SAN DIEGO -- Fresh off a 13-shot victory at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic, the San Diego State men's golf team heads to the Western Intercollegiate Monday on the historic par-70, 6,615-yard Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California. The tournament will feature 18 holes apiece on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Aztecs are one of 14 teams competing at the Western Intercollegiate, including five programs - No. 6 Washington, No. 8 Pepperdine, No. 9 Texas, No. 12 Stanford, No. 30 Arizona and No. 38 Oregon - in the top 40 of the latest Golfstat computer rankings (as of April 6). Also in the field with host San Jose State and SDSU are Brigham Young, California, Colorado State, Hawai'i, UC Irvine and USC.
San Diego State will tee off from the first hole at 12:06 p.m. PT Monday along with California.
The Western Intercollegiate will air live on the GOLF Channel from 4-7 p.m. PT on Monday and Tuesday, and from 1-4 p.m. PT Wednesday.
Bolstered by three top-10 individual finishes, the Aztecs defended their Wyoming Cowboy Classic title in their last time out on April 4-5 by breaking its own tournament-record and finishing at 39-under-par 825 at the par-72, 7,334-yard Whirlwind Golf Club.
The Western Intercollegiate is a six-count-five event, with Youssef Guezzale (San Diego/La Jolla HS), Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Zihao Jin (Beijing/Rancho Bernardo HS), Steve Sugimoto (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo), Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) and Shea Lague (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) comprising head coach Ryan Donovan's starting lineup.
For the season, Jin leads SDSU with a 71.67 scoring average, followed by Anupansuebsai (72.04), Sugimoto (72.30), Guezzale (72.63), Lague (71.17) and Hastings (73.22).
Entering its 75th year, the Western Intercollegiate presented by Topgolf and Titleist was christened in 1947 and is the oldest running men's college golf tournament west of the Mississippi River. The individual medalist at the Western receives the coveted Blue Jacket, honoring legendary Pasatiempo Golf Club course designer Alister MacKenzie, who also designed Augusta National Golf Club.
SDSU will be making its 11th consecutive appearance, but just its 12th since 2001. San Diego State finished third out of 13 teams at last year's tournament at 20-over 1,070.
Four of the six Aztec starters played in last year's Western Intercollegiate, led by Anupansuebsai, who lost in a three-way playoff after finishing at 5-under 205. Guezzale and Jin each tied for 34th at 8-over 218, while Sugimoto (+9) was one shot back in a tie for 40th.
Lars Johansson is the most recent San Diego State individual champion at the event, capturing medalist honors in 2001 after defeating Jason Higton of Pacific on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. In addition, Kris Moe emerged victorious at the Western in 1983, while Ron O'Connor accomplished the feat in 1960, guiding the Aztecs to their only team title in the history of the invitational.
Other notable winners of the Western Intercollegiate include Ken Venturi (1951, 1953), Johnny Miller (1968), Howard Twitty (1972), Peter Jacobsen (1974), Mark O'Meara (1978), Bobby Clampett (1980), Duffy Waldorf (1985), Arron Oberholser (1996), Joel Kribel (1997, 1999), Jason Allred (2000) and Scottie Scheffler (2015).
In all, players who have competed in the Western Intercollegiate account for more than 350 PGA TOUR victories and 39 major championships, including past participants Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, Tom Watson, Steve Stricker and Roger Maltbie, not to mention former Aztec All-American Xander Schauffele. Additionally, 75 Western Intercollegiate alumni have PGA Tour victories, including former SDSU All-American J.J. Spaun at last week's Valero Texas Open.
Pepperdine (-16) took home the team title in 2021 and had Joe Highsmith (-5) capture medalist honors.
The Western Intercollegiate is SDSU's final event before the Mountain West Championship, set for April 29-May 1 at Gold Mountain Golf Course in Bremerton, Washington.
Aztec Men’s Golf Ready for Western Intercollegiate
