SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team returns to action Monday at The Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, California. The Aztecs are one of 22 teams slated to compete in the 22nd annual event, which will feature 18-hole rounds on three consecutive days on the par-71, 7,100-yard Greg Norman Course.
The tournament includes 10 programs ranked among the top 50 in the latest Golfstat rankings (Feb. 15). Along with No. 44 SDSU, set to compete at The Prestige are No. 5 Pepperdine, No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 9 Stanford, No. 18 Vanderbilt, No. 25 LSU, No. 29 Northwestern, No. 47 San Francisco, No. 48 Oregon, No. 49 UCLA, No. 51 TCU, No. 52 UC Davis, Denver, Cal Poly, Colorado State, Iowa State, Loyola Marymount, North Texas, Oregon State, Princeton, Santa Clara and SMU.
San Diego State will tee off from the first hole, beginning at 11:55 a.m. PT Monday, and will be playing with Pepperdine and SMU. On Tuesday the same three times will tee off from the 10th hole in the morning. Wednesday's final round gets underway at 7 a.m. PT while the leaders will play in the afternoon wave at 11 a.m. PT.
The Aztecs are coming off an impressive sixth-place finish at the 12-team Southwest Invitational presented by Topgolf, Jan. 24-26, at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, California. SDSU finished at 7-over 871, only trailing then No. 3 Arizona State (-30), No. 7 Pepperdine (-17), No. 21 Washington (-8), No. 13 Georgia (-1) and No. 14 Wake Forest (+5). San Diego State finished five strokes ahead of UCLA (seventh, +12) and 15 shots clear of No. 8 Texas (eighth, +22). The other Mountain West schools in the tournament were San José State (T-10th, +38) and UNLV (12th, +42).
Aztec head coach has penciled in the starting five of Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Zihao Jin (Beijing, China), Steve Sugimoto (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo HS), Shea Lague (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) and Youssef Guezzale (San Diego, Calif./La Jolla HS). Additionally, Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) and Skyler Ngo (Las Vegas) will be competing as individuals in The Prestige Individual Invitational on the par-72, 7,145-yard Coral Mountain Golf Club.
Jin leads SDSU with a 70.89 stroke average this season, followed by Anupansuebsai (71.67), Guezzale (72.07), Sugimoto (72.27) and Lague (72.58). Ngo has posted a 74.67 stroke average and Hastings is at 74.83.
Arizona is the defending tournament team champion but is not competing this year. The top returning teams from a year ago are Pepperdine (-3), SMU (+8), Stanford (+13), TCU (+14), Texas Tech (+17) and San Diego State (+18).
Jin paced the Aztecs last year at 2-over 215 for a tie for 17th, followed by Anupansuebsai (+3, T-21), Sugimoto (+7, T-53), Joey Moore (+9, T-72) and Guezzale (+17, T-108).
The Greg Norman Course has played host to The Prestige at PGA West on 14 different occasions (2004-08, 2011, 2013-14, and 2016-21). Other venues included the Desert Willow Golf Club (2000-01), La Quinta Mountain Resort Course (2002-03), TPC Stadium Course (2009-10) and Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course (2015). In its history, The Prestige was a fixture on the fall segment of college men's golf schedule for 13 years before moving to the spring in 2013.
Following The Prestige, the Aztecs will co-host the Lamkin Invitational at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California, from March 7-8.
Men’s Golf Set to Compete in The Prestige
