May 29, 2011
SDSU NCAA Championship Notes in PDF Format
Coming off its second consecutive victory and its seventh overall, the San Diego State men's golf team continues its historic season this week when it heads to the 2011 NCAA championships in Stillwater, Okla. The seventh-ranked Aztecs are one of 30 teams that will participate in the six-day event, May 31-June 5, at the par-72, 7,416-yard Karsten Creek Golf Club.
SDSU, which earned the tournament's No. 7 seed, is making the program's 26th all-time appearance at the national championships and first since 2008. The Aztecs advanced to the elite field after winning their first-ever NCAA regional crown, May 19-21, in Tucson, Ariz.
This week's NCAA championship tournament features 54 holes of stroke play with one round played each day. The individual national champion will be crowned at the conclusion of stroke play on Thursday, while the top eight teams head to match play with the national title determined between the remaining two squads on Sunday.
After a practice round on Monday at 9 a.m. CT, San Diego State will be grouped with No. 8 seed Texas A&M and No. 9 seed Illinois for the first 36 holes. The three teams will start on the 10th tee at 1:10 p.m. CT on Tuesday, while Wednesday's action gets underway on the first tee at 7:50 a.m. Pairings and tee times for the final round will be based on team standings.
Live hole-by-hole stats will be available on golfstat.com, as well as goaztecs.com for every day of competition.
Aztec Championship Line-Up
Eighth-year San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan will take the same five golfers that delivered the program's first-ever NCAA regional title. The Aztecs' top finisher in each of the last two tournaments, junior Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.), will be joined by classmates J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.) and Colin Featherstone (Fallbrook, Calif.), as well as senior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) and freshman Todd Baek (Auckland, New Zealand). Kang recently took over the team lead in season stroke average with a 71.56 mark, followed by Spaun (71.62), Featherstone (72.18), Baek (72.25) and Carlsson (72.53).
Of the group, Carlsson is the only SDSU golfer with playing experience at the NCAA championships. As a freshman in 2008, Carlsson tied for 52nd place on the individual leaderboard by shooting a combined 21-over 309 at Purdue University's Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind.
Featherstone was also on the SDSU roster during the 2007-08 campaign, but ended up redshirting the season.
The NCAA Championship Field
The Aztecs will obviously face their toughest competition of the season in their quest for a national championship. All of the top 15 schools ranked in the latest golfstat.com poll advanced from the regional tournaments.
The highest rated squad is No. 1 and tournament host Oklahoma State, which captured the NCAA Colorado Regional championship. Florida, Duke, Michigan and UCLA joined the Aztecs as the other regional winners.
SDSU and surprise qualifier Colorado State are the two Mountain West Conference representatives in the 30-school field. The Rams have the lowest national ranking at No. 60, but placed second in Colorado to the top-ranked Cowboys to make their first-ever trip to the national championships. Other MWC members TCU and UNLV failed to make it out of the regional round, as did the league's three individual participants.
The Aztecs have squared off against 15 of the 29 other teams in the field during the 2010-11 campaign, compiling a 33-11 record in head-to-head competition. SDSU has met up with fellow in-state foes California and Pepperdine the most, boasting identical 5-1 records against the pair.
Augusta State, which is seeded just above the Aztecs in sixth, is the reigning national champion, while Illinois' Scott Langley returns to defend his 2010 individual crown that he won at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn.
A Look At The Course
The host site of the 2011 NCAA Men's Golf Championships is the par-72, 7,416-yard Karsten Creek Golf Club, located in Stillwater, Okla.
Karsten Creek opened in May of 1994 and was designed by the renowned Tom Fazio. The zoysia fairways are cut from a forest of oaks and black jacks. The back nine cascades around the 110-acre Lake Louise that is featured on the finishing holes with SR1020 bent-grass greens. Complementing the course, are the clubhouse, two multi-level guest lodges, and state of the art practice and teaching facilities.
The course is named after the late Karsten Solheim, founder of Karsten Manufacturing (PING) and is the home of the Oklahoma State men's and women's golf programs.
The NCAA Men's Golf Championships has been played at Karsten Creek once previously in 2003, when the Aztecs finished 30th. Oklahoma State is playing host to the event for the third time overall (2011, 2003, 1973).
