Men’s Golf Heads to Arizona’s N.I.T.

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego State men's golf team resumes action this weekend at Arizona's National Invitational Tournament on the par-72, 7,200-yard Omni Tucson National in Tucson, Arizona. The N.I.T. will be conducted with 36 holes on Friday and the final 18-hole round on Saturday.
 
SDSU is one of 15 teams competing in the N.I.T. this weekend, including nine programs in the top 50 of the latest Golfstat rankings (as of March 15). San Diego State will be joined by No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 9 Pepperdine, No. 12 Texas, No. 13 Tennessee, No. 25 Illinois, No. 28 New Mexico, No. 30 Arizona, Colorado, San Diego, UNLV, USC and Wyoming. The N.I.T. will also feature half of the PGA Tour U's top 10 players.
 
The Aztecs will tee off from sixth, seventh and eighth holes in the first round of the Catalina Course beginning at 8 a.m. PT. Friday in a shotgun start and will continue the second round from the same holes. Saturday's final round will be based on team score.
 
SDSU is coming off a 12th-place finish at the Lamkin San Diego Classic on March 7-8 at 8-over-par 872 at historic San Diego Country Club in nearby Chula Vista.
 
San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan has gone with the lineup of Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Steve Sugimoto (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS), Youssef Guezzale (San Diego/La Jolla HS), Jack Townsend (San Diego/Charter School of San Diego) and Jackson Moss (San Diego/Point Loma HS).
 
Zihao Jin (Beijing/Rancho Bernardo HS) leads the Aztecs with a 72.40 scoring average through 15 rounds but is not competing this week. Anupansuebsai is right behind Jin at 72.50, followed by Sugimoto (72.76), Guezzale (73.10), Shea League (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) (73.17), Townsend (73.47) and Moss (74.58).

Sugimoto is the only golfer who has played in all seven SDSU tournaments this year, while Townsend is in the starting lineup for the third time and Moss for the second.
 
San Diego State finished fourth in a competitive N.I.T. field in 2021 at 29-under-par 835. Then No. 8 Oklahoma State won last year's event at -47 with Oklahoma (-43), then No. 6 Texas (-31), then No. 41 Aztecs (-29), then No. 4 Illinois (-28) and then No. 17 Arizona (-28) rounding out the top 6.
 
SDSU also competed at the 2019 N.I.T., taking ninth. In 2015, Xander Schauffele tied for second out of 83 participants with a 4-under 212 to earn his third straight Mountain West Men's Golfer of the Week honor. The former Aztec All-American also tied for sixth at the event in 2014 with a 6-under 210.
 
The Aztecs have experienced previous success at the Arizona NIT, capturing the team title in 2012 after recording a collective 5-under 859 to clip UNLV (-4) by one shot. SDSU also boasted the individual champion that year, as J.J. Spaun led the pack with a combined 15-under 201 on rounds of 67-66-68.
 
Following this weekend's N.I.T., San Diego State will look to defend its Wyoming Cowboy Classic title April 4-5 at Whirlwind Golf Course in Chandler, Arizona.