ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s golf team is gearing up to continue its spring season as it heads to the 45th-annual Southern Highlands Collegiate hosted by UNLV this Sunday, March 1 – Tuesday, March 3. The tournament will take place at the 7,510-yard, par-72 course at the Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev.
Fans will be able to follow along with the action via Golfstat live stats and will be able to live stream the final round courtesy of College Golf Live. To view live stats, click HERE. To watch the third-round live stream, click HERE.
The Lobos will face a strong field of 15 teams at the competition which includes seven squads ranked in the Golfstat top-10 and 12 squads in the Golfstat top-50: No. 1 Pepperdine, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 7 Duke, No. 8 Texas, No. 10 SMU and No. 16 Georgia, No. 22 UCLA, No. 26 Florida, No. 28 New Mexico and No. 36 Southern California. The rest of the field includes TCU, UCF and host UNLV.
For the second year, the individual champion at the competition will receive an exemption into the Shriners Hospitals of Children Open which is set to take place on Oct. 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nev.
Oklahoma took home the team trophy a season ago with a combined score of 14 under, 850, while Jack Trent of UNLV took home the individual title which was determined in a playoff.
The Lobos enter the tournament following an outstanding performance at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate hosted by Hawaii on Feb. 20-22. UNM took home second place of 21 teams at the competition, shooting an 850 (-14), while Lobo sophomore Sam Choi clinched his first collegiate win with a score of 10 under, 206.
Choi earned his second Mountain West Golfer of the Week honor following his performance at the John A. Burns, with his first being earned just three weeks earlier for his performance at the Arizona Intercollegiate hosted by Arizona on Jan. 27-28.
Round one of the Southern Highlands Collegiate is set to tee off on Sunday at 10 a.m. MT and will be followed by round two on Monday and round three on Tuesday.