Cal Poly Opens 2017-18 Men's Golf Fall Season at NKU Fall Classic
9/20/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly men's golf team opens the fall portion of its 2017-18 schedule Sunday and Monday by competing in the third annual NKU Fall Classic hosted by Northern Kentucky.
The two-day 54-hole event will be held at the Elks Run Golf Club in Batavia, Ohio. The course measures 6,845 yards and has a par of 71 with three par-5 holes, 11 par-4 holes and four par-3 holes.
A total of 14 schools will compete for team and individual honors. In addition to Cal Poly and Northern Kentucky, the field includes Butler, DePaul, Detroit Mercy, Evansville, Green Bay, Fort Wayne, Morehead State, Oakland, Robert Morris, Savannah State, Wright State and Youngstown State.
A practice round will be held Saturday, followed by 36 holes of play Sunday and the final round Monday.
It will be a young Cal Poly squad this season as the roster includes five returnees, five redshirts and three newcomers.
Cole Nygren, Justin De Los Santos, Jesse Yap, Court Lewis and Jordan Wright have completed their athletic eligibility after combining for 413 rounds of play as Mustangs.
Topping the list of returnees are seniors Jimmy Castles (pictured above) and Grady Smith.
Castles averaged 72.3 strokes over 15 rounds, all last spring as he spent the fall quarter in Cal Poly's Study Abroad program at Barcelona, Spain. Castles recorded three top-10 finishes and six rounds of par or better, including 67s at the Del Walker Intercollegiate and Cal Poly Shootout.
Smith, a graduate of San Luis Obispo High School, compiled a 72.9 scoring average over 26 rounds a year ago. He carded a 67 in the PRO Compression Invitational last February and finished fifth in the Big West Conference Championship.
Other returnees include seniors Mitch Martin and Nick Engelhardt along with junior Thomas Lehman.
Martin played just six fall rounds last year before stepping away from the sport during the spring. Engelhardt averaged 73.4 strokes over a trio of tournaments and Lehman, son of professional golfer Tom Lehman, played in just the Cal Poly Shootout after transferring from TCU.
The returning players who redshirted last year are Sage Casaga, Brandon In, Tanner Podres, Ellis Tirado and Nathan Clark. In, Podres and Tirado were true freshmen a year ago while Casaga and Clark played one season as true freshmen before redshirting. Clark and Casaga both played in two tournaments two years ago.
Newcomers to the squad, all true freshmen, are Peter Faragia and Bryce Loosigian, both of Clovis North High School, and Matthew Giombetti of the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES).
Scott Cartwright is in his 17th season as head coach of the Mustang men's golf program, which was resurrected in 2000 and coached by Tom Moos for one year. Cartwright also served 12 seasons as the women's golf head coach from 2003-15.
Cartwright has led the Mustangs to one Big West team title in 2006. Cal Poly also finished second two years ago and third last spring. Cartwright has coached former Mustang standouts Travis Bertoni, who earned 11 career wins, including the Big West individual title in 2005; Geoff Gonzalez, a three-time regional qualifier and the first Mustang to advance to the NCAA Division I National Championship; and Justin De Los Santos, the 2015 Big West individual champion.
