Utah Golf Opens 2023-24 Campaign at Gopher Invitational

Sunday, September 10

Minneapolis, Minn.

University of Utah

Gopher Invitational

Photo by: Eli Rehmer/Utah Athletics

Utah Golf Opens 2023-24 Campaign at Gopher Invitational

9/8/2023 10:24 AM | Men's Golf

Minnesota’s Windsong Farm Club to host Utes’ first 54 holes of new year

Dates: September 10-11
Location: Windsong Farm Golf Club | Maple Plain, Minn.
Par/Yardage: Par 71/7,380 Yards
Live Scoring: Spikemark.com and Golfstat.com, as well as the Golfstat App

THIS WEEK
Tee time has officially arrived for the University of Utah men's golf team as the Utes travel to Minnesota for the 2023 Gopher Invitational on Sept. 10-11 at the Windsong Farm Golf Club. Head coach Garrett Clegg is beginning his seventh season at the helm of the program and he'll be trying to help guide the Utes back to the heights they achieved in 2022, when they forged a path all the way to the NCAA Championships.

The roster is led by 2023 Second-Team All-Pac-12 honoree Javier Barcos, who led the Utes with a 71.7 stroke average a year ago. Barcos snagged his first collegiate win at the 2022 Oregon State Invitational, shooting 4-under to become the first Ute to collect an individual title since Blake Tomlinson in 2021. The Spaniard stole fourth at the Pac-12 Championships, the second-highest finish ever by a Ute at the Pac-12 Tournament and that performance helped him garner him a spot at the NCAA Morgan Hill Regional as an individual.

Also back in the fold are sophomore Go Nakatsukasa and junior Braxton Watts. In Nakatsukasa's first season with Utah, he competed in all six spring tournaments and finished with the team's second-best stroke average at 73.0. His nine rounds of golf carding a mark of par or better was also third-best on the roster. Coming off a 2022 Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention season, Watts posted 10 rounds of par or better adn recorded three top-20 finishes while starting in all 11 of Utah's 2022-23 tournaments. His best showing came at the John Burns Intercollegiate in Februa, where he logged a 10th-place finish.

Clegg added four new faces to the roster in transfers Ty Griggs and Peter Jung and freshmen Sergio Jimenez and Gabriel Palacios. Griggs arrives in Utah following three seasons as a Bruin, where he improved his stroke average from 77.9 as a freshman to 73.7 as a junior, while Jung comes aboard after spending two seasons at Washington State, where he competed in six tournaments last season.

Jimenez found a home competing for the Utes after piling up a long list of hardware in Spain, including winning the Spanish Open P&P in 2019 and capturing the U-18 title in 2021. Palacious treks to Utah from Guatemala after becoming the No. 1 rated junior golfer in his home country while capturing the second-highest spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings among Guatemalans.

THE FIELD
The Utes will be one of 14 teams competing for the tournament crown, a list that includes Furman, Notre Dame, Marquette, Northwestern, Northern Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Miami (OH), West Virginia, Rutgers, Kent State, UNC - Wilmington, and Minnesota.

UTAH'S LINE-UP
Eight Utes will be making the trip to The Gopher State, with the quintet of Brandon Robison, Javier Barcos, Braxton Watts, Davis Johnson and Go Nakatsukasa forming Clegg's first lineup of the new year.

Peter Jung, Sergio Jimenez and Gabriel Palacios will be competing in a separate tournament as individuals.

COACHES THOUGHTS: Head Coach Garrett Clegg
"We're extremely excited to get the season started," said Clegg. "We have had two great weeks of qualifying to determine the line-up and each player on this team has worked all summer to get their games ready to play this week.

"The Gopher is played on one of the toughest courses we will play all year, Windsong Farms. It is typically windy and always plays long. I'm excited to see how we play! "The individuals will play in a separate tournament across the street and have their chance to compete. It's always a good thing to get as many opportunities as possible for all of our players."

TOURNAMENT DETAILS
This will be the 11th consecutive season the Gopher Invitational has been held at the Windsong Farm Golf Club, a course consistently rated among the best in the state. Teams will start teeing off at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday and play 36 holes on day one before teeing off at the same time on Monday to play the final round. The Utes will take their first swings on Sunday at hole 10 starting at 7:30 a.m.

LIVE SCORING
To keep with the results at the Gopher Invitational, fans can visit Spikemark.com, as well as Golfstat.com. Links to live scoring on each day can be found on UtahUtes.com.

FOLLOW THE UTES
For an inside look at the Utah Golf program along with tournament, roster and news updates, fans can follow the Utes on social media (Twitter: @UtesGolf | Instagram: @UtesGolf).