SAN DIEGO -- Fresh off winning its fourth consecutive Mountain West Championship in dominating fashion, the San Diego State men’s golf team continues postseason play Monday at the NCAA West Tallahassee Regional in Tallahassee, Florida. The Aztecs, who are making their 25th regional appearance in the last 26 tournaments, will be among the field vying for a spot in the NCAA Championships, slated for May 22-28, at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in nearby Carlsbad, California, hosted by Texas.
SDSU received the No. 3 seed out of 14 teams in the Tallahassee Regional after earning an automatic bid into the regional for winning the Mountain West Championship by 23 strokes last weekend in Creswell, Oregon. The Aztecs became just the second team to win four straight MW titles in league history (also New Mexico, 2003-06).
Tallahassee, Florida (Florida State) is one of six regional tournaments that will also be played concurrently in Amherst, Virginia (Liberty), Urbana, Illinois (Illinois), Auburn, Alabama (Auburn), Bremerton, Washington (Washington) and Reno, Nevada (Nevada).
SDSU is ranked 15th in the latest Scoreboard ratings powered by clippd (May 8). Joining San Diego State on the par-72, 7,240-yard Seminole Legacy Golf Club course will be seven others in the top 50, including No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 11 and host Florida State, No. 22 Georgia, No. 27 Louisville, No. 34 Northwestern, No. 39 Notre Dame and No. 46 New Mexico. Others in the field include USC (52), Michigan State (59), Furman (65), Augusta (106), Davidson (139) and Florida A&M (243). The top-five squads and lowest individual not on those teams from the Tallahassee Regional will advance to Carlsbad.
Teams will complete 18 holes (54 total) of stroke play each of the three days following a practice round on Sunday. SDSU is paired with Ole Miss and Florida State for Monday’s first round and Tuesday’s second round with Monday’s round set to start at 7:30 a.m. ET (4:30 a.m. PT) from the first hole. Wednesday’s final round will be determined by team finishes from the first two days.
Live hole-by-hole results courtesy of Scoreboard powered by clippd will be available for all three rounds on GoAztecs.com.
San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan will take the same six golfers he took for the MW Championship, including 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) will once again serve as an alternate.
Out of 11 tournaments this season, the Aztecs have three wins, two runner-up finishes, seven top-5 finishes and nine in the top 10. SDSU has won three of its last four tournaments, marking the first time San Diego State has three tournament wins in the spring since 2012. The Aztecs’ team scoring average of 283.73 ranks as its second lowest in program history.
Out of SDSU’s starting five, Hastings has played in a NCAA Regional three times, tying for 17th as a freshman in Norman, Oklahoma, in 2022, tying for 23rd in Salem, South Carolina, and tying for 18th in West Lafayette, Indiana. Kowack tied for 14th at last year’s West Lafayette regional and Chokprajakchat tied for 34th. Both Kowack (78 in first round) and Chokprajakchat (67 in second round, 71 in third round) competed in the Salem regional in 2023. Oyama came in a tie for 39th in Salem, while Takis and Sampson will be making their debut this season.
Hastings has had arguably the best season in San Diego State history, racking up two victories and posting the best scoring average (70.0) in program history. Out of his 10 collegiate tournaments, he has two wins (by four strokes each), a runner-up finish and six top-10 efforts. Most recently, Hastings became the fourth Aztec to win a MW Championship after carding an 18-under-par 198. He also won the Lamkin Classic, March 10-11, in a tournament-record 16-under 200. Last week, Hastings was named to the international team for the Arnold Palmer Cup in June. In January, Hastings won the Latin American Amateur Championship, earning an invitation to The Masters, where he posted the best score by an amateur, and exemptions into the U.S. Open and The Open.
Takis ranks second on the team with a 71.16 scoring average, followed by Chokprajakchat (71.22), Kowack (71.88), Oyama (72.89) and Sampson (72.90).
Since the NCAA regional format was adopted in 1989, San Diego State has received a bid on 28 occasions, including a streak of 20 straight from 1999 to 2018. This season marks the third straight trip to the Eastern Time Zone after not competing there since 2015 at The Course at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. The Aztecs took second in the regional that year led by current PGA Tour star Xander Schauffele, who tied for fifth at 3-under 207. That result qualified SDSU for the NCAA Championship in Bradenton, Florida, where it came in 15th place.
Last year in West Lafayette, San Diego State finished one spot out of qualifying for regionals at 8-over-par, but 10 strokes behind New Mexico (-2) for the final bid to Carlsbad.
The Aztecs have advanced through regional competition into the national championship series on nine occasions, highlighted by a team title at OMNI Tucson National Golf Club in 2011, where the Scarlet and Black posted the program's lowest combined score in regional play with a 19-under 833 en route to a seven-stroke victory.
The following season at Stanford Golf Course in 2012, SDSU turned in a second-place finish, with two-time All-American J.J. Spaun setting three team regional records, including lowest score (12-under 198), lowest round (7-under 63) and best individual finish (2nd).
In 2016, SDSU added one of the most dramatic performances to the program's postseason lore after defeating Texas A&M on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to secure the Albuquerque Regional's fifth and final spot at the NCAA Championships. On the first playoff hole, former U.S. Amateur champion Gunn Yang holed out for a double-eagle with a 7-iron from 218 yards away, while Ryann Ree made an eagle of his own as San Diego State topped the Aggies by three strokes (-5 to -2) on the par-5, 544-yard No. 1.
In 2021, the Aztecs came in third in Kingston, Tennessee, advancing to Scottsdale where they finished 25th.
SDSU is 8-4 on the season against teams in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, including 1-0 marks against No. 11 Florida State, No. 22 Georgia and No. 39 Notre Dame, a 3-2 record vs. No. 46 New Mexico, 2-1 vs. USC and 0-1 vs. No. 3 Ole Miss.
Formerly known as Don Veller Seminole Golf Course, the Seminole Legacy Club was originally designed by Bill Amick and opened to the public in 1962. Seminole Legacy was recently renovated, which included a complete redesign of the golf course, with only one hole remaining from the original routing. The course expanded from a 7,147-yard par-73 golf course to a 7,800-yard par-72 course. The golf course offers surprising elevation changes of up to 50 feet, and offers stunning visuals highlighted by 100-year old live oaks and stately pine trees.