College Golf Pepperdine and USC

PEPPERDINE MEN BEST IN THE WEST

Joshua McCarthy

With the Pacific 12 Conference’s California men’s golf teams all seemingly going through a down year, Pepperdine has stepped to the head of the class in the Golden State.

Of course, the Waves always have been able to hold their own against the big boys, winning the 1997 NCAA Championship and being competitive virtually every season under Coach Michael Beard—the 2020 National Coach of the Year and four-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year.

After winning three times and finishing second in its other event during the Fall Season, Pepperdine gained its first victory of the Spring recently in the 74th Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz after placing seventh or better in their previous five tournaments of 2021.

“We’ve been trending in the right direction and it was great to get out of here with a victory,” Beard said after the Waves beat Stanford by 11 strokes in Santa Cruz. “We were just super grateful and very excited to be able to compete together this Fall (after most of the 2020 season was cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic).”

And the Waves have taken advantage of the situation, currently ranked No. 6 in the Golfweek/Sagarin national rankings and placing five players in the top 65 of the men’s individual rankings.

Left-hander Joshua McCarthy, a redshirt senior from Danville, somehow is ranked only No. 40 despite having claimed the individual title in the Pasadera Invitational and the Rustic Collegiate Classic, in addition to finishing second in the Southwestern Invitational.

Dylan Menante is ranked No. 14 nationally for Pepperdine, with Joey Vrzich at No. 16,

RJ Manke at No. 47 and Joe Highsmith, another southpaw, at No. 65.

Highsmith claimed his first college title in the Western Intercollegiate, finishing in a tie for first before winning with a par on the fourth playoff holes.

The Waves also have William Mouw, a sophomore from Chino who was an All-American as a freshman and recently was named to the 2021 United States Walker Cup team.

Mouw has struggled a bit this season with only two top-10 finishes in eight events and is ranked No. 118, but is No. 26 in the Men’s World Amateur Rankings.

“It’s challenging to pare eight or nine good players down to five, especially heading toward the postseason,” Beard said.

San Diego State is second among California schools in the men’s national rankings at No. 24, followed by San Francisco at No. 25, USC at No. 47 and Stanford at No 48.

University of San Diego is No. 55, with Loyola Marymount at No. 68, St. Mary’s at No. 73, Long Beach State at No. 89 and UC Davis at No. 91.

California is No. 92, with Santa Clara at No. 97, UCLA at No. 98 and Fresno State at No. 100.

Among the other California individuals in the top 100, Barclay Brown of Stanford is No. 36, Soren Lind of USF is No. 57, Tommy Stephenson of Fresno State is No. 68, Kaito Onishi of USC is No. 70 and Puwit Anupansuebsai of San Diego State is No. 89.

USC WOMEN IN HUNT FOR NCAA TITLE

USC’s Alyaa Abdulghany

USC has captured three NCAA Women’s Golf Championships and is in the hunt for No. 4 next month.

The Trojans, No. 4 nationally in the Golfweek/ Sagarin Rankings, recently claimed their fourth victory of the season in the Silverado Showdown and finished second in their only other tournament.

“That was a really impressive round on an incredibly difficult PGA Tour golf course,” Coach Justin Silverstein said after the latest victory. “We got great effort from everyone in our lineup and that is what it’s going to take to succeed in the postseason.”

Allisen Corpuz, a fifth-year senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, has led USC in all five events this season, winning the Lampkin San Diego Invitational and the Gold Rush, while finishing no worse than fourth in the Arizona Wildcat Invitational.

Corpuz, a two-time All-American, is No. 11 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings.

“Allisen continued her insanely good play and she should be considered one of the favorites for National Player of the Year,” Silverstein said after Corpuz finished second at Silverado.

Corpuz is joined in the top 100 of the college rankings by teammates Alyaa Abdulghany at No. 22 and Amelia Garvey at No. 34, and six of the Trojans were invited to the 2021 Augusta Women’s Amateur, in which Corpuz tied for 13th.

No. 24 UCLA has Emma Spitz (who tied for third at Augusta) at No. 15 and Annabel Wilson at No. 93, while Stanford is No. 35, led by No. 39 Rachel Heck, and 52nd-ranked San Diego State is led by Teresa Toscano at No. 8 and No. 45 Sara Kjellker.

Spitz, a sophomore from Vienna, Austria, has finished in the top four in five times in six starts this season, including second twice. She has won the Austrian Stroke Play Championship, the Austrian Stroke Play U21, the Austrian International Amateur and the Austrian Match Play.

“She is not playing to have a top-five finish–she is playing to win,” UCLA Coach Forsyth said. “She doesn’t need a lot of extra words to push her along because she is very self-motivated.”

Said Spitz, who won the Bruin Wave Invitational as a freshman for her first college victory: “I really want to prove to myself that I can do better, so I think that it’s a good feeling of, ‘I know I can do better, and I want to prove it to myself.’”

Other California teams in the top 100 of the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings include No. 47 Pepperdine, No. 55 San Jose State, No. 75 Fresno State, No. 79 California, No. 82 Cal State Northridge, No. 87 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and No. 92 Sacramento State.

Brigitte Thibault of Fresno State is ranked No. 89, while San Jose State has Kajsa Arwefjall at No. 68.

THE MORE FORWARD THE CG, THE FASTER THE BALL SPEED. THE LOWER THE CG, THE LOWER THE SPIN. THE HIGHER THE MOI, THE MORE STABILITY. BY INCREASING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE FRONT AND BACK WEIGHTS WE’VE CREATED RADIAL (RAD) WEIGHTING UNLOCKING FASTER BALL SPEED WHILE MAINTAINING FORGIVENESS. HOW FAST? DON’T BLINK.