Sept. 13, 2009

DAVIS, Calif. - The UC Davis men's golf team enjoyed a great season in 2008-09, winning three tournaments including the Big West Conference Championship, placing among the top five in nine events overall, and advancing to the NCAA Division I West Regional for the first time.

With three of the five players who participated in the regional returning, along with a solid group of returnees and newcomers overall, the Aggie look to build on that success when they open the 2009-10 campaign on Monday at the two-day Palo use Collegiate being hosted by Washington State.

This is the first year for the tournament which is being held at the par-72, 7,308-yard Palo use Ridge Golf Club. Thirteen teams are entered in the event including Boise State, Idaho, Gonzo, Lewis and Clark State, LMU, Sacramento State, San Jose State Seattle University, Weber State, Washington, Spokane City College and the host Cougars.

Teams will play 36 holes on Monday with the final 18 scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

For UC Davis, the tournament marks the first of five during the fall season. The Aggie will travel next weekend for the Spartan Classic at Michigan State, play at the Windon Memorial Classic hosted by Northwestern early next month, and then co-host the 10th annual The Prestige at PGA WEST with Stanford on Oct. 11-13. The fall portion of the schedule concludes with the Pacific Invitational in early November.

The spring season begins in February and consists of six tournaments before the Big West Conference Championship as the Aggies seek a return to the NCAA postseason. With just one senior on the squad, head coach Cy Williams said contributions from the newer players will be a key, along with consistent play throughout the lineup.

"We're ready to build on our success from last season," said Williams, the Big West's Coach of the Year last season. "We have a very skilled team."

Leading the charge is Austin Graham, a junior from San Clemente who led the Aggies with a 72.1 stroke average last season while winning three tournaments including top honors at the conference championship. Graham also earned medalist honors at the season-opening Kansas Invitational and the Wyoming Cowboy Classic, going a combined 15 shots under par to win the trio.

He enjoyed a very successful summer as an amateur, qualifying for the U.S. Open Sectional while also capturing two other events including the prestigious Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship.

"Austin has the ability to challenge for the tournament title every time out," said Williams. "It's great to see a guy that works that hard and is passionate about golf do that well."

Brent Booth is the lone senior on the team and posted a 73.4 average in 2008-09. He enjoyed three top-10 placings including a seventh-place finish at the Big West tournament and a tie for ninth place at the Stockton Sports Commission Pacific Invitational. Booth, who qualified for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship this summer, had his best tournament, though, at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Gridiron Classic where he set a then-school record 64 in the final round. It was a record later broken by Graham who had a 63 at The Prestige at PGA West. Booth took fourth among 83 golfers at the Notre Dame tournament.

The other returner from the quintet that participated at the NCAA Regional is sophomore Tyler Raber who had a 75.0 average during his first season. Raber tied for 43rd at the regional which was held at Daly City, the best finish on the team. He was also among the top 30 at The Prestige at PGA West while participating in 11 events overall.

Graham, Booth and Raber will be joined at Washington State by redshirt freshman Andrew Haggen who will be making his Aggie debut, and by transfer Tim Honeycutt. Haggen twice led his De La Salle High School team in stroke average and was a member of the team that won a CIF state title in 2006.

Honeycutt, who prepped at Union Mine High School in Placerville, began his collegiate career at Saint Mary's College in Moraga and will be a sophomore on this year's squad. He highlighted his high school career by being named the Sierra Valley Conference MVP three times.

The 2009-10 team also includes Dennis Carson, a redshirt freshman from Burlingame who won the Vallejo City Championship this summer, and freshmen Josh Granger from Monrovia, Cole Seeger from Thousand Oaks, and Eric Kim from San Jose.

Granger was co-MVP of his Marantha High School team in 2007 before winning the award outright as a junior and senior. Seeger capped his standout prep career by winning the CIF state championships in a playoff after posting a 2-under 70 for his Westlake High School team which took third. Kim was a three-time letterwinner who also won MVP honors for Valley Christian High School.

The Prestige at PGA West will once again feature a highly competitive field of schools in a 54-hole tournament which will be contested over three days, rather than two, for the first time. The event has grown into one of the most prominent regular-season tournaments in collegiate golf, annually bringing together many of the top academic and golf-playing institutions.

UC Davis co-hosts the event with Stanford with the schools joined this year by Long Beach State, Pepperdine, TCU, UCLA, Central Florida, Hawai'i, Notre Dame, the University of San Diego, USC, Washington and Vanderbilt. Teams this year will compete for the championship on the world-class Stadium Course at PGA West which is noted for its "Alcatraz" hole, the par-3, 17th island hole.

UC Davis will look to defend its Big West title when the 2010 league tournament is held May 3-4 at Mission Viejo Country Club.

UC Davis Aggies Men's Golf

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