Feb. 16, 2018
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its spring schedule next week when it ventures to the Palm Springs region to participate in The Prestige at PGA WEST, Feb. 19-21, in La Quinta, Calif.
The Aztecs are one of 15 schools slated to compete in the 18th annual event, which will feature 18-hole rounds on three consecutive days at the par-71, 7,070-yard Greg Norman Course, with Stanford and UC Davis serving as co-hosts.
Along with No. 38 SDSU, the tournament includes 10 additional squads ranked among the top 75 in the latest Golfstat index, including Oklahoma State (2), Stanford (10), LSU (11), USC (19), Oregon (41), Northwestern (44), Pepperdine (49), Notre Dame (51), San Francisco (56) and Washington (72), while East Tennessee State, Iowa State, UC Davis and Stirling University of Scotland round out the list of competing teams.
A live scoring link for the three rounds, which commence with tee times off holes No. 1 and No. 10 as early as 7:30 a.m. PT each day, will be available courtesy of Golfstat on GoAztecs.com.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan has shuffled his lineup for the Coachella Valley excursion to feature seniors PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii) and Blake Abercrombie (Rocklin, Calf.), along with freshmen Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Steve Sugimoto (San Diego, Calif.) and Christian Banke (Danville, Calif.).
SDSU is coming off a 10th-place tie in its spring opener last month at a wind-swept Arizona Intercollegiate in Tucson, where it shot a 46-over-par 898 over 54 holes. Anupansuebsai was the Scarlet and Black's top finisher at the event, tying for 28th with a combined 10-over 223.
Samiere (70.83) and Abercrombie (71.83) own the Aztecs' top two scoring averages for the season and are the team's only two starters this week to have appeared in all six events on the year. In addition, Samiere has three top-10 placements to his credit and enters the tournament with a No. 73 individual ranking by Golfweek.
Sugimoto (72.42) and Banke (73.33) are coming off a pair of solid finishes as individual competitors at the auxiliary Arizona Intercollegiate Medalist event, tying for fourth (216, E) and sixth (220, +4), respectively. A Rancho Bernardo High alumnus, Sugimoto started SDSU final two tournaments of the fall campaign, highlighted by a 14th-place tie at the Saint Mary's Invitational in Pebble Beach, Calif. Meanwhile, Banke is gearing up for his first varsity start after joining the Aztecs over the semester break.
SDSU will be competing at The Prestige at PGA WEST for the seventh straight season after tying for sixth out of 13 teams a year ago. The Aztecs fired a combined 10-over 862, finishing six strokes behind runner-up Pepperdine (E) and 10 shots in back of team champion LSU (E), which claimed its second straight crown.
Samiere and Abercrombie are SDSU's top returners from last season's tournament following the graduation of Nahum Mendoza III, who tied for third out of 78 golfers with a 4-under 209. Samiere landed in a tie for 14th at even-par 213, while Abercrombie was two strokes behind in 22nd at 2-over 215.
Stanford's Franklin Huang and Isaiah Salinda, along with Pepperdine's Clay Feagler, are the top returning individuals from a year ago after the three golfers tied for sixth at 3-under 210.
The Greg Norman Course has played host to The Prestige at PGA WEST on 10 different occasions (2004-08, 2011, 2013-14, and 2016-17). Other venues included the Desert Willow Golf Club (2000-01), the La Quinta Mountain Resort Course (2002-03), the TPC Stadium Course (2009-10) and the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course (2015). In it is history, The Prestige was a fixture on the fall segment of college men's golf schedule for 12 years before moving to the spring in 2013.
Following next week's tournament, the Aztecs will return to the course for the Southwestern Invitational, Feb. 26-27, at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif.