San Diego, Calif. – The University of New Mexico men’s golf team is set to compete in the 2016 installment of the San Diego Classic sponsored by Lamkin on March 14-15. This year’s tournament will be held at the San Diego Country Club’s golf course in Chula Vista, California, and is being co-hosted by the Universities of San Diego and San Diego State.
The first 36 holes of competition are set to commence on Monday with a shotgun start beginning at 8:30 a.m. PDT, while the final round is slated to begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The field is highly competitive to say the least, with five teams ranked amongst the Golfstat top-100. The field is lead by the likes of No. 6 Arizona State, No. 12 Texas, while host SDSU is ranked 21st in the country. Helping to further bolster the field is the Lobos, who are ranked 56th in the country and Minnesota at No. 99.
The Lobos will also have to contend with squads: Arizona, Brigham Young, Louisiana Tech, Loyola Marymount, Middle Tennessee, Northern Illinois, USD and Wichita State, while, UC San Diego and Cal State San Marcos, round out this year’s list of competitors.
The Lobos are the top returning school, coming off last year’s third place finish at 1-under 863. Last year’s champion, the University of Washington, posted a 10-under 854. The Huskies were lead by the co-medalists Cheng-Tsung Pan and Corey Pereira, who both fired 8-under 208’s.
This is the ninth installment of the San Diego Classic, and sixth as a 54 hole competition, previously it was held as a one day, 36 hole challenge. Seven out of the nine years the Classic has been held at the San Diego Country Club, including the last six years in a row.
The San Diego Country Club’s course is difficult and rewarding, with deep bunkers and demanding, Augusta-like greens. Designed and completed by William Watson in 1921, the course was eventually remodeled by the great Billy Bell, who added considerable length and several bunkers.
SDCC has hosted the 1952 and ’53 PGA Tour’s San Diego Open; the 1964 USGA Women’s Open Championship, the 1993 US Women’s Amateur Championship, the 2002 and 2007 Pacific Coast Amateur Championships, the annual Intercollegiate tournament, U S Open and U S Senior Open qualifying and the 2013 Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship.
Live scoring will once again be provided via Golfstat.