Courtesy of San Diego State
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego State men’s golf team is ranked 24th in the Golf Channel preseason poll, Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine revealed on Wednesday morning. Romine also has senior Justin Hastings (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) as an honorable-mention All-American.
The Aztecs, who have won each of the past three Mountain West championships, are just ahead of Colorado in the preseason rankings. Georgia Tech is 20th, while No. 21 Pepperdine, No. 22 Stanford and No. 23 Alabama round out the bottom six of the top 25. Auburn is the preseason No. 1, followed by No. 2 Florida State, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Texas Tech and No. 5 Virginia.
On the Aztecs, Romine writes “The Aztecs return four of five starters from last season’s squad that finished sixth at the NCAA West Lafayette Regional. Senior Justin Hastings has turned into potential All-American, and he narrowly missed match play at both the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur. Fellow senior Shea Lague battled some inconsistency after a standout sophomore season; if he returns to form and freshman Harry Takis of Australia is as good as advertised, we’ll see San Diego State back at nationals for the first time since 2021.”
Hastings, who is ranked 15th in the PGA TOUR University preseason rankings for the class of 2025, is coming off a fantastic junior season, where he was named both to the PING All-West Region team and the all-Mountain West team for a second consecutive year. Hastings ranked second on the team with a 71.03 stroke average over 33 rounds, as well as rounds in the 60s (9), rounds below par (15) and even-par rounds (4). He opened the season with a wire-to-wire victory at the Maui Jim Intercollegiate (Sept. 8-10) with an 18-under 195, the best 54-hole score in program history. In 11 tournaments for the season, he had a win, three top-5 finishes, five top-10 efforts and six top 20s.
Hastings helped San Diego State to its third consecutive MW championship and a spot in the NCAA West Lafayette Regional, where the Aztecs took sixth out of 13 teams, one spot from advancing to the NCAA Championship.
SDSU kicks off its fall season at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, Sept. 20-21, at UNM Championship Course in Albuquerque, N.M.
Golf Channel Preseason Top-25 (by Brentley Romine)
- Auburn
- Florida State
- Oklahoma
- Texas Tech
- Virginia
- Vanderbilt
- Arizona State
- Florida
- Illinois
- Ole Miss
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- Duke
- Arizona
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma State
- LSU
- UCLA
- Georgia Tech
- Pepperdine
- Stanford
- Alabama
- San Diego State
- Colorado