Sept. 17, 2009

Aztec Men's Golf Weekly Release No. 2 in PDF Format

Aztec Men's Golf Heads To The Midwest For Olympia Fields Invite
Coming off a second-place performance at its season-opening tournament, the San Diego State men's golf team will participate in one of the nation's premier tournaments, beginning this Friday in Olympia Fields, Ill. The Aztecs will be among a field of 15 schools at the three-day Olympia Fields/ Fighting Illinois Invitational presented by Cleveland Golf/Srixon at the par-70, 7,157-yard Olympia Fields Country Club.

SDSU, which was No. 30 nationally in the preseason Golfweek poll, will take on seven teams ranked among the nation's top 10, including No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 5 Arizona State. Of the Aztecs' seven other opponents, four of those schools are also in the top 30.

The Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational is now in its fourth year and the 2009 edition also features five of Golfweek's preseason top 10 players. Olympia Fields Country Club has played host to U.S. Opens in 1928 and 2003 and the 1925 and 1961 PGA Championships.

The Aztecs will play 18 holes each day, beginning as early as 7:30 a.m. CT from either the No. 1 or No. 10 holes. On Friday, SDSU will be paired with USC and Indiana from 8:40-9:12 a.m. CT. off the 10th tee. Live stats will be available for all three rounds on www.golfstat.com.

Aztec Line-Up For This Week
Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan will take the same five golfers for the second week in a row. The group includes two juniors and three sophomores, who all finished in the team's top five in stroke average a year ago. Four of the five represented SDSU in its 11th straight NCAA regional appearance in 2009.

Junior Johan Carlsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) was the top finisher at last week's event in Albuquerque, followed by the three sophomores Andrew Cooley (New Haw, England), Alex Kang (Oak Park, Calif.) and J.J. Spaun (San Dimas, Calif.). Junior Matt Hoffenberg (Simi Valley, Calif.) rounds out the group.

Rewind: SDSU Finishes Second In Season-Opener
The San Diego State men's golf team was one of just two squads to finish under par, as the Aztecs placed second at the season-opening William H. Tucker Intercollegiate with a 5-under 859 last weekend in Albuquerque, N.M. UNLV easily won the team title with a 21-under 843, but SDSU was eight strokes better than third place BYU, nine in front of Baylor and 10 lower than reigning NCAA champion Texas A&M.

The Aztecs finished the delayed second round with a tournament-best 276, before ending the 54-hole event with a 292 over the final 18 holes at the par-72, 7,591-yard University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course.

San Diego State junior Johan Carlsson jumped from ninth into a tie for sixth in the final 18 holes with his second even-par round of the tournament. Carlsson tied UNLV's Brett Kanda and Wyoming's Gabe Maier at 4-under 212.

Aztec sophomore Andrew Cooley, who was among the leaders for most of the two-day event, dropped from third into a tie for ninth after carding a final-round 77. Cooley had been at 8-under with a pair of 68s over the first 36 holes, but had six bogeys and one double-bogey to post a 3-under 213, which was still one stroke off his career low.

Sophomores Alex Kang and J.J. Spaun both finished in the top 25 in the 104-golfer field, as Kang tied for 21st at 2-over 218 and Spaun was 24th at 4-over 220. Junior Matt Hoffenberg rounded out the Aztec contingent in 33rd place with a 221, including a second-round 71.

Preseason Rankings
San Diego State, which ended 2008-09 ranked 21st nationally by golfstat.com, has been rated 30th by Golfweek Magazine in the publication's preseason poll. The Aztecs are among four MWC schools, including No. 14 TCU, No. 23. Colorado State and No. 29 UNLV.

SDSU also has the 28th-most votes in the Golf World/Nike Men's College Poll, released last week.

2008-09 Review: Aztecs Earn 11th Straight NCAA Bid
The San Diego State men's golf team posted 10 top-five finishes, including six runner-up performances en route to its 11th consecutive and 14th overall NCAA regional appearance. The Aztecs ended the season ranked 21st nationally by golfstat.com and 24th by Golfweek/Sagarin, while narrowly losing in a playoff hole to TCU for the 2009 league crown.

Individually, three players finished as tournament runners-up, including Johan Carlsson at the Washington Husky Invitational, Matt Hoffenberg at the Arizona Invitational and Colin Featherstone at the Fresno State Lexus Classic.

Carlsson received MWC player-of-the-month honors in November 2008 and was later named all-conference. The Aztecs also had three all-league academic selections.

Up Next
Following the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invite, the Aztecs will take nearly a month off before the Alister Mackenzie Invitational in Fairfield, Calif., Oct. 12-13.

The squad rounds out its fall campaign with its annual trip to Hawaii to compete in the Turtle Bay Resort College Invitational, Nov. 2-4. The spring season won't get underway until the first week in February 2010 in Arizona.

Head Coach Ryan Donovan
Head coach Ryan Donovan is in his seventh season at the helm of the SDSU golf program after serving as an assistant in 2003. A native of Yorba Linda, Calif., Donovan was a four-year member of the Aztec golf squad, before graduating in 2001. He is assisted by former head coach and current director of golf operations, Dale Walker.