Kansas State University’s men’s golf team will begin its spring season at The Prestige tournament, taking place from Monday to Wednesday at the Greg Norman Course of PGA WEST in La Quinta, California. The Wildcats are coming off a fall season in which they achieved four top-five finishes.
This marks the third consecutive year that Kansas State will participate in The Prestige. Last year, the team tied for fifth place among 24 teams, and finished sixth the previous year.
Head coach Grant Robbins commented on the team’s preparation and expectations: “We are really looking forward to opening the spring at The Prestige. It is a great tournament, and the golf course is really good as it presents a challenge from tee to green. This is a course where you have to play smart and can penalize yourself if you are not patient. We have had a good couple of weeks of practice, and I know the guys are excited to be competing again. As always, it is a very strong and deep field, which provides a great opportunity for us.”
The event features nine teams ranked within the top 50 nationally: Texas Tech (No. 16), Wake Forest (No. 25), Stanford (No. 28), Clemson (No. 34), Little Rock (No. 44), Northwestern (No. 45), Colorado (No. 46), Kansas (No. 47) and San Diego (No. 48). Additional participants include Colorado State, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Lipscomb, Nevada, North Alabama, Oregon, Oregon State, Princeton, SMU, UC Davis, UNC Wilmington, Washington State and Yale.
Seven Kansas State players will travel to California: seniors Shea Harmeson, Alex Lindstrom, JP Roller and Ben Stoller; sophomore Fionn Dobbin; and freshmen Oliver Toyer and Ville Virkkala. Five will compete in the main lineup with two participating individually at The Golf Club at Terra Lago.
Among team leaders this season are Lindstrom with an average score of 72.36—having secured two top-10 finishes including first place at the Git-R-Done Invitational—Virkkala with an average of 72.79 over five events along with three top-20 placements; and Harmeson averaging 72.93 with two top-10 results.
Toyer has averaged 73.50 across all fall events while Dobbin holds an average of 73.93 after also playing each tournament so far this season.
Roller enters his third event this year; Stoller his second.
Kansas State begins play Monday morning from hole one for round one before moving to an afternoon start on Tuesday from hole ten for round two; final round tee times on Wednesday will depend on standings after two rounds.
Fans can track live scores during The Prestige through SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd or follow individual results online via provided links.
