PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s golf will host its annual PING Cougar Classic at Riverside Country Club on April 23-24.
The first round of the 54-hole tournament will begin at 8 a.m. MDT on Friday at the par-72, 7,142-yard course in Provo. The format will include 36-holes on Friday with the final 18-holes on Saturday.
Fans are welcome to attend but are asked to wear masks and maintain social distancing, particularly from coaches and players.
As tournament host, BYU has the unique opportunity to play two teams of five. The Cougars’ first team consists of Carson Lundell, Kelton Hirsch, Cole Ponich, David Timmins and Elijah Turner.
Lundell comes into the Cougar Classic ranked No. 107 nationally in Golfstat’s latest top-250 individuals’ poll. The junior from Alpine, Utah finished runner up at Western Intercollegiate, following a sudden-death, four-hole playoff at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California on April 12-14. It was Lundell’s third top-3 finish of the season.
Competing on BYU’s second team will be Keanu Akina, Max Brenchley, Brock Stanger, Austin Banz and Brock Goyen.
Akina, a freshman from Kahuku, Hawaii, carded a new career-best, single-round score with an even-par 70 in the second round of his fourth collegiate tournament at the Western Intercollegiate.
Goyen will see the first action of his BYU career on Friday. Prior to playing at BYU, the sophomore from Gilbert, Arizona was named 2017 Player of the Year by the Junior Golf Association of Arizona. Goyen also competed with Team Arizona in the Junior Americas Cup.
BYU welcomes 18 opponents to the Cougar Classic, including in-state rivals Utah, UVU and Dixie State. WCC-foes Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and St. Mary’s are also in the field at Riverside Country Club.
San Francisco (No. 28) and New Mexico (No. 29) enter the tournament ranked in the top-30 nationally. The Dons have won three of their five tournaments this season and are led by two top-100 golfers in Soren Lind (No. 66) and Tim Widing (No. 73).
Lind and Widing are two of seven top-100 players in the field of 104 individuals.
While the 2020 edition of the Cougar Classic was canceled due to COVID-19, BYU won the 2019 tournament with a three-round score of 281-279-280—840. The Cougars were led by All-American Peter Kuest who carded an 8-under 64 in the first round on the way to seizing the individual championship.
Live stats from the PING Cougar Classic are available on Golfstat.com.