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Oct. 20, 2002
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team plays host to a talented 16-team field at the Barona Collegiate Cup presented by Callaway Golf, which gets underway with two rounds on Monday beginning with a 7:30 a.m. shotgun-start first round.
The Team Focus...
- A two-day, three-round tournament held at Barona Creek Golf Club in Lakeside, Calif., the Barona Collegiate Cup features a strong field with 13 of the 16 participating teams ranked among the nation's top 80 by the Oct. 12 Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. The field's top-ranked team is No. 6 New Mexico, followed by Denver (28th) and UTEP (29th), while 2001 Barona champion Ohio State returns to defend its title. The host SDSU Aztecs are 45th in the latest Golfweek rankings.
Current Team Rankings Golfweek (10-12) Golfstat (10-17)San Diego State 45th 31stBYU 60th 51stCalifornia 36th 33rdColorado State 43rd n/rDenver 28th 28thFresno State 47th 18thHawai'i 174th 171stLouisville 57th 61stNevada 59th 83rdNew Mexico 6th 3rdOhio State 61st n/rTexas A&M 79th 78thTexas-San Antonio 159th 127thUNC-Greensboro 162nd 164thUTEP 29th 30thWashington State 74th 53rd
- San Diego State has already faced 10 of the other 15 teams in the Barona Cup and holds a mark of 8-8-1 against those competitors. The Aztecs have played in tournaments hosted and won by Fresno State, Nevada and New Mexico and will look to turn the tables on those teams at Barona. SDSU has also faced UTEP in each of its three events thus far in 2002 and will look to even its mark at 2-2 against the 29th-rated Miners.
SDSU vs. the Barona Field in 2002 (8-8-1)BYU 1-0-1Colorado State 1-1Denver 1-1Fresno State 0-1Hawai'i 2-0Nevada 1-1New Mexico 0-1Texas A&M 1-0UTEP 1-2Washington State 0-1
...And The Individual Spotlight
- The Aztecs' top tandem thus far in 2002 has been junior Mark Warman (72.67 stroke average), an individual qualifier for the NCAA Championship a year ago, and redshirt freshman Andrew Scott, who is averaging 72.78 for the first three events of his young career. The talented SDSU duo takes on a very deep individual field that holds eight golfers ranked within the nation's top 100 individuals by both Golfweek and Golfstat, including the consensus No. 1-ranked golfer, Fresno State's Nick Watney.
Top Barona Individuals Golfweek (10-12) Golfstat (10-16)Nick Watney, Fresno State 1st 1stJosh Green, Nevada 25th 12thMichael Letzig, New Mexico 23rd 40thPeter Tomasulo, California 37th 24thDan Swanson, UTEP 48th 54thNolan Martin, Colorado State 47th 58thBrett Jones, Louisville 73rd 59thJay Choi, New Mexico 53rd 100th
Last Year At The Barona Collegiate Cup
- Scoring started very low at last season's Barona Cup, as 10 of the field's 17 teams finished the first 36 holes under par. Host San Diego State held the lead after each of the first two rounds and was 28-under par at one point in the second round before then-No. 13 Ohio State rallied to take the team title. After shooting a tourney-low score of 268 to pull within four shots of SDSU after 36 holes, the Buckeyes shook off the final round's blustery conditions and tough pin placements to shoot a 281 and claim a one-shot victory over the Aztecs.
- Like the team tournament, the individual battle also went down to the wire. Fresno State's Nick Watney held off late charges from OSU's Justin Collins and Texas-El Paso's Chris Baryla to take medalist honors, finishing at 10-under par 206. Collins and Baryla finished one shot back and tied for second at 9-under 207, followed by SDSU's John Lieber and BYU's Manuel Merizald at 8-under 208.
- San Diego State claimed five individuals in the top 15 at the 2001 Barona tourney, two of whom were playing for the Aztecs' "B" team. Lieber led the way at 8-under 208, while Lars Johansson, Chris Galeski (SDSU "B" team) and Gilberto Rodriguez (SDSU "B" team) tied for ninth at 6-under 210. Mark Warman tied for 15th at 5-under 211.
- The second-place result and 27-under par finish for SDSU at the 2001 Barona Cup served as a springboard to a spring 2002 season in which the Aztecs won their first three events and finished within a single stroke in regional play of advancing to the NCAA Championships.
2002 Barona Collegiate Cup Info
Hosted by: San Diego StateSite: Barona Creek Golf Club - Lakeside, Calif.Dates: Oct. 21-22 Par: 72 Yardage: 7,088The Field: SDSU, BYU, California, Colorado St., Denver, Fresno St., Hawai'i,Louisville, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio St., Texas A&M, Texas-San Antonio,Washington St., UNC-Greensboro, UTEP2001 Individual Medalist: Nick Watney, Fresno State (69-67-70--206, -10)2001 Team Champion: Ohio State (287-268-281--836, -28)