TUCSON, Ariz. – No. 11 Arizona Men’s Golf found familiar form at their home tournament, the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate, on Tuesday by sweeping the team and individual titles. The Wildcats clinched the team title for the 12th time in program history with a final score of 17-under par. Junior Tiger Christesen used a final round 65 to win the individual championship at 10-under, edging teammate Tianyi Xiong by two strokes.
“I am incredibly proud of our guys for how they competed these two days and turned in a total team performance,” said head coach Jim Anderson. “Hosting tournaments is a great privilege for us, and our culture as a program is to have the mindset that we are going to be the best team and show it out on the course. Hats off to Tiger on the victory and for setting a course record out there today, which added another chapter to his outstanding season. Championship performances are great springboards for momentum moving forward, and I can’t wait to see what our future looks like after this week.”
After a slow start for a handful of holes to begin the tournament on Monday morning, Arizona took a sizeable lead and never relinquished it through 50 holes. The Wildcats put away the competition with a final round of 9-under that was the lowest team score in the field on Tuesday, winning the event by 21 strokes over second-place New Mexico.
Christensen is the 12th Wildcat to win the individual crown at the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate and the first since Brad Reeves and Christian Banke won back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. The Hamburg, Germany native sat in a tie for fourth place at 3-under par entering the final round before securing the win with a 7-under performance on Tuesday. Christensen caught fire on the back nine, sinking five consecutive birdies on holes 10 through 14.
Coach Anderson’s lineup produced four golfers who finished in the top 10 of the leaderboards in addition to Xiong’s runner-up performance as an individual. Sam Sommerhauser finished in third place with a final score of 4-under par while Johnny Walker ended his week one stroke behind Sommerhauser in a tie for fourth place.
Arizona will stay in its home state for its next tournament, traveling up to Papago Golf Course in Phoenix for the Thunderbird Collegiate. Arizona State’s home tournament will begin on Friday, April…
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