Oct. 7, 2016
SAN DIEGO ââ'¬" After a two-week hiatus, the San Diego State men's golf team eagerly jumps back into action next week when it heads north to the Bay Area for the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, Oct. 10-11, at the venerable par-71, 6,734-yard Meadow Club in Fairfax, Calif.
The first 36 holes of the two-day tournament will be contested on Monday following an 8:15 a.m. PT shotgun start, while Tuesday's final round is set to begin with tee times on holes 1 and 10 at 7:40 a.m. PT. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on GoAztecs.com.
Along with host California, the Aztecs will square off against three additional Pac-12 squads in Arizona State, Oregon State and Washington, joining local Northern California schools Saint Mary's, San Francisco and San José State. SDSU will also be afforded an early look at Mountain West rival Fresno State, while Michigan State, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Loyola (Md.), Brigham Young and Pepperdine round out the 15-team field.
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan has shuffled his lineup for the team's Marin County excursion next week to include Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.), Blake Abercrombie (Rocklin, Calif.), PJ Samiere (Kailua, Hawaii), Brian Song (Beverly Hills, Calif.) and Trevor Norby (Carlsbad, Calif.), while Otto Vanhatalo (Espoo, Finland) is scheduled to play as an individual competitor.
Samiere and Song are SDSU's lone returners from last year's edition of the Alister MacKenzie Invite, where temperatures soared over 90 degrees during the final round, as the Aztecs posted the third-lowest 54-hole score in program history with a 31-under-par 821 to finish in fourth place. Individually, Samiere tied for 30th with a 3-under 210, while Song wound up in the 47th spot at 2-over 215. The rest of the San Diego State contingent will walk the exclusive Meadow Club course for the first time as collegians next week, including Norby, who will be making his first-ever varsity start.
Bolstered by four top-15 individual performances, the Aztecs captured their first team title of the season in their last outing at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, Sept. 23-24, in Albuquerque, N.M., SDSU fired a collective 1-under 863 to outdistance Mountain West foe Colorado State by 10 strokes. The Aztecs were led by Samiere, who completed the tournament just two shots off the pace in solo second after recording a 4-under 212, while Abercrombie tied for third with a 2-under 214. Also in the mix were Gunn Yang (+2) and Mendoza (+3), who finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
With the exception of a temporary stop at the par-72, 7,103-yard Sonoma Golf Club in 2013, the Alister MacKenzie Invitational has been contested at the exclusive Meadow Club 12 times in the tournament's 13-year history. SDSU, which is making its ninth overall appearance at the event, captured the team title in 2007 with a combined 24-under 828 after vaulting over six schools during a furious final-round rally to finish four strokes in front of second-place Washington. The Scarlet and Black also boasted the individual winner in 2010, as Alex Kang fired a 16-under 197 to claim a one-stroke victory over teammate Todd Baek and Ben An of California.
Cal has won the Alister MacKenzie Invite in each of the last seven seasons, including a shared crown with Oregon in 2011. With all five golfers placing among the top 20, the Golden Bears (-42) finished nine strokes ahead of co-runners-up Arizona State and Pepperdine (-33) a year ago, while SDSU (-31) took fourth. The Waves' Roy Cootes and Jared du Toit of Arizona, who both tied for eighth last season are the top returning individuals, along with Fresno State's Trevor Clayton (T-10th).
Following next week's tournament, the Aztecs will wrap up their fall slate at the Saint Mary's Invitational, Oct. 24-26, in Pebble Beach, Calif. SDSU will be looking to defend its team title from a year ago at the famed Poppy Hills Golf Course.