THIS WEEK: The Washington State University men's golf team will compete at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate at Lihue, Hawaii, Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 15-17.
THE TOURNAMENT: The three-day tournament will take place at Wailua Golf Course, a 6,991-yard track at a par-72…the course has been voted one of Hawaii's best 15 golf courses by Golf Digest…teams will play 18 holes each day beginning Wednesday, Feb. 15, with a shotgun start at 10:30 a.m. PT/8:30 a.m. HST.
THE FIELD: Joining Washington State and host-school Hawaii in the 18-team field will be Arizona, Brigham Young, California, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Hawaii-Hilo, Kennesaw State, New Mexico, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Santa Clara, Texas A&M, UNLV, Utah, UTEP, Virginia, and Washington...UNLV (21st), Kennesaw State (23rd), and Texas A&M (25th) are currently ranked in the top-25.
REPRESENTING WASHINGTON STATE: Competing for the Cougars will be senior Nick Mandell, sophomore AJ Armstrong, junior Derek Bayley, and freshmen Nicklaus Chiam and Daniel Kolar.
LAST TIME AT THE JOHN A. BURNS INTERCOLLEGIATE: WSU finished 10th (+16, 880) in a field of 16 teams, 13 strokes behind in-state rival Washington…Bayley tied for seventh (-2, 214), his fifth top-25 finish of the season…Mandell tied for 44th place (+6, 222)…Armstrong tied for 57th (+10, 226).
LAST TIME ON THE GREEN: The Cougars finished 12th (+47, 899) at the Arizona Intercollegiate, Jan. 23-24, against several Pac-12 competitors…Mandell tied for 26th (+10, 223) after shooting 1-under in the final round…Armstrong tied for 42nd place with a three-round score of 227 (+14)…Bayley tied 66th (+20, 233).
COACHING STAFF: The team is led by first-year head coach Dustin White, who was an assistant coach at WSU before accepting the head coach position…White golfed for the Cougars from 1999-2003…assistant coach Chris Gilbert joined the WSU coaching staff this season…Gilbert graduated from Kansas in 2013 and turned pro the same year before accepting the assistant coach position.
RESULTS: Live results will be posted at golfstat.com…full recaps will be posted at wsucougars.com at the end of each round.
