Seven men's teams and five women's teams are set to compete at the 2007 Big West Golf Championships on April 23-24 at Tijeras Creek Golf Club in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Thirty-six holes are scheduled for Monday with 18 holes to close out the championship on Tuesday. The men's course is a par-72, 6,918 yard layout while the women's course measures 6,059 yards. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Big West Conference and Tijeras Creek have partnered to host the event. Admission to this event is free.
The Cal Poly men and UC Irvine women were last year's champions. It was the first title in program history for the Mustangs. The Anteaters are two-time defending champions.
Previous teams crowned as champions at Tijeras Creek include Long Beach State (2004) and UC Riverside (2005) on the men's side. Cal State Northridge took home the women's title in 2004 before UCI's current two-year run.
The competing men's teams include Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific. Participating women's teams include Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC Riverside. The UC Davis women's team will also compete as a non-scoring participant. UC Davis joins the Big West as an official member in 2007-08 and the Aggies will be eligible for championships in all conference-sponsored sports.
The UC Irvine men look to break through for their first tournament title since winning three straight from 2001-03. The Anteaters have finished in the top five in nine of the 10 tournaments they have entered this season. UCI is ranked 31st in the Apr. 11 Golfstat head-to-head rankings and 39th in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Index (Apr. 16). UCI finished as a runner-up to Cal Poly in 2006. The Anteaters return senior Brian Edick, a first team all-conference golfer who leads UCI with a 71.70 average through 27 rounds.
In its last outing, against a field that had all seven Big West schools competing, Cal Poly claimed the title of the Ogio Pacific Coast Intercollegiate (Apr. 2-3). Junior Chris Kirk, a member of Cal Poly’s "B" team just five days earlier at the Mustang Intercollegiate, made the most of his promotion to "A" team status when he earned medalist honors at the OPCI with a 17-under par 199, including a school record 64 in the first round. His 64 bettered the pair of 65s that three-time Big West Golfer of the Year Travis Bertoni achieved during his career.
UC Irvine and Long Beach State have finished one-two in the last two women's championships. Both squads feature one of the top players in the nation. For UCI, it is junior Selanee' Henderson. She was the 2006 Big West Golfer of the Year and the individual medalist at the conference championship with a 3-over par 219. Henderson won two tournaments during the spring and is UCI's all-time leader with five titles.
LBSU has a powerful junior of its own in Kay Hoey. Hoey has mirrored Henderson with two tournament titles in the spring, and five for her career. In addition, she earned the 2005 Big West Golfer of the Year award. Hoey came in third at last year's Big West Championship and posted a fifth place finish in 2005.
Six of the top eight women's finishers from 2006 are back on the course for this year's tournament.