CSU Back In Play At Western Intercollegiate Presented By Topgolf

Tournament: Western Intercollegiate presented by TopGolf
Dates: April 12-14, 2021
Host: San Jose State University
Location: Santa Cruz, Calif.
Course: Pasatiempo Golf Club
Course Par/Yardage: Par 70 / 6,615 yds
Host Web Site: http://sjsuspartans.com
Live Scoring: https://csura.ms/2OwaVEW
Tournament Field (15): Colorado State, San Jose State, Arizona, BYU, Cal, Hawai'i, Oregon, Pepperdine, San Diego State, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, USC, UTEP, Washington

Next on the Tee: Colorado State is continuing its West Coast play, participating in the nationally-renowned Western Intercollegiate presented by Topgolf. The three-day, 54-hole tournament is being played at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., and will have national television coverage on Golf Channel.

Lineup for the Western Intercollegiate: The Rams are in the unique play-six, count-five event this week at Pasatiempo Golf Club. For CSU, the lineup will be:
1.      AJ Ott
2.     Rasmus Hjelm
3.     Davis Bryant
4.     Jack Ainscough
5.     Parathakorn Suyasri
6.     Gunnar Broin

Western Intercollegiatet (CSU All-Time Results)
Dates                     Place/Teams            Scores (vs. Par)
3/22-23/2004           10th/15         290-286-296=872 (+32)
4/7-8/2018               8th/15          361-355-349=1065 (+15)
4/15-17/2019             t-6th/13        353-363-349=1065 (+15)

Last Time Out: Against one of the top fields this year, Colorado State faced blustery conditions and finished 17th at the National Invitational Tournament, March 20-21. The two-day, 54-hole event, hosted by the University of Arizona, was played at Omni Tucson National Resort Catalina Course (Par 72 – 7,167 yards) in Tucson, Ariz.
       With all teams ranked in the top 118 according to Golfstat and all but three in the top 85, CSU was unable to get it going in any of the three rounds and finished at 22-over 866. No. 8 Oklahoma State won the event at 47-under 817, four shots better than No. 2 Oklahoma in second at 43-under 821. No. 6 Texas was third at 31-under 833, with No. 41 San Diego State (29-under 835) in fourth and No. 17 Arizona and No. 4 Illinois tied for fifth at 28-under 836.
       AJ Ott was the top team member at 1-over 217 in a tie for 53rd. Parathakorn Suyasri was next at 5-over 221 in a tie for 74th. Rasmus Hjelm tied for 84th at 7-over 223, while Davis Bryant tied for 84th at 14-over 230. Gunnar Broin finished 99th at 16-over 232. Playing as an individual, Cullen Plousha tied for 44th at even-par 216.

Fast Five On the 2020-21 Season:
This is the fourth team tournament of the season for the Rams.
Senior AJ Ott returned and has taken home his first and second individual titles in his first two events while earning back-to-back Mountain West Golfer of the Week honors. Not only was he named Golfweek National Player of the Week but enters this week as the top-ranked men's golfer in the nation on Golfstat's individual rankings.
The wins by AJ Ott were the 30th and 31st individual titles won by a CSU player in the modern era (since 1991-92).
Five Rams (Suyasri, Bryant, Ott, Jack Ainscough and Oscar Teiffel) are all in the top 15 in career scoring at CSU.
Head coach Christian Newton now has 11 tournament victories in his eight years as leader of the Rams.

Last Time at Western Intercollegiate in March 2019:
       Colorado State put together its best round of the tournament and moved up to finish in a tie for sixth at the 73rd Western Intercollegiate presented by Topgolf.
       In the unique play-six, count-five format, the No. 46 Rams put together a late charge in the final nine holes of the tournament, with the counting players going 3-under in that span to post a 1-under 349 and finish at 15-over 1065 in a tie with No. 39 Oregon. CSU had one of five under-par team scores in the last round. No. 16 Stanford won the team title at 10-under 1040, six shots ahead of No. 11 California at 4-under 1046. Host San Jose State was third at 1-over 1051, with No. 6 Southern Cal fourth one shot back at 2-over 1052. No. 19 Pepperdine rounded out the top five teams at 10-over 1060.
       Individually, CSU was led by senior Jake Staiano and junior AJ Ott, who each posted a top-10 finish against this highly-competitive field, as the duo tied for ninth at 2-under 208. Staiano had a team tournament-best 4-under 66, including a 5-under 30 on his final nine of the day, while Ott was one shot back at 3-under 67 with four birdies to just one bogey on the day. Sophomore Parathakorn Suyasri was next in a tie for 26th at 4-over 214, while fellow sophomore Jack Ainscough tied for 33rd at 5-over 215 following a final-round 1-over 71. Freshman Davis Bryant finished at 13-over 223, tying for 63rd, with freshman Oscar Teiffel finishing 72nd at 16-over 226. Stanford's Isaiah Salinda, ranked 68th nationally, and San Jose State's Sean Yu tied for medalist honors, with Salinda winning the five-hole playoff for the award.

