SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team will look to defend its Mountain West title this weekend when it travels to Tucson, Arizona, for the Mountain West Championship, April 28-30.
For the 14th time in the last 16 years, the 54-hole event will be contested on the Catalina Course at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Club, which will play as a par-72, 7,194-yard track.
The 11-team field will complete 18 holes on each of the three days, following a practice round on Thursday. The Aztecs earned the No. 2 seed and are slated to tee off with No. 1 Colorado State in the first group on Friday, starting at 7 a.m. PT, while the pairings for the final two rounds will be based on team standings. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on GoAztecs.com.
SDSU enters the tournament ranked 30th in the latest GolfStat team rankings (April 23). Colorado State leads the field at No. 23, followed by No. 30 San Diego State, No. 51 New Mexico, No. 83 Fresno State, No. 87 UNLV, No. 89 San Jose State, No. 104 Wyoming, No. 146 Nevada, No. 152 Boise State, No. 191 Utah State and No. 267 Air Force.
The Aztecs are returning to the Catalina Course for the second time this season after taking 11th out of a loaded 13-team field at the National Invitational Tournament from March 17-18. Three other MW teams competed in the same tournament with SDSU with Colorado State leading the way in eighth at 8-under 856, followed by New Mexico (T-9th, -6), San Diego State (11th, -4) and Wyoming (13th, +7).
Sophomore Shea Lague (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) tied for 13th out of 84 players at 5-under 211 at the N.I.T. Sophomore Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) tied for 44th (E), freshman Dylan Oyama (Carlsbad, Calif./Pacific Ridge HS) tied for 50th (+1), senior Youssef Guezzale (San Diego/La Jolla HS) tied for 59th (+4) and freshman Tyler Kowack (Del Mar, Calif./La Jolla HS) tied for 69th (+6).
San Diego State has two team championships on the season, claiming New Mexico's William H. Tucker Intercollegiate (Sept. 23-24) at 16-under 848 and winning the Wyoming Cowboy Classic (April 3-4) title for a third straight year at 7-under 857.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan has gone with the lineup of Lague, Hastings, Guezzale, Oyama and Kowack, with freshman Chanachon Chokprajakchat (Bangkok, Thailand) serving as an alternate.
Lague leads SDSU with a 70.60 stroke average through 30 rounds. Lague has two top-5 finishes, four top-10 showings and eight top-20 outings out of his 10 tournament appearances. Lague's 20 rounds below par are also the most on the team. He was an alternate for San Diego State at last year's championships.
Hastings, meanwhile, is second on the team with a 71.10 average in 30 rounds, logging one top-5 finish, two top-10 finishes and five in the top 20. Hastings, who leads the team with nine rounds in the 60s and ranks second with 13 rounds below par, tied for 38th at last year's MW Championship in Bremerton, Washington at 9-over 225.
Guezzale will be playing in his third MW Championship after tying for third in Washington at last year's tournament at 8-under 208 and tying for eighth in Arizona in 2021 at 5-under 211. Guezzale is sixth on the team in scoring (73.04) across 24 rounds.
Oyama is third on the Aztecs in scoring at 72.27 in 30 rounds and Kowack is tied for fourth at 72.67 in 21 rounds, and both are playing in their first MW Championship.
Chokprajakchat, who is listed as an alternate, has a 72.67 average in 24 rounds and is tied for fourth on the team with Kowack. Like Oyama and Kowack, Chokprjakchat is a freshman.
SDSU is 22-7-1 in head-to-head results against eight conference teams during the 2022-23 campaign, including unblemished marks against Wyoming (4-0), Nevada (3-0), Fresno State (2-0), San Jose State (2-0) and Utah State (1-0). San Diego State is also 6-2 against UNLV, 3-3-1 vs. New Mexico and 1-2 against Colorado State. The Aztecs have yet to play in the same tournament this season against Air Force and Boise State.
In the 23-year history of the MW (not counting the 2020 cancellation due to COVID), SDSU has won four team championships, capturing back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, followed by a thrilling victory in 2015 and last year's championship (2022). San Diego State also tied for the top spot in 2009 but lost in a team playoff to TCU after rallying from a five-stroke deficit in regulation.
In addition, the Aztecs have finished second seven times (2001, 2003, 2006, 2009-10, 2013-14), third once (2021), played fourth on five occasions (2002, 2004-05, 2016-17), came in fifth in three tournaments (2000, 2007, 2019), and ended up in the seventh (2008) and eighth (2018) positions once each.
SDSU has had two individual winners, including John Lepak in 2001 at Sunriver Resort in Oregon and Anupansuebsai in 2021 in Arizona. The Aztecs also have playoff losses by Adam Porzak in 2007 and Riccardo Michelini in 2014, and other top-3 finishes by Xander Schauffele (2nd, 2015), Nahum Mandoza III (T-3rd, 2016), Gunn Yang (T-3rd, 2017), and last year as Guezzale and Zihao Jin tied for third at 8-under. SDSU, which has routinely fared well on the individual leaderboard at the MW tournament, has a top-4 finisher in 14 of the last 16 MW championships.
The OMNI Tucson National Golf Club is designed by Robert Van Hagge and Bruce Devlin with the Catalina Course being known for its magnificent views, traditional parkland-style layout and tree-lined fairways. Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, the course also includes eight sparkling lakes and 80 bunkers, while the 18th hole is considered to be one of the finest and most challenging finishing holes on the PGA Tour. Home to over 30 PGA events, including the prestigious Chrysler Classic of Tucson from 1997-2006, as well as several NCAA tournaments, the Tucson National has been selected as one of Golf Digest magazine's "75 Best Golf Resorts in North America."
New Mexico has won a league-record eight MW crowns, followed by UNLV (5), San Diego State (4), Colorado State (2), former conference member Brigham Young (2) and former member TCU (1).
Additionally, eight different schools have had a player win the individual title, including SDSU (2001, 2021), UNLV (2000, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018), New Mexico (2003, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2019), Colorado State (2002, 2010, 2022), Boise State (2017), Fresno State (2016), TCU (2007, 2012) and BYU (2005).
Aztecs Set to Defend Mountain West Championship
