The San Diego State University and University of San Diego men’s golf teams co-hosted the Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic March 7-8 at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista. The Toreros and Aztecs were among 16 collegiate teams that competed in the 15th annual event that featured three 18-hole rounds on the par-72, 7,033-yard course layout.
The event took place on showcase grounds as a showcase for collegiate teams, both local and from across the country. Louisiana State University won the two-day event (two rounds on March 7 and final round on March 8) with a score of 827 to finish 37-under par, followed by the University of Washington in second place at 835 (29-under), Notre Dame in third place at 837 (27-under), USD in fourth place at 839 (25-under) and Nevada-Reno in fifth place at 851 (13-under). BYU finished in sixth place at 855 (nine-under), followed by Loyola Marymount University in seventh place at 862 (two-under), Colorado State in eighth place at 864 (even-par), UC Davis and UC Berkley in a tie for ninth place at 865 (one-over), University of Wyoming in 11th place at 871 (seven over) , SDSU in 12th place at 872 (eight-over), University of Denver in 13th place at 874 (10-over), Sam Houston and University of Colorado tied for 14th place at 876 (12-over) and UC San Diego in 16th place at 881 (17-over).
LSU’s Nicholas Arcement topped the leaderboard at 13-under with a score of 203, followed by a pair of Washington Huskies — R.J. Manke and Noah Woolsey — at 11-under with matching scores of 205.
The Tigers prevailed in a field that included No. 8 Washington, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 45 Nevada.
LSU head coach Chuck Winstead said he was proud of his team following the event.
“We have had some bright spots in our first two events, but we hadn’t put together three solid rounds,” Winstead said in a school media report. “We played extremely well (the first day) and backed it up with solid, steady golf (the final day). It’s great to be in the hunt and get a win, but it’s even better that everyone played well and contributed. We’re excited for Nicholas to get his first college win; he played some outstanding golf.”
LSU finished with three golfers among the top six finishers, four among the top 11 finishers and five among the top 13 finishers on the Chula Vista course.
Garrett Barber finished fifth for the Tigers at eight-under with a score of 208 while teammate Michael Sanders was right behind in a tie for sixth place at seven-under with a score of 209. Cohen Troilio finished in a tie for ninth individually for LSU at six-under with a score of 210 while Trey Winstead finished in a tie for 13th at five-under with a score of 211.
Torero leaderboard USD’s fourth-place team finish was highlighted by a pair of top 10 individual finishers in the field of 95 golfers. Redshirt junior Charlie Reiter finished in fourth place at nine-under par with a score of 207. Fellow redshirt junior Harrison Kingsley finished in a tie for sixth place at seven under with a score of 209, two strokes back.
The Toreros shot 283 as a team in the first round, followed by rounds of 277 and 279 for a total of 839. Reiter carded rounds of 74, 68, 65 while Kingsley shot 71, 67 and 71.
Junior Evan Kawai tied for 18th place at three-under 213. Sophomore Andi Xu (Torrey Pines) tied for 25th at two-under 214. Redshirt senior Donald Kay (Patrick Henry) placed 46th at two-over score of 218 while redshirt sophomore Alrik Pan placed in a tie for 58th at four-over with a score of 220.
Sophomore Kelvin Si (fiv eover, 221) tied for 64th at fiv eover 221. Mason Glinski (eight over, 224) tied for 76th while Remington Hirano (23-over, 239) placed 92nd.
SDSU leaderboard Freshman Jack Townsend (Charter School of San Diego) tied for ninth to pace the San Diego State men’s golf team on the final day of tournament play. Townsend finished at six-under (210) for the three rounds. Jackson Moss (Point Loma) tied for 18th with a three-under score of 213 while Steve Sugimoto (Rancho Bernardo) tied for 28th with a one-over score of 215. Youssef Guezzale (La Jolla) tied for 44th at one-over with a score of 217 while Zihao Jin (Rancho Bernardo) tied for 58th at four-over with a score of 220 alongside Jamul’s Shea Lague (Steele Canyon). Fellow Aztecs Justin Hastings and Liam Koeneke (Torrey Pines) tied for 64th at five-over with a score of 221.
Rounding out the SDSU contingent were Puwit Anunpansuebsai (tied for 76th at eight over, 224) and Skyler Ngo and Amadeo Figus, who tied for 78th at nine-over with a score of 225.
USD is currently ranked 61st among NCAA Division I teams by Golfstat while SDSU is ranked 74th.
Fore! Lague is SDSU’s man from Steele
It was Lague’s first career conference honor.
SDSU finished sixth at 7-over-par, defeating No. 8 Texas by 15 shots, and fellow MW opponents San Jose State by 31 and UNLV by 35. The only teams ahead of SDSU were No. 3 Arizona State, No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 21 Washington, No. 13 Georgia and No. 14 Wake Forest.
Lague finished tied for 23rd out of 64 golfers at 2-over with a score of 218. He opened with a 2-under 70 and played as the Aztecs’ No. 1 golfer the rest of the tournament, following with an even-par 72 on the second day and a 4-over 76 on the third day. He recorded 13 birdies in the tournament, which was the most on the team and tied for the 12th most in the tournament. Lague also ranked second in the 64-man field in par- 4 scoring (3.87).
Lague, who had averaged 72.58 in 12 rounds across four tournaments, recovered from a 9-over 80 on the opening day of The Prestige tournament Feb. 21-23 with an even-par 71 to vault up 30 places to finish in a tie for 45th on the final leaderboard as SDSU’s No. 2 place-finisher.
Lague sank birdies on the par-4, 431-yard 15th, the par-5, 537-yard 16th and the par-3, 180-yard 17th to start out his first nine 33, but he double bogeyed the par-4, 470-yard second and bogeyed the par-4, 380-yard fifth to sign for a 71.
SDSU finished in a four-way tie for 13th place out of 24 teams at the La Quinta event. The Aztecs shot a 13-over 297 in the final round to end at 47-over 899 overall at the par-71, 7,100-yard Greg Norman Course at PGA West.
SDSU tied with No. 5 Pepperdine, Colorado State and North Texas, two shots behind No. 25 LSU and host UC Davis, which were 11th at 45-over 897. Vanderbilt shot an impressive 14-under 270 on the final day to finish at 16-over 868, 10 strokes clear of No. 48 Oregon (+26). No. 14 Kansas (+29) and No. 7 Texas Tech (+33) took third and fourth, respectively.
Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand) tied for 16th out of the 120 entrants to lead SDSU at 8-over 221.
