CCAA Golf Tournament starts Monday

The Ninth Annual California Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Golf Championships is scheduled to open
Monday at the par-72, 7,741-yard Hunter Ranch Golf Course in Paso Robles.

The 54-hole event opens with 36 holes on Monday and concludes with  the final 18 on Tuesday. Monday’s opening round is scheduled to begin at 7:34 a.m. and Tuesday’s final round is set to start at 7:25  a.m.

The seven-team field includes Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Stanislaus, Chico State, UC San Diego, Sonoma State and Cal State Monterey Bay. Cal State Stanislaus senior All-American Erick Justesen is the defending individual medalist after he helped the Warriors to the 2007 championship.

Sonoma State, which is coming off a win at the Buzzini/Stanislaus Invitational on Tuesday, enters the CCAA Championships ranked No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, while Cal State Stanislaus is No. 6
and Chico State is No. 14.

The Seawolves enter the CCAA Championships with three team victories, while Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State have each won two tournaments.

Junior All-American and 2007 Jack Nicklaus Award winner Jarin Todd leads Sonoma State, which captured two tournaments during the fall portion of its schedule. The Redmond, Wash., native has captured three individual medalist honors this season, and tops the CCAA with a 70.5 stroke average.

The Seawolves boast four of the CCAA’s top five stroke average leaders as Apple Valley native Kyle Hopkins (73.2), Patrick Bauer (73.4) and Jacob O’Keefe (73.5) rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Justesen is second in the CCAA with a 71.9 stroke average and has victories at the Sonoma State Invitational and CSUMB Otter Invitational.

Cal State Stanislaus captured last year’s championships with a 4- under par total of 860. The victory snapped a string of five straight wins by Cal State Bakersfield, which left the CCAA following the 2007 season to move to Division I. The Warriors captured the first-ever event when it won in 1999 at the Turlock Golf & Country Club.

CCAA Men’s Golf Champions

Team

1999 Yascha Feld (CSUS)
2000 John Davis (GCU)
2001 Marc Lawless (CSUS)
2002 Jason Boyd (UCD)
2003 Bill Noon (CSUB)
2004 D.J. Fernando (CSUB)
2005 Mark Baker (CSUB)
2006 Brady Baguio (CSUB)
2007 Erick Justesen (CSUS)