Rams Head to Washington For 2018 Mountain West Championship

Tournament: Mountain West Championship
Date: April 20-22, 2018
Host: Mountain West Conference
Location: Bremerton, Wash.
Course: Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club
Course Par/Yardage: Par 72 / 7,115 yards
Host Web Site: http://www.themw.com
Live Scoring: http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=15585
Tournament Field (11): Colorado State, Air Force, Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State, Wyoming

Next on the Tee: The Colorado State men's golf team will head to Bremerton, Wash., for the 2018 Mountain West Men's Golf Championship, April 20-22. The three-day, 54-hole stroke play event will be played at the Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club, with the team champion earning the league's automatic invitation to the NCAA Regionals. CSU enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will play with No. 1 UNLV in the first round, starting at 8 a.m. PT Friday.

Handicapping the Field: There are 11 teams in the field for the 2018 Mountain West Conference Championship, with eight teams ranked in the top 110 nationally according to Golfweek. Along with the Rams, currently ranked No. 41, the field (in rank order) consists of UNLV (#21), San Diego State (#49), Nevada (#54), Wyoming (#75), New Mexico (#90), San Jose State (#103), Fresno State (#110), Boise State (#118), Utah State (#152) and Air Force (#187).

Lineup for the Mountain West Championship: The Rams are in the play-five, count-four event this week at the MW Championship. For CSU, the lineup will be:
1.   AJ Ott
2.   Max Oelfke
3.   Jack Ainscough
4.   Jake Staiano
5.   Parathakorn Suyasri

Last Year at MW Championship: Colorado State battled to the end but came up just short and finished as the runner-up in a thrilling finish at the 2017 Mountain West Championship, April 21-23. The three-day, 54-hole tournament was played at the OMNI Tucson National Resort's Catalina Course (Par 72 – 7,194 yards) in Tucson, Ariz.
   The Rams were locked in a five-way battle with No. 16 UNLV, Boise State, San Diego State and New Mexico in the final round, as the championship came down to the final holes of the tournament. CSU continued to have an answer for almost every birdie posted by its opponents, but just fell short in the final holes of the tournament, going one-over on the final two holes of counting scores. Colorado State posted a 4-under 284 in the final 18 and finish the tournament at 17-under 847, one shot back of No. 16 and top-seed UNLV at 18-under 846. It was the Rams' best finish in the tournament under head coach Christian Newton and the best team score in the event since the 2010 season, as 12 of the 15 tournaments rounds played were under-par this week.
   The top five teams were separated by just four shots, as Boise State was third at 16-under 848. No. 40 San Diego State came in fourth at 15-under 849 and No. 42 New Mexico placed fifth at 14-under 850 after a tournament-best 13-under 275 in the last 18.
   Colorado State was led by senior Blake Cannon and junior Colton Yates, who tied for eighth at 5-under 211, as Yates led Sunday's effort with a 3-under 69 while Cannon had a 1-under 71. Sophomore Jake Staiano was one shot behind at 4-under 212, tying for 11th following his 1-under 71. Junior Max Oelfke and freshman AJ Ott tied for 20th at even-par 216, as each shot a 1-over 73 today. Boise State took the top two spots in the tournament, as Brian Humprheys won medalist honors at 12-under 204, two shots better than Donny Hopoi.

CSU History at the MW Championship: CSU has been champions twice in the 18-year history and have crowned two individual winners. Below is a quick recap of the Rams' finishes in the history of the event.
Year   Team Finish   Top Individual
2000   3rd (287-283-300=870)   2. Nigel Spence
2001   3rd (301-303-292=896)   t-3. Dallas Massey
2002    t-5th (301-291-287=879)   1. Martin Laird
2003    6th (287-288-297=872)   t-1. Martin Laird (L-playoff)
2004    5th (289-295-292=876)   t-2. Nolan Martin
2005   5th (297-292-297=886)   t-9. Nate Pettitt
2006    6th (301-283-299=883)   t-14. Derek Whiting
2007   4th (287-289-284=860)   12. Zen Brown
2008    1st (288-284-278=850)   t-2. Riley Arp
2009    5th (291-272-291=854)   t-11. Zahkai Brown
2010    1st (283-274-277=834)   1. Ryan Peterson
2011    4th (286-287-283=856)   t-1. Ryan Peterson
2012   5th (284-283-286=853)   t-2. Zahkai Brown
2013    5th (296-283-297=876 )   t-13. Parker Edens
2014   5th (292-294-288=874)   t-10. Dominic Kieffer
2015   5th (287-287-291=865)   12. Dominic Kieffer
2016   t-4th (281-292-287=860)   t-6. Dominic Kieffer
2017   2nd (283-280-284=847)   t-8. Blake Cannon

