ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s golf team will open its 2017-18 season with the Gopher Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota, on Sunday, September 10 at the Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn. The Lobos will open home competition later in the month with the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate on September 22.
Live stats will be available for the tournament, click HERE to follow.
The Lobos are set to face a strong field of competition this weekend, as half of the 16 teams competing in the Gopher Invitational reached the 2017 NCAA Championship and five squads are currently in the top-25 of the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) preseason rankings. Those included in the GCAA rankings are No. 23 (tied) Pepperdine, No. 23 Kent State, No. 21 Arizona State, No. 4 Baylor, and last year’s 2017 NCAA Champions, No. 3 Oklahoma.
Head coach Glen Millican brings back nine of his twelve players from last year, including senior Gustavo Morantes and redshirt seniors Andre Garcia and Ben Tolsma. Out of the nine returnees, three were in the Lobos’ top-five average scorers in 2016-17 including Morantes, Garcia and junior Sean Carlon.
The Lobos are also set to welcome four new members to the team including two freshmen and two transfers. The freshmen class consists of Galven Green from Petaling Jaya, Malaysia and Brad Cole from nearby Carlsbad, N.M. The transfers include Tyler Dierwechter, a junior coming from Stetson University, and Augustin Holé, a junior from Odessa College. Holé helped his team to the 2017 NJCAA National Championship.
The first half of UNM’s 2017-18 slate consists of five tournaments which has the Lobos visiting the University of Minnesota, Colorado State University, Denver University and Baylor University. The first half of the schedule also includes the Lobos’ only home tournament of the year, the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate. The tournament will be hosted at the UNM Championship South Course in Albuquerque on Friday, September 22 through Saturday, September 23. This will be the first William H. Tucker Intercollegiate without long-time UNM men’s golf coach Dick McGuire since 1955. Coach McGuire passed away on June 23, 2017 from metastatic cancer at the age of 90. For more information about the late Coach McGuire, click here.
The Lobos will open the second half of their season at the University of Arizona for the Arizona Intercollegiate on Monday, January 29, 2018. The trip is the first of seven regular-season tournaments in 2018, including those at the University of Hawaii, Pepperdine University, San Diego State University, University of Texas at San Antonio, Augusta University and Texas A&M.
Post-season competition will begin with the Mountain West Tournament at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. from Friday, April 20 – Sunday, April 22. Following the conference tournament, the 2017 NCAA Regional Tournament is scheduled for May 14 – May 16, followed by the 2017 NCAA Championships from May 25 – May 30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.