PHOENIX, Ariz. – Teeing off on Friday’s opening day of the Thunderbird Collegiate will mark the beginning of a jam-packed five days of golf for No. 9 Arizona Men’s Golf. The 54-hole event, hosted by Arizona State, will be played over two days before the Wildcats travel to Santa Cruz, California for the Western Intercollegiate on Monday. Arizona will face the same quick turnaround for a second consecutive year, finishing runner-up in last season’s event with a final team score of 27-under par.
“This is a different type of challenge for our program to plays back-to-back tournaments in short order, but I see it as a great opportunity to prepare for the quick turnarounds of postseason play,” said head coach Jim Anderson. “We played some really good golf at last year’s Thunderbird Collegiate that included a three-way Wildcat tie for second place on the player leaderboard. We know Papago Golf Course very well and are returning to desert golf for a fourth time this season. Coming off a sweep of championships in our last tournament, we’ve got some good momentum to card more great scores this weekend.”
Senior Sam Sommerhauser and sophomore Zach Pollo represent two thirds of last year’s Wildcat trio of runner-up finishes and both will be in the Wildcat lineup again this weekend. They are joined by Tiger Christensen, Filip Jakubcik and Tianyi Xiong for a five-man lineup that has combined to win two tournaments this season in addition to 14 top-10 finishes.
Arizona’s 2023-24 season has included a pair of team tournament championships in Arizona and Hawai’i as well as two runner-up finishes in Arizona and Texas. The Cats’ last win at the Thunderbird Collegiate came in 2006 with their only other title at the event coming in 1993.
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