CEDAR CITY, Utah, March 24 – Southern Utah University's men's golf team plays the penultimate tournament of its 2011 spring regular season next week when the Thunderbirds travel to Santa Barbara, Calif., to compete in UC Santa Barbara's OGIO Intercollegiate.
The tournament is being held at the par 72, 7,068-yard Sandpiper Golf Club with two rounds on Monday and the final round Tuesday. This will be the first time SUU has competed at the tournament.
Teams entered in the tourney include Fresno State, British Columbia, Seattle, San Jose State, Weber State, Oregon, Pacific, Sacramento State, CS Bakersfield, Long Beach State, UC Riverside, CS Fullerton, CS Northridge, SUU and host UC Santa Barbara.
Southern Utah will have had one week off before the tournament. The Thunderbirds had a busy but fairly successful week last week, finishing ninth at South Dakota State's Jackrabbit Invitational on Tuesday, March 15, and 11th at Denver's Desert Shootout on Saturday. Between the final round at the Jackrabbit and the first two rounds of the Shootout the Thunderbirds had their three lowest rounds of the season, a 286 at Primm Valley's Desert Course in the final round of the Jackrabbit and a 282 and 288 at Palm Valley GC in the first two rounds at the Shootout.
Jeff Evans earned back-to-back Summit League Golfer of the Week honors for his performance at the two tournaments, sharing the honor with UMKC's Korbin Keuhn following the Jackrabbit. Evans has earned The Summit League's honor every week this spring.
The Coach: Richard Church (Utah '89) is in his 11th season as head golf coach and his 15th on the staff at Southern Utah. Prior to taking over the program from former Coach John Evans, Church spent four seasons as the Thunderbirds' assistant coach. During his tenure on the SUU staff, Church has coached five academic all-Americans, one Mid-Continent Conference medalist, two Mid-Con runner-ups and the University's first NCAA post-season competitor in golf. He has also seen the team finish second in the league four times since SUU began competing in The Summit League (ne. Mid-Con) in 1997-98.
Last Time Out: SUU shot its highest round of the tournament Saturday, 298, after two of its lowest rounds of the season on Thursday and Friday, to slip two spots and finish 11th at the University of Denver's Desert Shootout. Jeff Evans, who was tied for fifth following Friday's round of 69, shot 76 on Saturday to finish in a seven-way tied for 19th at 4-under par 212. Nic Booth and Brad Millard finished second among Thunderbirds, tied for 35th place at 215. Booth shot 74 on Saturday to slip eight spots, while Millard shot his best round of the tournament, 70, to move up 14 places. Jake Holt shot his second straight round of 77 after opening with a 71 on Thursday to finish at nine-over 225 and in 74th place, while Jordan Orth (75-77-76, 228) finished tied for 81st. SUU's Greg Kerber and Denny Job competed as individuals. Kerber (72-76-71, 219) finished tied for 54th place, while Job (76-74-73, 223) was 70th. SUU, which was two shots back of VCU and six behind Houston, finished four shots up on Wyoming and six ahead of Northern Colorado.