Individual National Rankings: Colorado State's success on the course is due to the entire lineup, as all five golfers are ranked significantly in the key NCAA Division I metrics. The Rams current rankings are:
Player   Golfweek   Golfstat
AJ Ott   197   185
Max Oelfke   228   211
Jack Ainscough   322   259
Jake Staiano   323   301
Parathakorn Suyarsi   339   327

On the World Stage: All five Rams that played in the lineup in the fall are ranked among the top 3000 players in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings. The rankings are based on their average performance in selected counting events over the past two calendar years.
Player   WAGR
Jake Staiano   352
Max Oelfke   376
AJ Ott   427*
Parathakorn Suyasri   599
Jack Ainscough   1809*
(*just entered in last month of fall season)

On the CSU Career Chart: The current roster is etching their names on the CSU record book (since 1993-94).

Junior Jake Staiano continues to be among the best to have played at CSU so far in his career. His scoring average of 72.37 in 78 competitive rounds ranks fifth all-time.
He is one of six players in CSU history to have 50 percent or more of his collegiate rounds played at par or better.
Staiano has an all-time win percentage of 69.8 percent, currently seventh in CSU annals, while senior Max Oelfke ranks 14th in the category at 62.7 percent.
Oelfke has shown his ability to post quite a few under-par holes in his career. He is tied for first in career eagles with 21 in 117 rounds played. He also has 389 career birdies (an average of better than three per round), which is ninth.
Staiano also ranks on the eagles made chart with 10, tied for ninth.

Ott Racks Up First Career Top-5 Finish, Starting Strong: Sophomore AJ Ott posted his first collegiate top-5 and second top-10 finish of the year with a fourth at the Ram Masters Invitational, Sept. 18-19. The Fort Collins native previously tied for 10th at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational for his first collegiate career top 10. In his seven tournaments, he finishes include a tie for 10th, a fourth, tie for 16th and two ties for 20th, surpassing junior Jake Staiano with three top-20s this season. Ott leads the team with a 71.63 strokes per round average ( 0.41) and has counted his score towards the team total 87.0 percent of the season (23.5 of 27 rounds).

Putting Together Top-10s This Season: In the early going, CSU is playing extremely solid golf, showing in the rankings. Sophomore AJ Ott has three top-16 placings, while senior Colton Yates and Max Oelfke each have two top-10 finishes so far on the year. Junior Jake Staiano and freshman Parathakorn Suyasri finished fifth and tied for eighth, respectively, at the Ram Masters Invitational, with Staiano having recorded three top-20s in four events. Suyasri also finished in a tie for eighth at Saint Mary's, Yates tying for 14th and Ott tying for 20th. Currently, the Rams have three top-five, 11 top-10 and 22 top-20 individual finishes so far this year.

Making A Mark Nationally: The Rams are making their presence known on the national scene this year. With four top-five finishes in the fall and solid placings in the top spring events, CSU is ranked No. 41 in the nation according to the Golfweek ratings & No. 43 according to Golfstat's ratings.

Fall Accomplishments: The Rams had one of their most successful falls, with several notables:

