After its fifth top-three finish of the 2014-15 season, the Seattle University men’s golf team is ready to contend for the Western Athletic Conference title at the WAC Golf Championships Monday through Wednesday, April 20-22, at the Wigwam Golf Resort in Litchfield Park, Ariz.
Entering the tournament, Seattle U is ranked 126th in the Golfstat team rankings, third among conference members behind New Mexico State and Missouri-Kansas City. The Redhawks are also third in the league in team scoring average at 293.6, behind the Aggies (289.3) and the Kangaroos (290.3) and just ahead of Utah Valley (293.8).
Coming off a top 10 finish at the Redhawk Invitational at Chambers Bay, sophomore Patrick Sato (Bellevue, Wash.) enters the WAC Championships as Seattle U’s number one player. Sato, a two-time WAC Male Golfer of the Week this season, is 10th in the league in scoring average at 73.71, including rounds of 68 at both the Arizona Intercollegiate and the Barona Collegiate Cup.
Freshman Joe Harvie (Orting, Wash.) has been impressive in his first year of collegiate golf, tying for the lead after 54 holes at the OGIO Utah Invitational before losing in a playoff, plus he finished sixth at the Georgetown Intercollegiate and in a tie for 10th place at the Sacramento State Intercollegiate. Harvie is seventh in the WAC with a 73.23 scoring average, and he shot 67 in the final round of the Barona Collegiate Cup.
Kyle Cornett (Mill Creek, Wash.) performed well in the fall, earning three straight top 15 finishes at tournaments hosted by Colorado, Utah, and Georgetown. The sophomore earned his best finish of the spring at the Redhawk Invitational with a tie for 15th place, and he will bring a 74.33 scoring average into the conference championships.
Jamie Hall (Seattle, Wash.) qualified for the travel squad entering the spring and has contributed to the Redhawks’ success, shooting 71 in both the first and third rounds of the Barona Collegiate Cup as well as the second round of the Redhawk Invitational. Ross Kukula (Ocean Park, Wash.) finished eighth at the Folino Invitational in February and brings a 73.57 scoring average into next week’s conference championships.
The team that wins the WAC Men’s Golf Championships will receive the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, plus the highest finishing player not on the winning team who is eligible will earn an individual invitation to the NCAA Tournament. The men will compete on the Gold Course at the Wigwam Golf Resort, a par-72 track that could measure up to 7,430 yards. Live results for the tournament will be available at: http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=7191&x=0.359751705185