March 23, 2010
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team will play host to the annual Barona Collegiate Cup, beginning this Thursday at the par-72, 7,300-yard Barona Creek Golf Club in Lakeside, Calif. The 54-hole, two-day tournament will include 16 of the nation's top teams and over 100 players. Both days will get underway with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. PDT, with teams covering 36 holes on Thursday and the final 18 on Friday.
The event will employ a unique scoring format as squads will include six players each with the low five scores per round counting toward the team total. The 34th-ranked Aztecs will be joined by seven other top 100 schools in the field, highlighted by No. 3 Oregon, No. 54 Northwestern and No. 68 UC Irvine. Other participants include Air Force, Colorado, Hawai'i, Loyola Marymount, Nevada, New Mexico State, UAB, UC Davis, UCSB, Utah, UTEP, Wyoming and individuals from USD.
SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan will bring eight golfers to the tournament with his starting six including juniors Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Matt Hoffenberg (Simi Valley, Calif.), sophomores Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.), J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) and Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England) and freshman Tom Berry (New Haw, England). Sophomore Tyler Morris (Encinitas, Calif.) and redshirt freshman Evan Emerick (Oceanside, Calif.) will also compete as individuals.
A year ago, fellow MWC member Colorado State claimed the tournament title with a 29-under 1,051 to take first of 10 teams. Ram Dustin Morris, meanwhile, earned medalist honors with his 54-hole total of 13-under 203. San Diego State has finished as runner-up the last two seasons.
Live stats for both days of the Barona Collegiate Cup will be available on golfstat.com, as well as SDSU's official website, goaztecs.com.