In the fall schedule, CSU finished in the top five in all four fall events with three third top-threes and one tournament title (Ram Masters Invitational).
In the four tournaments of the fall, CSU defeated 22 teams that were represented either with teams or individuals in the NCAA Regionals last year. Of those, 14 were victories over regional teams with three over squads that advanced to the NCAA Championship.
CSU had six of their 12 team rounds in the fall that all four counting rounds come in at par or better.
The Rams shot 13-under 271 in the final round of the Saint Mary's Invitational, tying the best under-par round of the season (-13), is the second lowest 18-hole score of the year for the squad and ties for the ninth-lowest single round total in school history.
At Saint Mary's, Colorado State defeated 11 teams ranked in the top 103 (at the time of the event) according to Golfweek's rating system, which had the Rams ranked #18 entering the event. The only teams to finish ahead of the Rams were #30 Southern Cal and #14 Stanford.
In winning the Ram Masters Invitational, CSU shot a 12-under 268 in the opening round. That score is tied for the sixth lowest 18-hole total in program history.
Colorado State currently has a head-to-head mark of 100-44 (.694) on the season against one of the toughest schedules in school history, far above the minimum .500 record for consideration for a NCAA Regional at-large bid. With 81 teams receiving bids (31 automatic, 50 at-large), the Rams are in a very good position with one tournament to play. The entire set of six regional fields will be announced on May 2 at 3:30 pm on the Golf Channel.

Showing the Growth: Under head coach Christian Newton, CSU continues to show growth on the national stage, as the Rams play a high-level schedule each year. With the performance so far this season, Newton's teams moved to a 59.2 percent winning record in his five-plus years according to Golfstat. Newton moved ahead of Mark Crabtree (1994-99) on the list at 57.0 percent and Newton has six career CSU team tournament titles to Crabtree's five.

Last Time on the Tee: The Colorado State men's golf team finished seventh at the 2018 ASU Thunderbird Invitational, April 14-15. The two-day, 54-hole event, hosted by Arizona State University, was played at Karsten Golf Course (Par 71 – 7,032 yards) in Tempe, Ariz.
    The No. 44 Rams battled on the final day to hold it together, including finishing with four birdies to three bogeys on the final three holes, to post a 4-over 288 and finish at 3-over 855 in seventh. Host No. 25 Arizona State won the team title at 22-under 830, defeating No. 27 UNLV by one shot at 21-under 831. No. 3 Oklahoma was third at 19-under 833, with No. 1 Oklahoma State shooting the top round of the day at 14-under to move up to fourth at 17-under 835. No. 32 Arizona was fifth at 14-under 838, with all six teams ahead of CSU in the final standings also ranked in the top 32 nationally. CSU did defeat Pac-12 schools Colorado, Oregon State, Utah and Washington State in the event, finishing the regular season with a 3-1 head-to-head record over the in-state rival Buffaloes.
    "Overall, the result was good this week," head coach Christian Newton said. "We played the closing stretch very good to help solidify a solid finish. I am excited with where we are heading into the post season."
    CSU was led by junior Jake Staiano in a tie for 19th at 1-under 212. For Staiano, it was his first top-20 finish of the spring and fourth this season. Freshman Parathakorn Suyasri was next in a tie for 34th at 3-over 216. Freshman Jack Ainscough and sophomore AJ Ott tied for 43rd at 5-over 218, with Ainscough posting a team-best 1-under 69 in the final round, including a 3-under in his final nine holes. Senior Max Oelfke completed the Rams' play one shot back at 6-over, tied for 46th.
(complete recap on page 7)

Record Setting Event at Ram Masters: CSU had its name all over the Ram Masters Invitational record book during the 2017 event. As a team, the Rams set new records for lowest single-round score (-12, 268 in opening round), lowest 36-hole score (-12, 548) and lowest 54-hole score (-17, 823) in the tournament's history. The Rams' third round of 5-under 275 is also the fourth lowest in the tournament's annals. Individually, AJ Ott's 4-under 206 is tied for the sixth-lowest 54-hole score, while Jake Staiano's 3-under 207 is tied for ninth. Staiano's 4-under 66 in the first round is tied for the 10th lowest single-round score.

Ram on Tour: Former Colorado State standout Martin Laird, a PGA tour veteran, has had a solid 2018 season so far on the tour, currently with $552,890 in earnings and currently 97th in the FedEx Cup. He has made the cut in six of 10 events played with two top 10s and three top 25s, with the best finish a tie for ninth at back-to-back tournaments in the Waste Management Phoenix Open at 13-under (Feb. 4) and Genesis Open at 7-under (Feb. 18). In 2017, his efforts during the regular season earned him a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the eighth time. For his career, he has now surpassed $16.19 million in winnings and made the cut in more than two-thirds of his PGA Tour starts in his 10-plus years on the top golf tour. Laird was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame this past fall.

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