SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team takes the national stage for the first time since 2016 when it competes in the 2021 NCAA Championships, May 28-June 2, at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Aztecs are one of 30 teams to head to the desert, having qualified for the national tournament after taking third in the NCAA Kingston Springs Regional, May 17-19, in the Nashville, Tenn., area.
The format for the NCAA championship series features 72 holes of stroke play with a single round to be contested on each of the first four days. Following 54 holes of competition, the top 15 teams along with the top nine individuals not on one of those advancing teams will qualify for one additional day of stroke play to determine the top eight teams for match-play competition.
The individual national champion will be crowned at the conclusion of stroke play on Monday, May 31. The top eight teams after 72 holes of play will then be placed into a match-play bracket with the No. 1 seed facing the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed battling the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed playing the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed squaring off against the No. 5 seed. Ties for the top 15 and top eight teams, as well as the top nine individuals, will be broken by a sudden-death playoff or, if necessary, by an alternate tiebreaking procedure.
SDSU, which received the No. 21 seed, will be grouped with Texas Tech and Arkansas for the first two rounds of the par-70, 7,289-yard course layout. The three teams will open the tournament on the first hole at 6:32 a.m. PT on Friday, while Saturday's second round will commence on the 10th tee at 11:52 a.m. PT. Pairings for the final two rounds of stroke play will be based on team standings.
The Aztecs will also be able to log a practice round on Thursday, starting at 7:18 a.m. PT on the first hold before the tournament opens on Friday.
NCAA Championship Coverage
The Golf Channel will dedicate more than 14 hours of live coverage of the NCAA Men's Golf Championships, beginning Monday May 31, when the final round of stroke play is aired from 2-6 p.m. PT. The Golf Channel will also broadcast the match-play phase of the tournament, starting Tuesday, June 1, with the quarterfinals (9-11:30 a.m. PT) and semifinals (2-6 p.m. PT), followed by the finals on Wednesday, June 2 (2-6 p.m. PT).
In addition, live hole-by-hole results courtesy of Golfstat will be available for all four rounds of stroke play on GoAztecs.com.
Aztec NCAA Championship Lineup
For the fifth tournament this year, San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan will utilize the starting lineup of Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Callum Bruce (Banff, Scotland), Youssef Guezzale (San Diego, Calif./La Jolla HS), Zihao Jin (Beijing, China/Rancho Bernardo HS (Calif.)) and Steve Sugimoto (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo HS). The combination was also employed this year in a win at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic (April 5-6), third-place finishes at the Mountain West Championship (April 30-May 1) and NCAA Kingston Springs Regional (May 17-19), and a fourth-place showing at the National Invitational Tournament (March 20-21). Three of those tournaments - Wyoming Cowboy Classic, the N.I.T. and the MW Championships - were played in the state of Arizona, which is also hosting this week's national championship.
All five SDSU starters are playing in their first NCAA Championship. However, all five starters are upperclassmen, including seniors Anupansuebsai, Bruce, Jin and Sugimoto, and junior Guezzale.
Anupansuebsai, who leads the squad with a 70.71 scoring average, enters the weekend with a No. 36 ranking in the latest Golfstat rankings and is even better in the Sagarin/Golfweek ratings at No. 32. Anupansuebsai also paces San Diego State in rounds in the 60s (9), rounds below par (1), even-par rounds (6) and team count percentage (.917).
Anupanusebsai has been lights out for San Diego State over the last four tournaments, finishing in a tie for second (Wyoming Cowboy Classic), a tie for first (Western Intercollegiate from April 12-14, lost in playoff), a tie for first (MW Championship, won in playoff) and a solo victory last time out at the NCAA Kingston Springs Regional. Anupansuebsai became the first Aztec to win a NCAA regional in program history and the first player to win a regional at the Golf Club of Tennessee since the current top-ranked golfer in the world Dustin Johnson captured the 2005 NCAA East Regional.
Bruce, who did not play in the first two tournaments for SDSU, ranks second on the team with a 72.00 stroke average, while recording four rounds in the 60s, five rounds below par and three even-par rounds. Bruce's best finish of his Division I career came at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic, where he tied for fifth out of 104 players at 11-under 205.
Guezzale, meanwhile, ranks third on the team with a 72.13 scoring average, while ranking second in rounds in the 60s (8), rounds below par (10) and team count percentage (.905). Out of Guezzale's eight tournaments played, he has three top-5 finishes and five top-10 placings. Guezzale has played particularly well in postseason, logging a T8 at the MW Championship at 5-under 211 and a T-4 at the NCAA Kingston Springs Regional at 5-under 208.
One of three Aztecs to start all eight tournaments for SDSU this season (also Anupansuebsai and Sugimoto), Jin ranks fifth on the team with a 72.67 stroke average. He's also third in rounds in the 60s (5), rounds below par (7, tied) and even-par rounds (4). Jin's best finish of the season was a tie for 11th at the Southwestern Invitational at 4-over 220 where he helped San Diego State to a team title. He was also the Aztecs' best finisher at The Prestige at PGA West from Feb. 15-17, where he tied for 17th at 2-over 215.
Sugimoto, who garnered all-MW honors for the first of his career, ranks fourth on the team with a 72.50 scoring average. He's also tied for third in rounds below par (7), tied for fourth in rounds in the 60s (4) and tied for fifth in even-par rounds (2), while owning a team .813 count percentage, which ranks third on the squad. Sugimoto's best finish was T9 at Arizona's NIT, where he led the Aztecs at 10-under 206.
