March 24, 2017
SAN DIEGO ââ'¬" The 32nd-ranked San Diego State men's golf team resumes its spring schedule next week when it travels to the Pacific Northwest for the Oregon Duck Invitational, March 27-28, in Eugene Ore.
The 28th installment of the tournament will be contested at the par-71, 7,020 yard Eugene Country Club, site of last year's NCAA Championships, where the Aztecs finished 25th in three rounds of medal play.
The first two rounds of the 2017 Duck Invitational are scheduled to commence on Monday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. PT, while the final 18 holes are pegged for completion on Tuesday. A live scoring link, courtesy of Golfstat, will be available on GoAztecs.com.
Along with tournament host Oregon, the defending national champion and current No. 5 team in the country, the Aztecs will face four additional Pac-12 conference schools in Arizona, Oregon State, Utah and Washington State. SDSU will also be afforded an early look at fellow Mountain West members Boise State, San José State and Wyoming, while Denver, Gonzaga, San Diego, Seattle, UC Davis and UMKC round out the 15-team field.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will accompany six golfers to the Willamette Valley next week, including the starting lineup of PJ Samiere, Nahum Mendoza III, Blake Abercrombie, Gunn Yang and Pablo Matesanz, while Trevor Norby makes his spring debut as an individual competitor.
SDSU is coming off a fifth-place tie in its last outing at the Lamkin San Diego Classic, where it posted an even-par 864 to finish 16 shots in back of tournament champion Mississippi. Individually, Abercrombie led the Aztecs in their lone home event of the season, matching his career-best placement with a tie for the runner-up spot at 6-under 210. The SDSU junior also equaled the tournament low with a 67 in the opening round, highlighted by seven birdies. For his efforts, Abercrombie was named Mountain West Men's Golfer of the Week on March 21.
In addition, Samiere just missed the top 10 at San Diego Country Club, tying for the 11th position with a 3-under 213, while Mendoza finished one shot behind in a tie for 16th at 2-under 214, followed by Yang, who tied for 69th with a 12-over 228. Matesanz also competed as an unattached golfer at the event, tying for 58th at 9-over 225.
Samiere tops the Aztecs with a 71.54 scoring average so far this season and has been the squad's No. 1 finisher in three events, including two runner-up placements last fall at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate and the Saint Mary's Invitational, where he led the Scarlet and Black to a pair of team titles. Meanwhile, Mendoza and Abercrombie are tied for second on the club with a 72.13 stroke average. The aforementioned trio has appeared in all eight tournaments for SDSU this year, while Yang (73.50) will be making his third straight start this spring and sixth of the season.
The Aztecs find themselves at No. 32 in the latest Golfstat rankings, while the Scarlet and Black is listed 29th in the Golfweek/Sagarin index. Individually, Samiere occupies the 70th position in the most recent Golfstat Cup standings to go along with a No. 63 ranking by Golfweek.
With Eugene Country Club hosting the 2016 NCAA Championships, the Duck Invitational was put on hiatus last season. However, the Aztecs placed third at the tournament in 2015, posting a 15-over 879 to finish 16 shots behind champion Arizona State.Mendoza (+8) and Samiere (+9) are the lone SDSU holdovers from that trip, tying for 30th and 33rd, respectively.
The Aztecs have had a history of success at the tournament, capturing team crowns in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008, while posting a second-place finish in 2005. Jeff Hansen (-5, 211) took home medalist honors as a sophomore at the 2004 edition for the Scarlet and Black's highest individual finish in the event since 1999.
At the NCAA Championships in Eugene last season, Mendoza advanced to the fourth round of stroke play as an individual, where he finished in a tie for 26th at 7-over 287 on the par-70 layout, highlighted by an opening-round 67.
Following the Oregon Duck Invitational, San Diego State will have one final tune-up before the Mountain West tournament when it competes in the historic Western Intercollegiate, April 8-9, in Santa Cruz, Calif.