On the World Stage: Five Rams on the current roster are ranked among the top 1000 players in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings, as of April 7, The rankings are based on their average performance in selected counting events over the past two calendar years.
Player                                     WAGR
AJ Ott                                      92
Parathakorn Suyasri                119
Davis Bryant                             417
Jack Ainscough                        668
Oscar Teiffel                             961

Individual National Rankings: Colorado State's success on the course is due to the entire lineup, as several golfers are ranked significantly in the key NCAA Division I metrics. This year, the top Ram is senior AJ Ott, who is 32nd according to Golfweek and 84th in Golfstat.

Military Tribute Bag Continues: In 2020-21, CSU is continuing its tradition of honoring those who have served our country through the military. This year, the program is again recognizing U.S. Army veteran Charles W. Williamson III, due to the shortened season in 2019-20.
       Williamson served almost 17 years on active duty before medically retiring as a Sergeant First Class in 2007. He was part of a tank effort in Operation Desert Storm and through his first nine years of service, he was an Armor Crewman and held every position on a tank, including tank commander. During his military career, he also served as a Platoon Sergeant and Head Cadre, the instructor for the Individual Readiness Training for Bosnia rotations. He also served as a recruiter for the Army, retiring as Commander of a six-man recruiting station. From his service, he received numerous awards, bages, ribbons and commendations, including for meritorius service, His daughter Katelyn is a senior at CSU and is a Folds of Honor Scholarship recipient studying bio-medical sciences.
       The bag was carried by the top CSU finisher from the previous tournament during the 2019-20 season. Davis Bryant earned the honor after winning the qualifying event for the first week's Capital Carpet Collegiate at Georgia Tech, Sept. 6-8. Five different Rams carried the bag during the 2018-19 season. However this year, senior AJ Ott will carry the bag the entire season due to CoVID protocols.
       Last year, the military tribute bag debuted, honoring former golfer and late U.S. Army veteran James "Jerry" Jackson. Jackson had served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, eventually passing away from lasting effects from exposure to Agent Orange from his service.

2019-20 Tournament                         Player Carrying                Finish
Carpet Capital Collegiate                    Davis Bryant                     t-18th
Ram Masters Invitational                     AJ Ott                               t-2nd
Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate      AJ Ott                               t-7th
Saint Mary's Invitational                      Parathakorn Suyasri         t-3rd
Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate          Davis Bryant                     t-31st
Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic          Davis Bryant                     t-5th

Newton Named to GCAA National Advisory Board
Head coach Christian Newton was named to the Golf Coaches Association of America National Advisory Board, effective July 1, 2020. This is the first time that a CSU coach has been named to this prestigious position.
Newton was elected by his fellow coaches at the GCAA National Convention in December of 2019 and will become the Third Vice President on July 1, 2020.
It is a 10-year commitment, where every two years he will move up the ranks after each President's term is up. He will become the Second Vice President from 2022-24, First Vice President from 2024-26 before becoming President in 2026-28. Following that, he will serve a two-year stint as the Past President from 2028-30.

