixth year in a row that the Lamkin San Diego Classic will be held at San Diego Country Club. The inaugural event took place at the Chula Vista course and moved to the La Jolla Country Club in 2009, followed by a one-year stint at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., in 2010. Before becoming a two-day tournament in 2011, the event was a one-day, 36-hole challenge.
Bolstered by co-medalists Cheng-Tsung Pan and Corey Pereira, who both fired an 8-under-par 208, Washington claimed the team title at 10-under 854 in last year's event. However, the Huskies and runner-up North Carolina (-4) will not be participating in this season's installment, leaving third-place New Mexico (-1) as the top returning school. Louisiana Tech senior Victor Lange, who finished a solo third a year ago at 7-under 209, is the top returning individual, while Arizona's George Cunningham (8th, -2) is also back in the mix.
The Aztecs landed in the sixth spot at SDCC in 2015 after posting an 8-over 872, while former SDSU All-American Xander Schauffele tied for 10th on the individual leaderboard with an even-par 216. Schauffele took home the top prize as a junior in 2014 after carding an 11-under 205, leading the Scarlet and Black to a second-place standing.
The previous year in 2013, SDSU captured its only team championship in the history of the event, while USD captured a pair of crowns in 2008 and 2010. In addition, Point Loma Nazarene emerged victorious in 2009, while SMU grabbed the top spot in 2011, followed by Washington in 2012 and USC in 2014.
Following the Lamkin San Diego Classic, the Aztecs will prepare for their second home tournament of the year when they play host to the Barona Collegiate Cup, March 21-22, at Barona Creek Golf Club in Lakeside, Calif.