April 1, 2010
SAN DIEGO - A week after its impressive victory at the Barona Collegiate Cup, the San Diego State men's golf team, ranked as high as 31st nationally, will travel east to the 38th annual Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational, April 2-3. The Aztecs will play 36 holes on Friday, followed by the final round on Saturday at the par-71, 7,057-yard Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.
SDSU is one of 11 teams ranked among the nation's top 40 in the 15-school field. All 10 Pac-10 squads will compete, highlighted by No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Washington, No. 4 Oregon and No. 6 UCLA. The Aztecs will also contend with three other Mountain West Conference foes, while UC Irvine is the only participant not in either the Pac-10 or MWC.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will bring a new starting five to the tournament, including junior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden), who took second at last week's Barona Collegiate Cup, 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). Carlsson and Cooley both played at last year's event, tying for 32nd and 53rd place respectively.
SDSU is making its fifth-straight appearance at the ASU Thunderbird Invite and seventh in the last eight years. During that span, the team's best finish came a year ago when it tied for second place along with Denver at 4-over 856. The host Sun Devils are the defending tournament champions and have claimed the event title in seven of the past 11 years. New Mexico's Steve Saunders garnered medalist honors in 2009, with a 3-under 210, while former standout Ryan Citarella tied for seventh place with a 212 to lead the Aztecs.
Live stats for both days of the 38th annual Thunderbird Invitational will be available on golfstat.com, as well as SDSU's official website, goaztecs.com. The Aztecs are paired with Cal, BYU and Colorado State for Friday's first two rounds which get underway with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. local time.