Aztecs At The NCAA Championships
The 2011 NCAA championships will be the 26th for the Aztecs, which includes several appearances at the "small college" (Div. II) level, highlighted by a runner-up performance in 1964, when they fell by just two strokes to Southern Illinois.
The Aztecs are in the championship field for the first time since 2008, and the third time since Ryan Donovan took over as head coach of his alma mater. The Scarlet and Black made 11 straight appearances in the NCAAs from 1974-1984.
After the program was dropped and reinstated, SDSU returned to the finals in 1999. This year marks the fifth time since regional play began in 1989, that the Aztecs have advanced to the championships (also 1999, 2003, 2005, 2008) .
SDSU has finished in the top 10 on two occasions at the Division I level, with their best performance coming in 1966, when the team placed sixth after shooting a combined 604 at Stanford Golf Course. The program's top individual finish since 1999, came in its most recent NCAA championship outing when David Palm tied for 18th place.
2008 Flashback: SDSU's Most Recent NCAA Finals Trip
The San Diego State men's golf team closed the book on a successful 2007-08 campaign, as it finished 14th at the NCAA championships on the 7,450-yard, par-72 Kampen Course at Purdue University's Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex. The Aztecs logged a 72-hole score of 70-over 1222 to post their highest finish in six NCAA finals appearances dating back to 1982, when they also placed 14th.
David Palm was SDSU's highest finisher, tying for 18th at 12-over 300. The Landvetter, Sweden, native entered the final round in a tie for eighth, but got off to a rocky start, carding three bogeys and two double bogeys, respectively, over his first five holes. Palm regrouped, however, playing at even par the rest of the way en route to an 8-over 80. Despite the stumble, the Aztec junior became San Diego State's first top-20 golfer at the NCAA championships since 1982, when Barry Mahlberg wound up in 16th. Palm also tied for the tournament lead with two other players with 16 birdies overall.
Then freshmen Matt Hoffenberg and Johan Carlsson both finished in a tie for the 52nd position with a combined 21-over 309. Senior Aaron Goldberg posted SDSU's lowest score of the final round with a 3-under 75, but closed out his illustrious collegiate career in a disappointing 55th at 22-over 310.
Senior Chad Moscovic rounded out the Aztec contingent in 79th place with a 36-over 324.
Rewind: SDSU Win 2011 NCAA Arizona Regional
The San Diego State men's golf team continued its remarkable season claiming the program's first NCAA regional championship at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Resort in Tucson, Ariz., May 19-21.
SDSU won its seventh tournament of the campaign by cruising to a seven-stroke win in the 14-team field with a three-day, 54-hole score of 19-under 833. The eighth-ranked and second-seeded Aztecs led nearly wire-to-wire and showed their dominance against the field by posting the lowest team scores in the first two rounds and tying for low score honors in round three.
The only time SDSU fell out of first place was briefly on the front nine of Saturday's second round. The five Aztec players responded by posting 18 birdies on the back nine, shooting a collective 11-under on the final nine holes and opening a five-stroke advantage entering the final round.
San Diego State saved its best round for the final day, posting a 7-under 277. The Aztecs defeated their next closest competitors, seventh-ranked and top-seeded Texas A&M by seven strokes, 19th-ranked California by 10 strokes and owned an 11-shot advantage over Pepperdine and tournament host Arizona.
SDSU won the title with remarkable depth as all five Aztec players finished the tournament under par and all placed in a tie for 16th or better individually.
Junior Alex Kang led the way, shooting rounds of 68, 70 and 70 en route to a 5-under par 208. Kang finished the tournament in a tie for fourth place for the second consecutive event after also doing so on the same course at the MWC championships earlier in the month. His fourth-place finish is the highest ever in a regional for an Aztec player, bettering the sixth-place performance of Gilberto Rodriguez in 2005.
SDSU freshman Todd Baek finished the event at 4-under 209, vaulting from 16th into a tie for seventh in the final 18 holes as a result of his team-low 3-under 68. That round matched his best score this spring and included a 33 on the back nine.
