Coming off a year that included six top-three finishes, including four of the last five tournaments of 2014-15, the Seattle University men’s golf team is preparing to tee off the 2015-16 campaign with high expectations.
Several Redhawks used the momentum of their solid play at the end of last season, featuring a second-place finish in the Redhawk Invitational at Chambers Bay and a third-place finish at the WAC Championships, to buoy their summer results. Kyle Cornett (Mill Creek, Wash.) and Ahren Young (Renton, Wash.) moved past local qualifying into the sectional qualifier for last July’s U.S. Open, and then Cornett joined head coach Marc Chandonnet in qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championship.
Capping off the summer, four Redhawks finished in the top 20 at the Washington State Amateur Championship, led by Joe Harvie (Orting, Wash.), who held the 18- and 36-hole leads before finishing in second place. Patrick Sato (Bellevue, Wash.) also made the cut to join Harvie, Cornett, Young, and Jamie Hall (Seattle, Wash.) in the final standings.
Ironically, Seattle U’s 2015-16 season will begin at the same place where the Washington State Amateur Championship took place, as the Redhawks will head to the Suncadia Resort for the Husky Invitational, hosted by the University of Washington. Seattle U will look to improve upon last year’s 14th place result at this tournament, held last season at the Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
Four of the five players who competed at the 2015 WAC Championships are slated for the Husky Invitational, led by Harvie, the 2014-15 WAC Freshman of the Year who finished in a tie for fifth place at the conference championships. Sato, who finished in a tie for eighth place at the Redhawk Invitational, joined Harvie as Second Team All-WAC honorees last year. Ross Kukula (Ocean Park, Wash.) also returns to the Redhawk golf squad after posting the second-best scoring average on the team last season at 73.6.
Chandonnet added to his veteran squad by bringing in Ryan Hunt (Pitt Meadows, B.C.), a freshman who played with Team Canada at both the North America Cup in Bluffton, S.C., and the Euro Junior Golf Cup at historic St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland. He helped Team Canada win both competitions, posting a 6-2-1 match play record in the two competitions combined.
After the Husky Invitational, Seattle U heads across the state to the Palouse for Washington State’s tournament, followed by a trip to Mexico for the Cabo Del Sol Intercollegiate. After closing out the fall season at the Bill Cullum Invitational in Simi Valley, Calif., the Redhawks start the spring with tournaments in Nevada and California before playing three straight tournaments in the Pacific Northwest.
The third of those tournaments will be the third annual Redhawk Invitational at Chambers Bay, an event that has become extremely popular among golf programs across the country. After concluding the regular season at the El Macero Classic, Seattle U heads north to Blaine, Wash., for the 2016 WAC Championships, taking place April 30-May 2 at the Loomis Trail Golf Club.
To support the men and women who have fought bravely and given their lives in military service, Chandonnet has enlisted the Seattle U golf program to participate in the Folds of Honor Military Tribute Program. Each tournament, the number one player for Seattle U will carry a special bag embroidered with the name of First Lieutenant Robert Niels Bennedsen, a native of Vashon, Wash., and a 2008 graduate of Seattle University who died in Afghanistan on July 18, 2010, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. The bag will be auctioned off at the end of the season, with proceeds benefiting Folds of Honor, and supporters of the Seattle U golf program are also encouraged to make a donation to the program.
The Seattle University men’s golf team enters its fourth year as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.