Men’s Golf Caps 2022-23 Regular Season at Thunderbird Collegiate

Dates: April 14-15
Location: Papago Golf Club | Phoenix, Ariz.
Par/Yardage: Par 72/7,156 Yards
Live Scoring: GolfStat.com or GolfStat app
 
THIS WEEK
After a nearly two-week break from competition following their trip to San Francisco for The Goodwin, the University of Utah men’s golf team will be returning to play at the Papago Golf Club, the site of the Thunderbird Collegiate, a 54-hole event which will take place on Friday and Saturday and will serve as the final regular season tournament for the Utes before the Pac-12 Championship.
 
The Utes have been a mainstay at the Thunderbird and 2023 marks the seventh straight year this event appeared on Utah’s schedule. In 2022, Blake Tomlinson and Tristan Mandur authored the squad’s top performances, with Tomlinson finishing 1-over and tying for 32nd, while Mandur was only one stroke behind his teammate earned a share of 40th.  
 
At the 2021 edition of the Thunderbird, the Utes posted their third-lowest team score on record, shooting 22-under and they were again led by Tomlinson. The Salt Lake City native posted a 12-under 201 to capture a share of the tournament title and tie his own program record for the team’s lowest 54-hole score ever. Mitchell Schow finished the event at 6-under for Utah and Javier Barcos shot 2-under.
 
THE FIELD
The Thunderbird will be hosting a total of 12 teams and that list includes No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 11 Texas, No. 17 Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Arizona, Baylor, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Oregon State, SMU and Utah.
  
UTAH’S LINE-UP
The list of Utes who will be teeing it up in Phoenix consists of Hunter Howe, Javier Barcos, Go Nakatsukasa, Brandon Robison, Braxton Watts and Davis Johnson, who will be competing as an individual.
 
COACHES THOUGHTS: Head Coach Garrett Clegg
“Papago has been redesigned,” said Clegg, “so I’m not positive how the course will play. Typically, it’s a challenging golf course where it favors long hitters. Blake Tomlinson won there a couple of years ago. Three of the five players in our line-up hit it a long ways and I’m excited to see what we bring.”
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Utes’ last competition was The Goodwin, where Go Nakatsukasa matched his best score as a Ute on consecutive days, posting an even-par 70 in each of the last two rounds. Those two performances enabled Nakatsukasa…