March 27, 2013
Live Results
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team returns to action this week when it competes in the U.S. Intercollegiate, March 28-30, at Stanford University. The three-day, 54-hole tournament gets underway at the par-70, 6,742-yard Stanford Golf Course on Thursday with a double-tee start on holes 1 and 10 beginning at 8 a.m. PT.
The Aztecs will square off against five teams ranked in the latest Golfstat top 50 index, including No. 7 USC, No. 9 Stanford, No. 24 Saint Mary's, No. 30 Northwestern and No. 49 Iowa. The 17-school field will also include Colorado, Lamar, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Pepperdine, San Francisco, San Jose State, TCU, UC Davis and Division II member Hawai'i-Hilo. Live scoring will be available courtesy of Golfgamebook.com on goaztecs.com.
SDSU head coach Ryan Donovan's starting lineup will feature Tom Berry (New Haw, Surrey, England), Xander Schauffele (San Diego, Calif.), Riccardo Michelini (Carpi, Italy), Austin Kaiser (Atascadero, Calif.) and Kevin Ko (Coquitlam, B.C.).
Berry leads the Aztecs with a 72.38 stroke average, which is tied for sixth in the Mountain West, while Schauffele (18th - (73.04) and Michelini (19th - (73.08) also find themselves amongst the conference top 20 through 24 rounds this year.
SDSU placed seventh at the U.S. Intercollegiate a year ago after carding a collective 33-over 873, while Berry was SDSU's top individual competitor, tying for the 19th spot with a combined 6-over 216, including a final-round 71.
Oregon (+1) captured the team crown last season after edging USC (+2) by one shot, while the Ducks' Daniel Miernicki (-6) took home medalist honors for the second straight time. With Miernicki having completed his eligibility, USC's Sam Smith (-1), who tied for second with two other golfers in 2012, is the top returning finisher.
The U.S. Intercollegiate was conceived in 1968 and has been contested on an annual basis with the exception of 1981 and 2011. The Aztecs captured two team championships in 1977 and 1978, while Gary Simoni (1977), Lenny Clements (1979), Mark Warman (2003) and Aaron Goldberg (2004) each earned medalist honors for the Scarlet and Black. Other previous U.S. Intercollegiate winners of note include Tom Watson (1971), Corey Pavin (1982), Bill Mayfair (1987), Casey Martin (1995) and Joel Kriebel (1996-97).
Following this week's tournament, SDSU will travel east to the desert for the ASU Thunderbird Invitational, April 5-7, at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz.