April 6, 2016
SAN JOSE, Calif.- The San José State men's golf team will host the 70th annual Transamerica-World Financial Group (WFG) Western Intercollegiate Golf Championship, played on the famed Alister MacKenzie-designed Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., on April 11-13.
This year's edition of the longest running college golf tournament west of the Mississippi River will field 14 teams, half of which are currently ranked in the top-30 nationally (GolfStat-April 5).
The top-30 teams include #1-USC, #7-Arizona State, #9-Stanford, #15-California, #21-San Diego State, #25-Washington and #26-Oregon, along with the remaining field of Arizona, Hawai'i, Pepperdine, UC-Irvine, UCLA, UTEP and host, San José State.
Individually, six of the top-20 players are expected to compete along with 11 medalists from the 2015-16 golf season.
The top-20 players include (GolfStat-April 6): #2-Jon Rahm (Arizona State), #3-Maverick McNealy (Stanford), #8-Rico Hoey (USC), #11-Aaron Wise (Oregon), #14-Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego State) and #20-Collin Morikawa (California). Rahm, McNealy and Wise have been medalists during the 2015-16 season.
Other players who have tournament wins this season from teams in The Western are Chris Babcok (Washington), Jonathan Garrick (UCLA), Skye Inakoshi (Hawai'i), David Kim (UC-Irvine), Andrew Levitt (USC), KK Limbhasut (California), Corey Pereira (Washington) and Suman Raza (Oregon).
The 54-hole tournament will be played over three days, from Monday, April 11 to Wednesday, April 13, with 18 holes each day starting at 8:45 a.m. PT in a shotgun start. The low five of six scores will be counted each round for the team total.
The Spartans lineup will be announced later in the week.
Admission and parking is free for the tournament. Live scoring available at Golfstat (Team leaderboard, Player leaderboard).
Check out our daily Instagram postings leading up to and during The Western @sjsuspartans.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Keep up with your San José State men's golf team this season on social media!
The team is active on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/sjsuspartangolf
LAST TIME OUT:
The Spartans last competed on March 24 - 26 at The Goodwin in Stanford, Calif. finishing 24th out of 26 teams.
The lineup featured Taylor Bromley, Kevin Velo, Scott Munger, Brett Thawley and Matthew Murray.
Munger had the low score for the Spartans shooting six-over 216, tying him for 41st out of the 138-player field where only nine players finished under par.
PREVIOUSLY AT THE WESTERN:
In last season's tournament, the Spartans finished tied for 12th in a 14-team field as Bromley, Munger, Henrik Sohlberg and Thawley played.