No. 16 SDSU Set for Mountain West Championship

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men’s golf team will look to capture its fourth consecutive Mountain West title this weekend when it travels to compete in the 2025 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Men’s Golf Championship, April 25-27, 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 three-time defending champion Aztecs earned the top seed and are slated to tee off with No. 2 UNLV 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 Scoreboard powered by clippd will be available on GoAztecs.com.

For the second 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 1 p.m. PT to approximately 4 p.m. PT or until the final group is completed. The event page on GKLive.TV can be found at this link.

SDSU enters the tournament ranked 16th in the latest Scoreboard powered by clippd team computer rankings (April 24), followed by No. 34 UNLV, No. 47 New Mexico, No. 53 Colorado State, No. 95 San Jose State, No. 105 Wyoming, No. 107 Boise State, No. 111 Fresno State, No. 151 Nevada, No. 159 Utah State and No. 242 Air Force.

In head-to-head competition against the league this season, the Aztecs are 14-5, including 4-0 against Fresno State, 2-0 vs. both Colorado State and San Jose State, 1-0 against Nevada and Wyoming, 2-2 vs. New Mexico and 2-3 against UNLV. This will be SDSU’s first head-to-head event vs. Air Force, Boise State and Utah State.

San Diego State has won two tournaments this spring, the first time the Aztecs have captured multiple regular-season tournaments in the spring since winning four times (and then the MW championship) in 2012. SDSU won its own Lamkin Classic, March 10-11, for the first time since 2013 and last week’s Western Intercollegiate for the first time since 1960. San Diego State’s 285.27 scoring average this season is the third lowest in program history (does not include the six-count-five Western Intercollegiate, which the Aztecs won by five strokes).

San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan has gone with the lineup of senior Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands), freshman Harry Takis (Brisbane, Australia), junior Chanachon Chokprajakchat (Bangkok, Thailand), junior Tyler Kowack (San Diego/Canyon Crest Academy) and sophomore Nathan Sampson (Temecula, Calif.). Redshirt sophomore Dylan Oyama (Carlsbad, Calif./Pacific Ridge HS), who won the MW Championship in 2023 as a true freshman, is an alternate for the Aztecs this weekend.

Hastings leads SDSU with a 70.44 stroke average through 27 rounds, which ranks second in school single-season history (Shea Lague, 70.30 in 2022-23). Hastings, who has the best career scoring average in program history at 71.24, just ahead of Xander Schauffele’s 71.50 set from 2013-15, has one win and five top-10s out of his nine collegiate tournaments this season. Hastings captured the 2025 Latin American Championship (Jan. 16-18) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for which he received an invitation to compete in the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and exemptions into upcoming majors The Open and the U.S. Open.

Chokprajakchat ranks second on the team at 71.40, followed by Takis (71.55), Kowack (72.17), Lague (72.95), Oyama (73.00) and Sampson (73.67).

Hastings has competed in three MW championships, tying for 38th in 2022 at +9, tying for fourth in 2023 at -14 and tying for seventh last year at -3. Kowack has two MW appearances (T-27th in 2023 and T-36th in 2024) and Chokprajakchat has one (T-13th in 2024). Both Takis and Sampson will be playing in their first MW tournament.

In the 25-year history of the MW (not counting the 2020 cancellation due to COVID), SDSU has won six team championships, capturing back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, followed by a thrilling victory in 2015 and each of the last three years (2022-24). Last season, San Diego State shot a 3-under-par 285 in the final round to tie New Mexico at -11 for the tournament, before beating the Lobos on the first playoff hole.

The Aztecs, who is looking to become the first program to win four straight MW Championships since New Mexico 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. What’s remarkable is SDSU has won three straight MW Championships at different courses (2022 at Gold Mountain G.C. in Bremerton, Washington; 2023 at Omni Tucson National G.C. in Tucson, Arizona; 2024 at Emerald Valley G.C. in Creswell, Oregon).

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 in 2023 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 16 of the last 18 MW championships.

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 (6), 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, 2024), Fresno State (2016), TCU (2007, 2012) and Brigham Young (2005).