With the Arizona Intercollegiate opening the spring season, plenty of success is on the horizon for Fresno State golf
Matt Weir/Collegian File Photo
The Fresno State men’s golf team is set to open the season in Arizona. The Bulldogs are one of 16 teams who will participate in the Arizona Intercollegiate, which starts today.
The ‘Dogs will field a five-man team consisting of Bhavik Patel, Brian Sunker, Bryan Hogan, Nate Jessup and Michael Gideon. The squad will also include Adam Barkow who will compete individually. Teams that contain more than five players will be allowed to have its remaining players compete individually.
This is the first tournament for Fresno State in the 2011 spring season. The team faces stiff competition with No. 13 California and No. 14 San Diego State according to Golfweek’s rankings. Pepperdine is ranked No. 37 as of Nov. 24.
Individually, Alex Kang of San Diego State is the highest ranked player at No. 19. Colin Featherstone of San Diego State No. 35 and Ben An from California at 47 are the highest-rated players that are set to compete against Fresno State. The Bulldogs’ Patel is ranked No. 81 in the nation by Golfweek.
Patel had his most recent success with a top-20 finish in the Australian Master of the Amateurs golf tournament. The Australian tournament is one of the highest regarded amateur tournaments in the world.
With Patel currently at the top of his game, he won’t be refining his techniques for the season.
“No new changes,” Patel said regarding his swing.
The junior has had much success in his Fresno State career. Not since Nick Watney has a Fresno State golfer garnered as much attention as Patel for the Bulldogs.
The team is showing signs of confidence and maturity that has come with their recent success. With the continued improvement of the team, the Bulldogs may have a chance to claim many accolades in the coming months with the Western Athletic Conference Championship a possibility. The site of this year’s WAC Championship is Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas.
Of the six Bulldogs who will participate in this week’s tournament, half are seniors. Hogan, Gideon and Barkow are all in their final seasons with the Bulldogs. Sunker who had a career best fifth place finish in his last tournament is a junior, while Jessup is a freshman.
“We got good players,” Patel said.
Being the first tournament of the spring season the team is looking to get off to a start that they can build on quickly. The momentum gained through this tournament could be enough of a springboard that carries the Bulldogs for the next few months.
The team comes into the tournament after having Patel and Sunker both finish in the top five the last time they played in a tournament together.
The remaining teams in the tournament are made up of two squads from Arizona, Brigham Young, Hartford, New Mexico, Pacific, Texas El Paso, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, UNLV, Utah and UTSA.
The two-day event will take place at Arizona National located in Tuscon, Ariz. The 6,785 yard course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. in 1995. The Arizona course is a par-71.