Senior Johan Carlsson posted his fourth consecutive career top-20 finish at the NCAA regionals with his 3-under 210 to tie for 11th place. Juniors J.J. Spaun and Colin Featherstone, meanwhile, tied for 16th place respectively at 1-under 212.
Prior to this year, the Aztecs had three top-10 finishes at NCAA Regionals with the best previous performance coming in 1999, when they came in fifth.
Rewind: Aztecs Claim First MWC Title
The San Diego State men's golf team won its first-ever Mountain West Conference Championship in dramatic fashion, holding off second-place TCU by two strokes at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz., May 5-7. The seventh-ranked Aztecs, who had been runners-up at the same event five times, finished the three-day, 54-hole event with a 5-under 847.
The Red & Black had three golfers place in the top seven and four in the top 20 overall. Junior Alex Kang had two sub-par rounds and 14 total birdies, including five in the final round, to take fourth with a 4-under 209. Junior J.J. Spaun and senior Johan Carlsson both finished in the top 10, tying for seventh place at 1-under 212. Carlsson was in a three-way tie atop the individual leaderboard at the conclusion of the second round of play, but after carding only one bogey through the first 36 holes, he had seven in the final round for a 6-over 77. Spaun, meanwhile, moved up one spot with his 1-over 72 to log his sixth top-10 performance in nine spring events.
Aztec junior Colin Featherstone improved by one stroke each round to tie for 17th, while sophomore Tom Berry came in 31st overall with his 8-over 221.
Donovan, Spaun, Kang Earn All-MWC Honors
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan was named the 2010-11 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, while juniors Alex Kang and J.J. Spaun each picked up all-league accolades, the MWC office announced May 10.
Donovan becomes the first Aztec in the conference's 12-year history to be named coach of the year, after already directing SDSU to seven tournament victories, including the program's first MWC and NCAA regional titles. The team has been ranked as high as fourth nationally by golfstat.com, and has 12 top-five finishes, including 11 in the top three, while boasting a combined head-to-head record of 155-16, which amounts to a 90.6 winning percentage. SDSU hasn't finished lower than seventh at any 2010-11 outing and has twice been named the national team of the week by GolfWeek.
Kang and Spaun rank first and second on the team this season in stroke average and are third and fourth in that category in the conference. The juniors have both won an individual title and have received league golfer-of-the-month accolades at least once in 2010-11. This marks the first campaign that San Diego State has had two players selected to the all-conference team since 2007-08.
In The National Rankings
After winning its second consecutive outing, San Diego State improved one spot from eighth to seventh nationally in the latest golfstat.com rankings released May 25. With seven tournament victories in 2010-11, including six in 10 spring events, the Aztecs are second nationally in that category, trailing only consensus No. 1 Oklahoma State, which has claimed eight titles.
SDSU has also been rated 10th in the nation by Golfweek/Sagarin (as of May 22) and was ninth in the final Golf World/NIKE Golf Division I Coaches' Poll, which was released on May 18.
Aztec 10-11 Highlights
The San Diego State men's golf team is in the midst of one of the finest seasons in program history. The Aztecs have been ranked as high as fourth nationally by golfstat.com and have won seven tournament titles, including six in 10 spring starts. The team has 12 top-five finishes with 11 in the top three, and boasts a combined head-to-head record of 155-16, which amounts to a 90.6 winning percentage. SDSU hasn't finished lower than seventh at any 2010-11 outing and was twice named GolfWeek national Team of the Week.
Additionally, the Scarlet & Black earned its first-ever MWC and NCAA regional crowns to advance to the NCAA championships for the first time since 2008.
Individually, juniors Alex Kang (Alister MacKenzie Invitational) and J.J. Spaun (ASU Thunderbird Invitational), have each picked up medalist honors during the campaign. Kang was tabbed MWC golfer of the month in November and Spaun garnered the same honor in February and in March, before being named GolfWeek national player of the week on April 11, following his victory in Tempe.
Head Coach Ryan Donovan
Head coach Ryan Donovan is in his eighth season at the helm of the SDSU golf program after serving as an assistant in 2003. A native of Yorba Linda, Calif., he was a four-year member of the Aztec golf squad, before graduating in 2001.
Donovan recently signed a new three-year contract, which will keep him at his alma mater at least until 2012-13.