Sept. 18, 2009
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - In a tournament with seven teams ranked in the top 10 and 12 in the top 30, the No. 30 San Diego State men's golf team went toe-to-toe with the best in the nation, posting a first-round 13-over 293 to tie for fourth place Friday afternoon at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational in Olympia Fields, Ill.
SDSU was led by sophomore Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England), who posted a 1-over 71, including a pair of birdies on the No. 6 and No. 9 holes to tie for 10th place. Classmate J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) was just one stroke behind with a 72, including three birdies, to tie for 17th.
Junior Johan Carlsson (Gonthenburg, Sweden) is the third Aztec in the top 30 after carding a first-round 74 to tie for 28th. Junior Matt Hoffenberg's (Simi Valley, Calif.) 76 and Alex Kang's (Oak Park, Calif.) 78 rounded out SDSU's day-one performance.
San Diego State is just one stroke in back of third-place Texas and is five behind second place Florida State. The Aztecs are two strokes in front of both No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oklahoma State and are tied with No. 5 Arizona State as well as No. 6 Illinois.
Unranked Northwestern leads the field by two strokes with a 6-over 286, while three players are currently atop the leaderboard at 2-under 68.
The Aztecs will begin Saturday's second round at 8:40 a.m. CT from the No. 1 hole at the par-70, 7,205-yard Olympia Fields Country Club. Live stats and results are available at www.golfstat.com.
First-round scores with relation to par, Sept. 18, 2009, at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, played at the par-70, 7,157-yard Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill.
Team Scoring (Top 5 teams out of 15)
1 Northwestern 286 (+6) 2 Florida State 288 (+8) 3 Texas 292 (+12) 4 San Diego St. 293 (+13) Arizona State 293 (+13) Illinois 293 (+13)
San Diego State T10 Andrew Cooley 71 (+1) T17 J.J. Spaun 72 (+2) T28 Johan Carlsson 74 (+4) T43 Matt Hoffenberg 76 (+6) T60 Alex Kang 78 (+8)