SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team will look to capture its third consecutive Mountain West title this weekend when it travels to compete in the MW Championship, April 26-28. For the first time in the 25-year history of the Mountain West, the 54-hole event will be contested on the par-72, 7,210-yard Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Oregon.
The 11-team field will complete 18 holes on each of the three days, following a practice round on Thursday. The back-to-back champion Aztecs earned the No. 2 seed and are slated to tee off with No. 1 New Mexico in the first group on Friday, starting at 7:30 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.
New this year, all three rounds will be streamed live on GolfKast via GKLive.TV. GKLive will livestream each day of the tournament, from the tee-off of the first group through the completion of the final group, providing coverage with 20 cameras on select holes. The 18th hole will include live play-by-play each day from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT as Jesse Kurtz of the Mountain West Network and Golfweek writer Lance Ringler will be on the call. The event page on GKLive.TV can be found at this link.
SDSU enters the tournament ranked 31st in the latest Scoreboard powered by Clippd team rankings (April 17). New Mexico leads the field at No. 20, followed by No. 32 San Diego State, No. 51 Fresno State, No. 52 UNLV, No. 57 San Jose State, No. 68 Colorado State, No. 106 Nevada, No. 130 Wyoming, No. 157 Utah State, No. 183 Boise State and No. 250 Air Force.
In head-to-head competition against the league this season, the Aztecs are 13-11 against the MW opponents, including 2-0 against both Colorado State and Wyoming, 4-2 vs. UNLV, 2-2 vs. San Jose State, 1-1 against Nevada, 2-3 vs. New Mexico and 0-3 against Fresno State. This will be SDSU's first head-to-head event vs. Air Force, Boise State and Utah State.
The reigning MW Coach-of-the-Year Ryan Donovan has gone with the lineup of junior Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands), sophomore Tyler Kowack (San Diego/Canyon Crest Academy), sophomore Chanachon Chokprajakchat (Bangkok, Thailand), junior Shea Lague (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) and senior Jackson Moss (San Diego/Point Loma HS).
Hastings is second on the team with a 70.96 average in 27 rounds, logging a win, three top-5 finishes and four top-10 efforts. Hastings only trails Kowack in both rounds below par (12) and rounds in the 60s (7). He finished tied for fourth last year at 14-under 202 and tied for 38th as a freshman in 2022 at +9.
Kowack, meanwhile, leads the team with a 70.59 stroke average through 29 rounds. Kowack has a victory, two top-5 finishes, three top-10 showings and five top-20 finishes out of his 10 tournament appearances. Kowack also leads San Diego State in rounds below par (18) and rounds in the 60s (12), and came in 27th in the event last year in Tucson, Arizona, at 1-under-par-215.
Chokprajakchat ranks third on the team with a 71.50 stroke average in 30 rounds, and is coming off his best finish, a T4 at the Western Intercollegiate last week at 2-under 208. Chokprajakchat, who has a pair of top-20 placings on the season and leads the Aztecs with six even-par rounds, while ranking third in both rounds below par (10) and rounds in the 60s (6), traveled as an alternate to last season's MW Championship but did not play.
Lague is fourth on the squad with a 72.23 scoring average across 30 rounds. Lague has two top-10s and three top-20 finishes on the season. After traveling, but not competing as a freshman in 2022, Lague tied for fourth at least year's event at 14-under 202.
Moss will be making his MW Championship debut and enters the weekend with a 73.53 stroke average, which ranks eighth on the team for those who have played in the SDSU starting 5.
Skyler Ngo (Las Vegas) is traveling as an alternate this weekend and has posted a 72.40 scoring average in 15 rounds, ranking fifth on the team.
In the 24-year history of the MW (not counting the 2020 cancellation due to COVID), SDSU has won five team championships, capturing back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, followed by a thrilling victory in 2015 and each of the last two years (2022-23). Last season, San Diego State blitzed the par-72, 7,194-yard OMNI Tucson National in Tucson, Arizona, shattering the tournament record with a 60-under-par 804. The Aztecs fired a 28-under 260 in Sunday's final round to finish at 60-under overall, breaking New Mexico's previous record of 33-under set at the 2019 MW Championship. SDSU (-60) beat runner-up New Mexico by 25 strokes, the largest margin from first to second in league championship history. The 260 in the final round was also the lowest round in MW Championship history by nine strokes. Both the 804 and the 260 were the lowest 54-hole score and 18-hole score, respectively, in Aztec recorded history, beating past bests of 806 and 261. It was the third tournament victory of the season for SDSU.
Dylan Oyama (Carlsbad, Calif.) captured medalist honors at the 2023 MW Championship at 19-under 197, blitzing the Catalina Course with a 10-under 62 in the final round to force a playoff. The 62 was the lowest score in MW Championship history and tied for the lowest in SDSU recorded history. Facing Colorado State's Christoph Bleier, who shot a final-round 63 of his own, in a playoff, Oyama parred the par-4, 470-yard 18th, while Bleier bogeyed it, giving Oyama his first collegiate victory. Oyama and Bleier's 19-under 197 set a 54-hole championship record by three strokes. Oyama played in two events in the fall before shutting down the season and using his medical redshirt.
San Diego State, which is looking to become the first program to win three straight MW Championships since UNLV from 2016-18 and just the third overall (New Mexico four straight from 2003-06), 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), placed 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 three individual winners, including John Lepak in 2001 at Sunriver Resort in Oregon, Puwit Anupansuebsai in 2021 in Arizona and Oyama last year 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 in 2022 as Yousseff 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 15 of the last 17 MW championships, including three last year (Oyama T1, Hastings T4 and Lague T4).
Located on 170 acres nestled along the coast fork of the Willamette River in Oregon, Emerald Valley Golf Course is one of the premier championship public golf courses in the Willamette Valley. It is known for its tree-lined fairways, fast-consistent greens and tournament quality course conditions year round, and is the home course of Oregon in Eugene, just 13 miles away.
New Mexico has won a league-record eight MW crowns, followed by San Diego State (5), UNLV (5), 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, 2023), 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 Gearing up for Mountain West Championship
