Two Tournaments Highlight Busy Spring Break For Aggies

UC Davis men's golf team to open week in Oregon before finishing in San Diego

	Austin Graham has placed in the top 10 five times this season. (Photo by Todd Hammond)

March 21, 2010

EUGENE, Ore. - The UC Davis men's golf team returns to tournament action for the first time in three weeks when it spends a busy spring break with the Oregon Duck Invitational on Monday and Tuesday and the Barona Collegiate Cup at San Diego State later in the week.

Thirteen teams will comprise the Duck Invitational which will be played at Shadow Hills Country Club in Junction City, Ore. The tournament begins at the par-72, 7020-yard course with 36 holes on Monday and concludes with 18 more on Tuesday.

Like the Battle at the Beach in Southern California in February, each team will feature six players with the best five scores counting toward the team's score for each round. In most events, five players compete with the best four scores counting.

The Aggies, ranked 88th by Golfstat, are one of eight teams in the field in the top 100. Third-ranked Oregon headlines the event, followed by No. 25 Oregon State, No. 33 Arkansas, No. 66 Washington State, No. 90 Santa Clara, No. 96 Pacific and No. 98 Colorado also ranked highly.

UC Davis finished fifth in last year's Oregon Duck Invitational with Austin Graham tying for 17th and Brent Booth tying for 20th leading the way. The pair returns to the lineup this year along with Tyler Raber, Andrew Haggen, Tim Honeycutt and Josh Granger.

Following play on Tuesday, those same six will travel to San Diego for the 16-team Barona Collegiate cup, giving UC Davis its first appearance in the event since 2006. Seven top-100 squads will make up that event with Oregon and Colorado joining the Aggies in playing both tournaments this week.

The par-72 Barona Creek Golf Club will host the event with 36 holes on Thursday and a concluding 18 on Friday. Like Oregon, each team score will be comprised of the best five individual scores among each squad's six players.

Other teams in the top 100 include No. 34 San Diego State, No. 54 Northwestern, No. 68 UC Irvine and No. 72 Nevada.

Colorado State is the defending champion.

UC Davis has been off since playing in the USC Collegiate Invitational in early March and will be looking for its first top-10 finish of the spring. Graham, who has five top-10 finishes in eight events, has a team-best 71.4 average while Raber is second at 73.0.