SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its fall slate early next week when it travels north to the Bay Area for the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, Oct. 7-8, at the exclusive Meadow Club in Fairfax, California.
The first 36 holes of the two-day event will be conducted on Monday beginning with an 8:15 a.m. PT shotgun start, while Tuesday's final round is scheduled to commence with tee times on holes 1 and 10 as early as 8 a.m. on the par-71, 6,734-yard course layout. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available for all three rounds on GoAztecs.com.
In addition to host California, SDSU will battle Mountain West rivals Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada and San José State, along with two other northern California schools in Saint Mary's and Santa Clara, while Chattanooga, Hawai'i, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and San Diego and UC Santa Barbara round out the 15-team field.
Head coach Ryan Donovan will accompany six golfers to Marin County, including the starting lineup of Christian Banke (Danville, Calif.), Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Callum Bruce (Banff, Scotland), Leo Oyo (Tokyo, Japan) and Steve Sugimoto (San Diego, Calif.), while Newport Laparojkit (Montebello, Calif.) will make the trek north as an individual competitor.
The Aztecs are coming off a solid fourth-place performance in their last outing at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Banke landed in the fourth spot after carding a 6-under 210 for his highest placement in a Scarlet and Black uniform. In addition, Oyo finished two shots behind in a tie for 14th at even-par 216, while Bruce tied for 16th at 1-over 217, followed by Sugimoto (T-36th, +6).
On the other hand, Anupansuebsai will be making his second start of the year after skipping the New Mexico trip to compete at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Shanghai, China, where he tied for 37th with a four-round total of 6-over 294. Anupansuebsai was SDSU's No. 1 finisher at the rain-shortened Husky Invitational last month in Bremerton, Washington, where he shot a 2-under 142 to tie for 13th.
Of the three players in this week's lineup who have started both tournaments for the Scarlet and Black thus far, Banke leads the squad with a 70.80 scoring average, highlighted by a 67 in the opening round of the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, while Oyo (72.40) ranks third, followed by Bruce (73.20).
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 historic Meadow Club 15 times in the tournament's 16-year history.
SDSU, which is making its 12th overall appearance at the event, claimed the team title in 2007 with a collective 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 Aztecs also boasted the individual champion 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.
San Diego State finished eighth at the 2018 edition of the Alister MacKenzie Invitational after posting a combined 11-under 841; however, Sugimoto is the Aztecs' lone holdover from that trip, tying for 43rd with a 2-over 215. Anupansuebsai also earned a start a Meadow Club as a freshman in 2017, tying for 46th at 3-over 216.
Pepperdine shot a tournament-record 52-under 800, topping Cal (-41), which had captured eight of nine titles at its own event, while San José State (-26) took third, followed by Arizona State (-25) and Santa Clara (-15).
The Alister MacKenzie will crown a new champion this year after last season's medalist, RJ Manke of Pepperdine completed his eligibility. Manke set an individual record with a 21-under 192 to top Cal's Collin Morikawa (-17) and Sebastian Crampton (-14).
The Golden Bears' Kaiwen Liu, who tied for fifth at 9-under, is likely the tournament's top returner, while Santa Clara's Matt McCarty (T-7th, -8), San Jose Staté's Sean Yu (T-10th, -7) and Pepperdine's Joshua McCarthy (T-10th, -7) are also expected back in the fold.
Following the Alister MacKenzie Invitational, San Diego State will have a quick turnaround, returning to the fairways for the Ben Cullum Invitational, scheduled for Oct. 14-15 at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley, California.
Men's Golf Readies for Alister MacKenzie Invite