NCAA Championship Field
The Aztecs will obviously face their toughest competition of the season in their quest for a national championship. In all, 24 of the top 30 ranked teams made the NCAA Championship field, including 24 of the top 27 squads. The highest-rated squad is No. 1 Florida State, which won its own NCAA Tallahassee Regional by 17 strokes. The other NCAA regional winners were No. 3 Oklahoma State (Stillwater), No. 5 Texas (Noblesville), No. 11 Vanderbilt (Kingston Springs), No. 22 Texas Tech (Albuquerque) and No. 41 East Tennessee State (Cle Elum).
SDSU is the lone MW representative in the 30-team field. New Mexico (T7), Boise State (10) and Nevada (11) all made the NCAA Albuquerque Regional but failed to get out of regional competition.
Following the top-rated Seminoles in the field by seed is Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Texas, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Illinois, Pepperdine, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Georgia, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Liberty, SMU, San Francisco, Florida, Texas Tech, Arkansas, San Diego State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Sam Houston State, Oregon State, UAB, TCU, East Tennessee State, Little Rock and San Diego.
During the 2021 campaign (the Aztecs did not compete in the fall 2020), SDSU has squared off against 19 of the 29 other schools in the weekend's field, compiling an even 13-13 record in head-to-head competition. San Diego State has battled San Diego (2-1) and Pepperdine (1-2) three times apiece, and are all square with Arizona State (1-1), SMU (1-1) and TCU (1-1). The Aztecs have won single matchups with Clemson, Illinois, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Oregon State and East Tennessee State, but have been on the wrong end against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Texas Tech and Arkansas. This weekend will be SDSU's first chance to see Florida State, Wake Forest, Georgia, Tennessee, Liberty, San Francisco, Florida, Sam Houston State, UAB and Little Rock. There will be a new champion crowned this season as the last winner in 2019 was Stanford, which failed to get out of the NCAA Albuquerque Regional.
Yale (21), Houston (16) and Princeton (12) have the most NCAA Championships all-time but neither team made this year's championship. Oklahoma State has the fourth-most total NCAA Championships (11), while Stanford (9), Harvard (6), LSU (5), Florida (4), North Texas (4), Texas (3), Wake Forest (3), Alabama (2), Arizona State (2), Augusta (2), Georgia (2), Michigan (2), Ohio State (2), Oklahoma (2) and UCLA (2) are also multi-time champions.
SDSU At The NCAA Championships
The Aztecs will be making their 30th appearance in the NCAA Championships overall, including seventh since Ryan Donovan took over the head coaching reins at his alma mater in 2004. In addition, this season marks the ninth time since regional play was adopted in 1989 that SDSU has advanced to the national championships, joining the 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 squads.
In their last appearance in 2016, San Diego State finished 25th at 32-over 872 at the Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Through a clerical error, the Aztecs were entered as College Division participants in the 1964 tournament, finishing just two strokes behind Southern Illinois in the runner-up spot at Springfield, Mo.
SDSU also enjoyed a stretch of 11 consecutive appearances in the NCAAs from 1974-84. After the program was dropped and reinstated, the Aztecs returned to the finals in 1999.
SDSU has finished in the top 10 on three occasions at the Division I level, with its best performance occurring in 2012 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The Aztecs staged a furious rally on the third and final day of medal competition, vaulting 11 places into a tie for fourth with California at 19-over 871. The Scarlet and Black was then pitted against the Golden Bears in the quarterfinals of match play, but dropped a heart-breaking 3&2 decision.
SDSU's top individual finish in the last 22 years came in 2011 when J.J. Spaun (T3) and Todd Baek (T10) both landed in the top 10 at Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla.
A Look At The Course
Established in 1994, Grayhawk Golf Club features two par-72 golf courses - Talon and Raptor - engineered with their own distinctive personalities. The NCAA Championship will be played on the Raptor course, which delivers more traditional challenges clearly laid out come-and-get-it style with generous fairways and deep greenside bunkers guarding crowned greens. This week, Raptor will be playing as a par-70.
The Tom Fazio-designed Raptor course offers thrilling challenges that command players' respect through a high-stakes game of risk and reward. Stretching 7,151 yards from the back tees, the course unfolds over the gentle hills and across shaded natural arroyos found in the picturesque corner of the Sonoran Desert.
Most of Raptor's fairways are generous, and the greens are large with sweeping undulations. Misses tend to find deep greenside bunkers and grass collection areas, making the scramble to get up and down a true test of the short game.
Raptor is considered to be one of the finest daily fee golf courses in Scottsdale and is listed among the best public golf courses in Arizona by Golfweek and Golf Magazine. Raptor is one of only two Scottsdale golf courses to host a PGA TOUR event – the Frys.com Open 2007-2009. Other tour-sanctioned tournaments include the inaugural Williams World Challenge, Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf and Waste Management Phoenix Open pro-ams.
On the amateur side, the Thunderbird International Junior, a major on the American Junior Golf Association's schedule, is played on Raptor. The PGA Jr. League Championship presented by National Car Rental is held on Raptor. And the NCAA chose the Raptor course as the host site for the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Golf Championships from 2020 to 2022. Unfortunately, the 2020 event was canceled, and will make its debut this year.
The women's championship is currently going on the same course (par-72, 6,384 yards) with the finals of match play set for Wednesday.
Men’s Golf Ready for NCAA Championships
