March 31, 2005
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's golf team will be one of 21 squads competing at the Bite/Pacific Coast Intercollegiate, hosted by UC Santa Barbara at La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc early next week. The 54-hole tournament will have 36 holes played on Monday, with the final 18 to follow on Tuesday.
The Intercollegiate is returning to La Purisima for the second straight season and for the third time in the last four years.
"La Purisima is a great course," Gaucho head coach Steve Lass said. "Not only is it a beautiful setting, but it is extremely challenging. I am very excited about holding the tournament there again."
In addition to UCSB, the tournament field will include Big West Conference rivals UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly, CS Northridge, Pacific and Idaho. The remainder of the 21-team field includes two Pac-10 schools (Washington State and Oregon State), one program from the Western Athletic Conference (Hawaii), three from the Mountain West Conference (Utah, Wyoming and San Diego State), three from the West Coast Conference (Saint Mary's, Santa Clara and San Diego), two from the Sun Belt (New Mexico State and Denver), two from the Big Sky Conference (Weber State and Sacramento State), and one future Big West member (UC Davis).
The field will play a practice round on Sunday and tee off with the first competition round an 8 a.m. shotgun start on Monday. Tuesday's final round will consist of tee times beginning at 7 a.m. La Purisima is a 7,105-yard, par-72 course. It played host to the 1997 PGA Tour School Finals.
Santa Clara has carded four top-five team finishes this season, including a tournament championship at its own SCU Invitational. The squad is led by sophomore Jong Yoon, who averages 74.43 strokes per round. Seniors Jonathan Edwards and John Colyar follow closely behind, as both average 74.90 strokes per round.
In 2004, the Bite/Pacific Coast Intercollegiate was won by UC Davis, which shot 881, three shots better than UC Riverside. Cal Poly's Travis Bertoni won the individual title with a three-under-par 213. Past individual champions have included Craig Stadler (1973), Scott Simpson (1977) and Duffy Waldorf (1985).
