SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its fall schedule this weekend when it competes in the 65th annual William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, Sept. 28-29, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The first two rounds of the 54-hole tournament will be contested on Friday, while the final 18 holes are pegged for a Saturday completion on the par-72, 7,555-yard UNM Championship Course. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on GoAztecs.com, with a shotgun start scheduled for both Friday (7:30 a.m. MT/6:30 a.m. PT) and Saturday (8 a.m. MT/7 a.m. PT).
In addition to host New Mexico, the Aztecs will get an early look at four other Mountain West adversaries, including Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV and Wyoming. SDSU will also battle a pair of West Coast neighbors in Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, while Arkansas, Brigham Young, Coastal Carolina, Colorado, Denver, Nebraska, New Mexico State, UT Arlington and UTEP round out the 17-team field.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will accompany seven golfers to the Duke City, including the starting lineup of Youssef Guezzale (San Diego, Calif.), Christian Banke (Danville, Calif.), Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Steve Sugimoto (San Diego, Calif.) and Joey Moore (Billings, Mont.), while Leo Oyo (Tokyo, Japan) and Zihao Jin (Beijing, China) will make the trip as individual competitors.
SDSU opened its fall slate two weeks ago with an 11th-place standing at the University of Minnesota's Gopher Invitational, where it shot a combined 23-over 875 to finish one shot behind Utah (+22) for 10th place and two strokes in back of ninth-place New Mexico (+21).
Anupansuebsai was the Aztecs' top golfer at the aforementioned event, tying for 32nd at 6-over 219, followed by Guezzale (T-49th, +9) and Banke (T-52nd, +10). Meanwhile, Sugimoto and Moore earned their first starting assignments of the season this week after each landed in the top 10 as unattached golfers at the Pioneer Creek Collegiate, Sept. 8-9, in Maple Plain, Minnesota. Sugimoto finished a solo fifth with a 3-under 213, while Moore tied for the seventh spot with a 1-under 215.
The Scarlet and Black will be participating in the Tucker Intercollegiate for the 11th time in the last 12 years while making its 16th appearance overall. Last season, SDSU tied for sixth with New Mexico and Colorado at 20-over 884, finishing 11 strokes behind team champion Brigham Young. Anupansuebsai is the lone Aztec holdover from that edition of the tournament after tying for 22nd at 6-over 222.
Arizona's George Cunningham captured medalist honors at the Tucker Intercollegiate last year with an 8-under 208, but with his completed eligibility and a shuffled lineup of competing squads, BYU's Peter Kuest is the tournament's top returning individual after a runner-up placement last season at 5-under 211. Also back in the mix are UNLV's Harry Hall (10th, +2), Colorado State's Jake Staiano (T-11th, +3) and A.J. Ott (T-16th, +4), as well as New Mexico's Augustin Hole' (T-11th, +3).
The Tucker Intercollegiate, which was named in honor of former University of New Mexico groundskeeper William H. Tucker, is the second-oldest men's college tournament in the country behind only the New England Intercollegiate. Previous individual competitors include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Armour III, Tim Herron, Duffy Waldorf, Notah Begay and Matt Kuchar.
San Diego State has twice won the Tucker Intercollegiate in recent years, hoisting trophies in 2010 and 2016 to go with second-place results in 2007 and 2009. In 2016, the Aztecs posted a winning total of 1-under 863 to outlast Colorado State (+9) and BYU (+14), buoyed by PJ Samiere's (-2) fourth-place individual finish. Meanwhile in 2010, the Scarlet and Black (+10) rallied from a seven-stroke deficit during the final round to edge North Texas (+11) by one stroke.
Following this weekend's event, the Aztecs will have another two-week hiatus before returning to the fairways for the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, Oct. 8-9, at the exclusive Meadow Club in Fairfax, California.
Men's Golf Heads to New Mexico This Weekend
