SAN DIEGO -- Fresh off winning its third straight Mountain West Championship, the San Diego State men's golf team continues postseason play Monday at the NCAA West Lafayette Regional in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Aztecs, who are making their 24th regional appearance in the last 25 tournaments, will be among the field vying for a spot in the NCAA Championships, slated for May 24-29, at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in nearby Carlsbad, California, hosted by Texas.
SDSU received the No. 6 seed out of 13 teams in the West Lafayette Regional after earning an automatic bid into the regional for winning the Mountain West Championship last weekend in Creswell, Oregon. The Aztecs became the first team to win three straight MW titles since UNLV from 2016-18 and just the third program overall (New Mexico won four straight from 2003-06).
West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue) is one of six regional tournaments that will also be played concurrently in Austin, Texas (Texas), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (LSU), Chapel Hill, North Carolina (UNC), Rancho Santa Fe, California (USD) and Stanford, California (Stanford).
SDSU is ranked 35th in the latest Scoreboard ratings powered by Clippd (May 9). Joining San Diego State on the par-72, 7,465-yard Kampen-Cosler Course will be seven others in the top 50, including No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Arizona, No. 15 Florida, No. 23 New Mexico, No. 30 Purdue, No. 37 Mississippi State and No. 47 Indiana. Others in the field include College of Charleston (52), Stetson (62), Colorado State (66), Southern Illinois (130) and Tennessee Tech (203). The top-five squads and lowest individual not on those teams from the West Lafayette Regional will advance to Carlsbad.
Teams will complete 18 holes (54 total) of stroke play each of the three days following a practice round on Sunday. SDSU is paired with New Mexico and Purdue for Monday's first round and Tuesday's second round, each set to begin on the 10th tee at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT). Wednesday's final round will be determined by team finishes from the first two days.
Live hole-by-hole results courtesy of Golfstat will be available for all three rounds on GoAztecs.com.
San Diego State head coach Ryan Donovan will take the same six golfers he took for the MW Championship, including junior Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands), sophomore Tyler Kowack (San Diego/Canyon Crest Academy), sophomore Chanachon Chokprajakchat (Bangkok, Thailand), junior Shea Lague (Jamul, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) and senior Jackson Moss (San Diego/Point Loma HS). Senior Skyler Ngo (Las Vegas, Nev.) will once again serve as an alternate.
Out of 11 tournament this season, the Aztecs have one win, three third-place finishes, five in the top 5 and eight in the top 10. SDSU's 283.97 team scoring average is its second lowest in program history, only trailing last year's 282.65.
Out of San Diego State's starting 5, only Hastings and Lague have completed 54 holes at a NCAA Regional. Hastings, who along with Kowack were named to the 10-man all-Mountain West team on Wednesday, tied for 17th in at the Norman Regional in 2022 at 1-under-par 215 as the top Aztec finisher and then tied for 23rd at year's regional in Salem, South Carolina at 6-under 210. Lague tied for 39th last season in Salem at 3-under 213. Kowack opened with a 78 at Salem last year before being replaced by Chokprajakchat, who finished with a 67 and 71.
Kowack paces SDSU with a 70.88 stroke average through 32 rounds, just ahead of Hastings' 70.97 in 30 rounds. Chokprajakchat (71.55), Lague (72.03), Ngo (72.40) and Moss (73.50) round out San Diego State's six travelers. Kowack and Hastings are also 1-2 on the team in rounds in the 60s (12 and 8), and rounds below par (19 and 14), while Chokprajakchat's seven even-par rounds lead the squad.
Since the NCAA regional format was adopted in 1989, San Diego State has received a bid on 27 occasions, including a streak of 20 straight from 1999 to 2018. This season marks the second straight trip to the Eastern Time Zone after not competing there since 2015 at The Course at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. The Aztecs took second in the regional that year led by current PGA Tour star Xander Schauffele, who tied for fifth at 3-under 207. That result qualified SDSU for the NCAA Championship in Bradenton, Florida, where it came in 15th place.
Last year in Salem, San Diego State put up a furious rally down the stretch but came up one shot short of making a playoff. The Aztecs fired a 16-under-par 272 in the final round with their four counting players going a combined 8-under over the final three holes. Lague had a chance to put SDSU into the playoff for the final spot for the NCAA Championship, but was unable to birdie the par-5, 546-yard 18th hole and settled for a par. Texas A&M's Sam Bennett, meanwhile, birdied the hole to move the Aggies into a team playoff with host Clemson.
The Aztecs have advanced through regional competition into the national championship series on nine occasions, highlighted by a team title at OMNI Tucson National Golf Club in 2011, where the Scarlet and Black posted the program's lowest combined score in regional play with a 19-under 833 en route to a seven-stroke victory.
The following season at Stanford Golf Course in 2012, SDSU turned in a second-place finish, with two-time All-American J.J. Spaun setting three team regional records, including lowest score (12-under 198), lowest round (7-under 63) and best individual finish (2nd).
In 2016, SDSU added one of the most dramatic performances to the program's postseason lore after defeating Texas A&M on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to secure the Albuquerque Regional's fifth and final spot at the NCAA Championships. On the first playoff hole, former U.S. Amateur champion Gunn Yang holed out for a double-eagle with a 7-iron from 218 yards away, while Ryann Ree made an eagle of his own as San Diego State topped the Aggies by three strokes (-5 to -2) on the par-5, 544-yard No. 1.
In 2022, Aztecs came in eighth and did not advance to the NCAA Championships, although a third-place finish the year before (2021) in Kingston, Tennessee, advanced SDSU to Scottsdale where it finished 25th.
SDSU is 6-7 on the season against teams in the NCAA West Lafayette Regional, including 3-0 record against fellow MW foe Colorado State, a 3-3 mark against league opponent New Mexico and an 0-1 mark against defending NCAA champion Florida.
The Kampen-Cosler Course, a Pete Dye design, is an 18-hole, links-style, par-72 championship golf course featuring large bent-grass greens, fairways and tees. The layout presents a challenge for golfers of all abilities with vast sand bunkers, native grasslands, ponds and a natural celery bog. Kampen-Cosler is rated one of the top collegiate courses in the nation and has been awarded 4.5 stars on Golf Digest's "Places to Play." Kampen-Cosler receives high marks as it is ranked as one of the most difficult golf courses in Indiana.
The course has also played host to a number of prestigious collegiate and public tournaments, including the 2008 NCAA Championship, where the Aztecs came in 14th at +70. Kampen-Cosler has also hosted the 2003 women's NCAA Championship, two men's regionals, one women's regional and multiple Big Ten Championships, not to mention numerous state and regional competitions. The course is named in honor of Emerson Kampen and his support of Purdue Athletics. Mr. Kampen's statue overlooks the first tee.
Aztec Men’s Golf Set for NCAA West Lafayette Regional
