SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's golf team returns to the course next week when it makes the short trek north to the Los Angeles area for the Southwestern Invitational, Feb. 25-26, at the par-72, 6,992-yard North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif.
The two-day 54-hole tournament, which will be held on the Lakes and Oaks courses, is scheduled to commence on Monday with tee times off holes 1 and 10 as early as 7:19 a.m. PT, while the final 18 holes are pegged for a Tuesday completion with the same starting format. A live scoring link for all three rounds will be available on GoAztecs.com courtesy of Golfstat.
Along with No. 55 San Diego State, the event features eight additional schools ranked among the Golfstat top 100, including No. 7 USC, tournament host Pepperdine (12), California (16), Tennessee (22), UCLA (43), Oregon State (63), San José State (65) and Washington (80), while Augusta, George Washington and Loyola Marymount comprise the remainder of the field.
For the San Fernando Valley jaunt, Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan has overhauled his lineup for the San Fernando Valley jaunt to include the starting five of Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Christian Banke (Danville, Calif.), Zihao Jin (Beijing, China), Newport Laparojkit (Montebello, Calif.) and Joey Moore (Billings, Mont.), while Ambrose Abbracciamento (Newtown, Pa.) will compete as an individual.
SDSU is coming off a disappointing 16th-place finish at The Prestige presented by Charles Schwab in La Quinta, Calif., where it shot a collective 47-over 899 on the Greg Norman Course at PGA West. Banke is the lone Aztec starter returning from that tournament after tying for 47th with an 11-over 224, highlighted by a final-round 70.
Moore owned SDSU's second-best scoring average last fall with 72.22 strokes per round in three events, highlighted by a seventh-place tie as an individual golfer at the Pioneer Creek Collegiate in Minnesota after shooting a 1-under 215. He also tied for 19th in his first varsity start for the Scarlet and Black at New Mexico's William H. Tucker Intercollegiate with a 1-over 217, featuring a final-round 69.
Meanwhile, Laparojkit received his first starting assignment after tying for seventh earlier this month as an unattached competitor at The Farms Invitational in Rancho Santa Fe, where shot a 2-over 218, along with Banke.
The Southwestern Invitational is the merger of two previously existing tournaments: the Southwestern Intercollegiate, launched by USC in 1978, and the Jones Invitational, hosted by Pepperdine in 2014 and 2015.
The Aztecs landed in the fourth spot at last season's event, the second utilizing the Southwestern Invitational designation. SDSU shot a combined 29-over 893, finishing two strokes in back of third-place Tennessee (+27), while UCLA (-8) took home the team trophy, with host Pepperdine a distant second (+12). Banke is SDSU's lone returning veteran from that trip after tying 61st at 19-over 235.
San Diego State captured the team title at the Jones Invitational in February 2014, after posting a combined 17-over 881 at Saticoy Country Club. Former Aztec Riccardo Michelini finished a solo second at the event, one shot away from medalist honors at 1-over 217, while Nahum Mendoza III (+20) tied for 48th. The Aztecs were also triumphant at North Ranch in 2011 and 2012 when the tournament was known as the North Ranch Intercollegiate. In the 2012 edition, SDSU alumnus Matt Hoffenberg claimed medalist honors with a 2-over 212.
In addition, SDSU was a double winner at Saticoy in the fall of 2005 when Pepperdine hosted the Club Glove Intercollegiate. The Aztecs (+29) topped the Waves by 16 strokes, while David Palm defeated teammate Josh Warthen in a one-hole playoff for the individual title.
Michigan's Kyle Mueller, who was crowned the individual champion at the Southwestern Invite in 2018, has completed his eligibility, and with the Wolverines skipping this year's event, that leaves UCLA's Hidetoshi Yoshihara (-3) and Cole Madey (-1), who finished third and fourth last season, respectively, as the top returning players.
Also back in the mix are Pepperdine's Clay Feagler (E) and UCLA's Devon Bling (E), who tied for fifth while the Waves' Joshua McCarthy (+1) tied for ninth, followed by Tennessee's Brayden Garrison (+3), who tied for 12th.
Following the Southwestern Invitational, San Diego State will have nearly two weeks to gear up for the Lamkin San Diego Classic, co-hosted by the University of San Diego on March 11-12 at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, Calif.