EL PASO, Texas - After a strong sixth-place finish at the Arizona Intercollegiate to open its season two weeks ago, the UTEP men's golf team will return to action when it travels to Hawai'i to partake in the 42nd John A. Burns Intercollegiate Feb. 15-17 at the Wailua Golf Course (par 72/6,991 yards) in Lihu'e, Kaua'i. The three-day, 54 hole tournament with begin with a 8 a.m. HT shotgun start each day.
UTEP will compete in a 20-team field that includes defending team champion Virginia and host Hawai'i, as well as Arizona, BYU, CSUN, Fresno State, Grand Canyon, Long Beach State, New Mexico, No. 24 North Carolina, Northern Colorado, Saint Mary's, No. 4 Texas A&M, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UNC-Wilmington, UNLV, Utah, and Washington State. The field will also feature Golfstat's top-25 ranked players in Texas A&M's No. 10 Chandler Phillips, who is the defending individual champion, No. 14 Shintaro Ban of UNLV and No. 16 Patrick Fishburn of BYU.
Last season, UTEP finished the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in a tie for ninth place with New Mexico, with both teams shooting 5-over 869 to end the tourney and Aaron Terrazas finished with the top score for the Miners, firing 1-over-par 217 (74-71-72) for a share of 26th place.
Terrazas will return to the Miners' line-up for the Intercollegiate and will be joined by seniors Charles Corner, Nicklas Pihl, Prescott Mann, Chad Ahn and junior Settavut Paradee. Pihl, Corner and Mann are also returnees to the John A. Burns Intercollegiate, where they placed 40th, 47th and 72nd, respectively.
Momentum from the sixth-place finish out of 18 teams two weeks ago will help carry the Miners, as the team bested multiple strong teams in their placing at the Arizona Intercollegiate, including the Pac-12's nationally-ranked No. 15 California (7th) and Washington (12th), as well as No. 25 Santa Clara (T-10th). The defending Conference USA champions also earned wins over league foes UTSA (T-8th) and Louisiana Tech (T-16). Corner led the Miners with his share of third place after firing 2-over 215 (74-69-72) and never fell out of the top-5 of the field. Corner placed higher than three of the four top-10 nationally-ranked players.
Live stats will be available via http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=13922.
John A. Burns Intercollegiate Tournament Facts
Dates: February 15-17, 2018
Format: Three-days; 54 holes (18 holes each day); 5-count-4
Time: 8:00 a.m. shotgun start each day
Course: Wailua Golf Course
Location: Lihu'e, Kaua'i
Yardage (Par): 6,991 (72)
Live Scoring: www.golfstatresults.com
Defending Team Champion: Virginia
Defending Individual Champion: Chandler Phillips (Texas A&M)
Participating Teams (20):
Arizona
Brigham Young
CSUN
Fresno State
Grand Canyon
Hawai'i
Long Beach State
New Mexico
North Carolina
Northern Colorado
Saint Mary's
Texas A&M
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara
UNC-Wilmington
UNLV
Utah
UTEP
Virginia
Washington State
