Arizona Men’s golf is back in action for the first time since early November to compete in the Arizona Intercollegiate. The Wildcats head into the second half of the season with the luxury of not having to travel because this week’s tournament will be played at their home course, Sewailo Golf Club. Sewailo is about a 30-minute drive south of campus, which is a huge change from their last tournament in which they had to travel over 800 miles to Pebble Beach, Calif.

Season rundown

The Wildcats have already participated in four tournaments this season, with each tournament in a different state in the U.S. 

The 2017-2018 season kicked off in Albuquerque, N.M. with the Wildcats placing third overall in the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate. In that tournament, senior George Cunningham earned first place in the individual category. 

Next, the ‘Cats traveled to Oregon to compete in the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational where they placed 13th overall. 

Two weeks later the ‘Cats took a trip to Windermere, Florida to compete in the Tavistock Invitational, where they finished 10th overall. 

The last tournament of 2017 for the Wildcats took place in Pebble Beach, Calif. for the St. Mary’s Invitational. The ‘Cats placed eleventh place overall with sophomore Brad Reeves placing 8th overall in the individual category.

Coming up

The Arizona Intercollegiate will be played on Monday, Jan. 29 and Tuesday, Jan. 30. The two-day event will feature two rounds of golf on the first day of the tournament and one round on the second day. Most tournaments the ‘Cats have played this season have been spaced out over three days, but this event will force each player to squeeze 54 holes of golf into two days. 

Last year in the same tournament, the Wildcats placed ninth overall after battling high winds throughout most of the tournament in addition to the 17 other division one teams, though this year looks to be a different story as far as weather goes; day one of the tournament will have a high of 79 degrees, with day two hitting a high of 81. 

This tournament, the Wildcats will carry five starters along with seven individual players. The starting five for the Wildcats are George Cunningham, David Laskin, Brad Reeves, Trevor Werbylo and Tianlang Guan. The individual players playing at Sewailo include Travis Fredborg and Dylan Stein playing at Sewailo, but the tournament will also have individual players at the Randolph golf course. For Arizona, those players are Gavin Cohen, Briggs Duce, Toppie Hogan, Drake Mendenhall and Austin Stadeli. 

The Arizona Intercollegiate will consist of the most players to participate in a tournament for Arizona this season. 

Normally, the team has anywhere from five to seven players, but since the tournament is in Tucson, the team can bring a larger number of golfers. While the individual scores don’t count towards the team’s overall score, it allows those players to improve on their golf game and experience the added pressures of tournament play.

The Arizona Intercollegiate will start Monday morning at 8 a.m. and will continue throughout the entire day, with the tournament wrapping up on Tuesday. The Wildcat golfers, along with head coach Jim Anderson and assistant coach Chris Nallen, will look to defend their home course in hopes to win their first event this season.