Cal Poly Heads to Industry Hills Seeking Second Big West Championship
4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
BIG WEST RELEASE (pdf)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly, which has claimed just one Big West Conference team championship (2006), finished second in 2016 and just three strokes behind UC Santa Barbara in 2017.
Coach Scott Cartwright's Mustangs seek their second conference title in the 2018 Big West Championship starting Sunday at Industry Hills Golf Club. First tee is 8 a.m. for the 54-hole, three-day event and admission is free.
Top three individual finishers from last year's event at Sandpiper Golf Club in Santa Barbara return for the 2018 finals.
Defending individual champion Felix Mory of CSUN also finished sixth in the 2016 Big West finals at Wood Ranch. Runner-up Joe Fryer of Long Beach State and third-place finisher Nick Swanson of UC Santa Barbara also return.
Cal Poly's Jimmy Castles (pictured above), seventh-place finisher in 2017, also returns for his fourth Big West finals appearance. He placed 27th as a sophomore and 31st as a freshman.
UC Santa Barbara tallied 852 strokes for the team title, edging CSUN by one stroke. Cal Poly was third at 855.
Cal Poly finished in the top five in three tournaments earlier this year, placing third in the season-opening Northern Kentucky Fall Classic and fourth in both the Farms Invitational and MacKenzie Match Play.
A graduate of Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, Castles enters this year's finals with a 73.89 career scoring average over 93 rounds and a 74.5 scoring average this season. He has posted 11 top-20 finishes in his career along with 30 rounds of par or better, including nine rounds in the 60s.
Cal Poly's other entrants in this year's Big West finals are seniors Nick Engelhardt and Mitchell Martin, junior Thomas Lehman and redshirt freshman Tanner Podres.
Engelhardt is second on the squad with a 74.7 scoring average and finished tied for fourth in the Farms Invitational, Cal Poly's highest individual finish this season. He competed in the 2016 Big West finals, finishing sixth.
Lehman, son of professional golfer Tom Lehman, has produced a 76.8 scoring average over 21 rounds with one top-20 finish, placing 15th in the TMU Spring Invitational.
Competing in his third Big West Championship, Martin owns a 75.7 scoring average this season and a 74.56 average over 63 career rounds with six top-20 finishes and 16 rounds of par or better, including seven rounds in the 60s.
in his first season as a Mustang after a redshirt year, Podres averaged 76.73 strokes over 15 rounds with a top finish of 22nd place in the Geiberger Invitational two weeks ago, thanks in part to a second-round 70.
Nine teams and 45 players will compete on the "Ike" Eisenhower Course at the Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort. The par-72 course measures 6,989 yards.
Cal Poly is seeded sixth and will tee off Sunday with No. 4 Cal State Fullertona nd No. 5 UC Riverside at 8:50 a.m. No. 1-seeded UC Davis, No. 2 UC Santa Barbara and No. 3 Long Beach State tee off at 8 a.m. while No. 7 UC Irvine, No. 8 CSUN and No. 9 Hawai'i begin play at 9:40 a.m.
The Big West Men's Golf Championship has produced six different team winners over the last six years. UC Davis is the highest-ranked Big West team by Golfstat.com at No. 88, followed by No. 111 UC Santa Barbara and No. 112 Long Beach State. Cal Poly is ranked No. 138.
Mory, ranked No. 145, and No. 233 Thomas Hutchison of UC Davis are the only Big West golfers ranked among the top 250 by Golfstat.com. Mory leads the conference this spring with a 72.0 scoring average while Hutchison is averaging 73.2 strokes per round. UC Irvine's David Kim is hitting 72.3 this season.
The Big West team and individual champions qualify for one of six NCAA regionals, scheduled for May 13-16. Sites are the Brookside Golf and Country Club in Stockton, Calif., Reunion Resort in Reunion, Fla., Lonnie Poole Golf Course at North Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C., OSU Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla., and Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas.
The 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship will be held May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
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