No. 22 USC heads into the Vuori Invitational this week with a lineup that looks a lot like a team still gathering momentum after a strong showing in Arizona.
The Trojans will play Sept. 14-15 at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in San Diego, with the University of San Diego hosting the event. USC is set to face 11 other teams, including two ranked in the Golf Channel Preseason Poll: No.
8 Arkansas and No. 18 BYU.
Monday opens with a shotgun start at 8:00 a.m. PT for Round 1, with Round 2 following right away.
The final round is scheduled for Tuesday, followed by an awards ceremony. Live scoring will be available through Scoreboard on the men’s golf team schedule page at usctrojans.com.
USC is coming off a shared fifth-place finish at its own Bombs Darts Birds Collegiate in Chandler, Ariz. last week. That tournament featured four Trojans making their USC debuts, and the team placed four players inside the top 30.
Senior Nicolas Dominguez led the way with a 10-under 206, matching his collegiate best and tying for 17th. Deitrek Gill, a Pacific graduate transfer, was USC’s top finisher, carding a 13-under 203 to tie for seventh and matching his lowest 54-hole score.
As a team, USC finished at 34-under 830.
The Trojans’ five-man lineup for San Diego includes Dominguez, Jaden Dumdumaya, Jack Buchanan, Joshua Hong and William Hou.
USC will tee off Monday at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, a par-72 layout measuring 7,090 yards. The format is 5-count 4.
The opening tee times for the Trojans begin with William Hou at 8:00 a.m. PT on hole 1, followed by Joshua Hong at 8:10, Jack Buchanan at 8:20, Jaden Dumdumaya at 8:30 and Nicolas Dominguez at 8:40.
Dominguez said, "It felt good to tie my best collegiate score last week. I feel like I was playing consistently all summer, and even though this is my first start as a senior, I feel like I've been putting in the work and good results lately. So I just feel like this week is just another tournament and hopefully we'll get it going again this week."
Buchanan pointed to the quality of the field and the importance of depth, saying, "I know that the field this week will be better than last week. I feel like if we just go out and all put red numbers on the scoreboard as a team - all five of us - that's gonna do the team well. We're all just trying to play as well as we can individually to help the team at the end of the week."
Dumdumaya said, "Playing against like some of the best players in college golf this week, I know that I have what it takes to also be one of the best in college golf. I feel like I've shown my skill level and skill set last year. So hopefully I continue to do what I'm doing and keep that same mindset."
Hou called making the lineup a point of pride. "It's pretty amazing that I've made both lineups.
It's hard in college golf because we have a busy schedule and then we still have to balance academics and golf. We play qualifiers almost every day.
I'm feeling pretty proud of myself to make the lineup throughout it all."
Hong said, "I think the mental part of my game has been there for these last couple of weeks. I just think I have to be patient and trust the process and everything should work out.
Last week, I lost my spot in the lineup in a playoff, but I think this week I really earned my spot. So I'm excited to prove it."
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