All-Americans and Other Awards in 2019-20:
The Rams reeled in numerous awards for their outstanding work on and off the course in 2019-20.
PING Honorable Mention All-Americans: Davis Bryant and AJ Ott (4th & 5th in CSU history)
GCAA All-West Region: Davis Bryant, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri
All-Mountain West: Davis Bryant, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri
GCAA All-America Scholars: Andrew Lafferty, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri, Oscar Teiffel
Academic All-Mountain West: Jack Ainscough, Andrew Lafferty, AJ Ott, Parathakorn Suyasri, Oscar Teiffel
GCAA All-Academic Team: Colorado State (Eighth consecutive year)

More Tap-In Putts On CSU in 2019-20:
Last season, the Rams against schools from the various conferences are:
Mountain West – 12-1
Pac-12 – 8-2 (43-32-1 over last three years)
Big Ten – 1-0 (8-0 over last three years)
Southeastern Conference (SEC) – 6-3
Atlantic Coast Conference – 1-1-1
The Rams finished in the top five in four of their six events this year, holding a 78-15-2 head-to-head record.
CSU had one individual win, eight top-five, nine top-10 and 14 top-20 finishes in just six events.
Sophomore Davis Bryant posted par or better scores in 12 of his last 14 rounds as he posted his third top-5 finish of the year and his collegiate career.
Junior AJ Ott posted 11 of his 17 rounds at par or better last year
After a slow start in the opening tournament, junior Parathakorn Suyasri finished in the top five of three of his next five and top-25 in all five tournaments (T-5, 1st, T-3, T-21, T-24)

Making A Mark Nationally: The Rams made their presence known on the national scene the last two years, finishing No. 41 in the nation according to the Golfweek ratings & No. 45 according to Golfstat's ratings in 2017-18 and ranked No. 41 according to Golfstat and No. 43 by Golfweek last season. Utilizing Golfstat, CSU was the top-ranked Division I golf team in the state and second in the Mountain West behind UNLV.
       Within the region in 2018-19, CSU recorded a 84-28-1 head-to-head record with an 18-12-1 record against Pac-12 schools and 26-11 versus the Mountain West, which had five teams in the Regionals for the first time since 2012 (#27 UNLV, #41 CSU, #49 Nevada, #58 San Jose State and #70 New Mexico).
       In 2019-20, the Rams were a stellar 46-5-1 against West region teams and 78-15-2 overall in head-to-head matchups. Against top-25 teams, the Rams finished 7-5-2 overall (.571). Finishing 21st in team scoring versus par this year, CSU ended the season as the top team in the state (by 58 places over Colorado in second and 79 over Denver in third) and Mountain West (nine places ahead of San Diego State) and fourth in the West region.
       This season, the Rams enter their schedule receiving votes in the GCAA Coaches Poll.

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 this season, Newton's teams moved to a 62.9 percent winning record in his eight years according to Golfstat. Newton moved ahead of both Jamie Bermel (1994-99 - 62.1 percent) Mark Crabtree (1994-99 - 57.0 percent) and Newton has 11 career CSU team tournament titles to Crabtree's five.
       As a team in 2018-19, the Rams were ranked #5 in the region in scoring versus par at +0.27 per round. This season, the Rams were #7 at -1.61 per round.

Bryant Named CGA Player of the Year: Colorado State men's golf continues to make its impact on the state's golf scene, as sophomore Davis Bryant was named the 2019 Colorado Golf Association Les Fowler Player of the Year as the state's top amateur golfer, the organization announced. He is the third straight CSU golfer to earn the award as former Ram Jake Staiano took home the award in 2017 and current senior AJ Ott won the award in 2018.
       Bryant won the honor in part from his title in winning the CGA Amateur at Lakewood Country Club this past summer in his first time in competing in the championship. He also finished second among the amateurs (to Ott) at the CoBank Colorado Open. In addition, Bryant advanced to the round of 16 at the CGA Match Play and eventually finished atop the CGA Player of the Year standings.

Ram on Tour: Former Colorado State standout Martin Laird, a PGA tour veteran, has made a statement already in the 2021 season with his fourth career victory on tour, a playoff win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. This was his second in in the event as he also captured the title in 2009.
       So far, he has made the cut in eight events, with the win and a tie for 17th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions as his top finishes. He has earned $1.53 million this season after the 2020 season was halted due to the pandemic. In 2019, his efforts during the regular season earned him a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the 10th time in 12 seasons.
       For his career, he has surpassed $19.28 million in official PGA Tour winnings and made the cut in almost two-thirds of his 313 PGA Tour starts in his 13-plus years on the top golf tour. Laird was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2017.

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