EL PASO, Texas- Riding the momentum of its best finish of the spring season at the Lone Star Invitational, the UTEP men's golf team will head to Santa Cruz, Calif. to participate in the prestigious 72nd annual Western Intercollegiate April 7-8 at the Pasatiempo Golf Course (par 70/6,615 yards). The two-day tournament will begin in a 9:30 a.m. MT shotgun start both days, with 36 holes played on Saturday and the final 18 being played on Sunday, rainy conditions are expected.
The no. 80 UTEP squad will compete in the stacked 15-team field includes six top-25 teams in no. 9 California, no. 14 Texas, no. 18 Stanford, no. 20 North Carolina, defending Intercollegiate champion no. 21 Southern California and no. 25 Oregon. Also competing is no. 32 Pepperdine, no. 33 Arizona, no. 42 Colorado State, no. 50 San Diego State, Washington, Hawaii, UC Irvine and host San Jose State. In the pool of 96 individuals, three are ranked in the top-5 of the nation in no. 1 Collin Morikawa (Cal), no. 2 Justin Suh (Southern California), who is also the defending individual champion of the tournament, and no. 4 Norman Xiong (Oregon).
"It'll be the toughest field that we see all year," head coach Scott Lieberwirth said. "The majority of the field are Pac-12 schools, so it's a great test for us on probably the most difficult golf course we'll play as well. This is something I know our guys look forward to every year, its a special place and great event. We feel like we've got some guys that are absolutely ready to play, but you never know until you get there because that course is just so demanding from a shot-making standpoint, short game standpoint and an overall mental toughness standpoint. It's very demanding, so we'll really see who our best players are going forward from here."
At last year's Western Intercollegiate, the Miners finished in seventh place out of 15 teams, five of which were ranked in the top-25. The team finished above powerhouse teams in Texas, UCLA and Arizona State. This season, the Miners have seen higher finishes than San Jose State, California, San Diego State, Washington, and Colorado State when they met in the same tournaments.
Senior Charles Corner, who led the Miners at last season's Western Intercollegiate with a share of eighth place, will return for his final run in Santa Cruz. He will be joined by fellow Intercollegiate returnees Nicklas Pihl, Aaron Terrazas and Prescott Mann as well as Settavut Paradee and Santiago Castilla.
The Miners finished in third place out of 15 teams at the Lone Star Invitational on March 20, while Corner, Terrazas and Paradee all notched top-20 finishes. Corner finished in fourth place to lead the team, Terrazas came in with a share of 13th and Paradee finished in a tie for 18th. Mann ended his run with a share of 54th and Pihl placed 67th. Castilla will be returning to action for the first time since his 74th place finish at the National Invitational Tournament.
"We had a nice finish in San Antonio and we've had some good finishes this spring, again we've just been a touch inconsistent," Lieberwirth said. "All in all we've played okay. This is the type of tournament [Western Intercollegiate] that doesn't take a whole lot to get the guys up for, they're excited, they're ready to come back, especially the ones that played here before."
Live stats will be available via www.golfstat.com.
