Phil Rowe Era Begins as Cal Poly Opens Season in Orange County

Monday, February 8

Irvine, CA

8 a.m.

Orange County Collegiate Classic

Tanner Podres begins his fourth season on the Cal Poly men's golf team next week at the Orange County Collegiate Classic.

Phil Rowe Era Begins as Cal Poly Opens Season in Orange County

2/5/2021 12:24:00 PM | Men's Golf

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- A season that has been delayed five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic finally gets underway next week as the Cal Poly men's golf team competes in the Orange County Collegiate Classic on the Coto de Caza Golf and Raquet Club's South Course.

Six other teams will join the Mustangs in the event, with 36 holes to be played Monday and the final 18 Tuesday on the 6,950-yard, par-72 course.

Phil Rowe, assistant or associate golf coach at UNLV for six seasons, makes his head coaching debut with Cal Poly at the event as the Mustangs join Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, California Baptist, Grand Canyon, UC San Diego and San Francisco in the season-opening event.

Rowe has assembled a roster with eight returnees off last year's roster and one transfer, Joey Zambri, who attended USC for one semester before transferring to Cal Poly. Zambri is a 2020 graduate of Camarillo High School.

"A year ago, five of the six players on the traveling team played the same event at Coto de Caza without knowing it would be one of their last rounds in collegiate competition for a long stretch," said Rowe. "However, we have been fortunate in our sport, and grateful to the efforts of all our medical and administrative staff at Cal Poly, to keep playing and training.

"Our student-athletes have made the most of it by focusing on boosting their grades (the fall team GPA of 3.571 was the highest of all men's sports) and getting in some competitive intrasquad qualifying rounds to lower their stroke averages," Rowe added. I admire what each team member has done to be ready for this fine schedule of challenging courses and strong fields ahead."

Representing Cal Poly at the Orange County Collegiate Classic will be senior Dominick Hoover, junior Tanner Podres, sophomore Will Draper and redshirt freshmen Luke Adam and Nicholas Mok. Redshirt freshman Austin Liu will compete as an individual.

Podres was Cal Poly's top golfer a year ago with a 73.6 scoring average, followed by Liu at 74.7. The team carded 21 rounds over the fall and early spring seasons before the rest of the schedule was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 12.

Podres and Draper both posted a pair of top-20 finishes last year. Podres' scoring average included 10 rounds of par or better, including four in the 60s.

Just prior to the suspension of the season due to the coronavirus, Cal Poly had posted a second-place finish in The Joust at Goose Creek in Jurupa Valley, Calif., its highest finish of the season.

Cal Poly's roster also includes redshirt sophomore Adil Bir Singh and redshirt freshman Joseph Moles.

Rowe is excited to get the 2020-21 season underway, albeit five months later than originally planned.

"While it's nice to envision contending for a championship down the road, there's nothing like putting the CP on the chest in a tournament, especially for the first time," said Rowe. "We will all relish that feeling next Monday."

The Big West Conference Championships will be held May 2-4 at the La Quinta Country Club in Orange County.