Event: USC Collegiate Invitational
Where: North Ranch Country Club – Westlake Village, Calif.
When: Monday and Tuesday, all day
Who to watch: Junior Austin Graham [cq] had the best tournament of any Aggie during the Battle at the Beach.
His 208 was good enough for his fourth top-10 finish of the season.
The San Clemente native also leads UC Davis with an average of 71.6 strokes per-tournament.
Did you know? UC Davis’ top five golfers have taken the course at each of their tournaments this season.
Preview: UC Davis will be looking to turn things around for the second tournament in a row.
The Aggies are coming off two straight disappointing finishes as they finished 16th at the Mauni Lani Invitational and tied for last at the Battle at the Beach.
UC Davis believes it will show improvement this week.
“We need to remember it’s a long season,” said coach Cy Williams [cq]. “We are the same group that played really well in the fall. We need to remember that and keep working hard. We’ll be fine as long as we keep the ball in play and stop hurting ourselves.”
One of the Aggies’ main issues so far in the spring has been the struggles of sophomore Tyler Raber [cq]. Raber ended the fall with a record setting score of 199 in his first-place finish at the Stockton Sports Commission Invitational.
Since then he has finished tied for 46th and 95th in the two tournaments this spring.
Despite this recent run, Raber is UC Davis’ second best golfer statistically, averaging 73.1 strokes per-round. The Aggies expect him to return to his usual form.
The Aggies will need this to happen soon as the next tournament will feature the third straight difficult field that UC Davis has faced.
They will compete against six teams ranked in the top-25, including No. 2 Stanford.
Despite the stiff competition, the Aggies know what it will take to be successful at this tournament and to get their season back on track.
“We just need to shoot well,” said Williams. “Shooting well cures all in golf.”
– Trevor Cramer
