Westlake Village, Calif.----- San Jose State University junior Kotaro Murata shot an even par 72 to lead the Spartans to an eighth place start the Southwestern Invitational presented by Topgolf men's golf tournament.
The transfer from Hawaii produced a round with three birdies, two of which were on the front nine when he was as low as minus-2 after seven holes, and three bogeys. He is tied for 19th place in the individual standings.
As a team, San Jose State is eighth in the 12-team field with a 292 total on par 72, 6,992-yard North Ranch Country Club course.
"It was a reasonably good start to a good tournament. There was a lot of good stuff happening. We know that we're on the right track with what we've been doing based on today," said San Jose State men's golf coach John Kennaday.
"It's nice to come out of the gate and be competitive with some of the best teams in the country. They played well, but didn't score as well as they played."
Carl Corpus and Kristopher Stiles were right behind Murata with a 73. Caleb Shetler's 74 counted to the Spartans' team total in the five-player score four format. San Jose State discarded freshman Nick Watts' 79. Senior Vijay Srinivasan, playing as an individual entry, opened the tournament with an 80.
In a 12-team field with six teams ranked in GolfStat's top-50, No.13-ranked Georgia is in first place with a 278 team total. No. 3-ranked Arizona State is second at five-under par 283. Host Pepperdine at 287, UCLA at 288, and Texas and Washington, tied at 289 complete the top six teams on the leaderboard.
Trent Phillips of Georgia is the first-round individual leader with a six-under par 66. He has a one-shot lead over UCLA's Devon Bling, who shot a 67.
The Southwestern Invitational continues with 18 holes on Tuesday, January 25, and concludes with 18 holes on Wednesday, January 26. GOLF Channel is providing network television coverage each day starting at 1:00 p.m. (PT) with College Golf Central followed by three hours of action from the North Ranch Country Club. Live stats are available at Golfstat.com.
The San Jose State team's tee times for round two range from 9:10 to 10:06 a.m. Vijay Srinivasan will tee off at 7:46 a.m.
43rd Southwestern Invitational men's golf tournament
North Ranch Country Club, Westlake Village, Calif.
Par 72, 6,992 yards
January 24, 2022
18-hole results
| Team scores |
|
| 1. Georgia |
279 |
| 2. Arizona State |
283 |
| 3. Pepperdine |
287 |
| 4. UCLA |
288 |
| 5. Texas |
289 |
| Washington |
289 |
| 7. San Diego State |
290 |
| 8. San Jose State |
292 |
| 9. SMU |
294 |
| 10. Wake Forest |
295 |
| 11. Southern California |
299 |
| 12. UNLV |
302 |
| Leading individuals |
|
| 1. Trent Phillips, Georgia |
66 |
| 2. Devon Bling, UCLA |
67 |
| 3. Nathan Petronzio, SMU |
68 |
| Cole Hammer, Texas |
68 |
| 5. Mason Andersen, Arizona State |
69 |
| Ian Maspat, Pepperdine (ind.) |
69 |
