The Grand Canyon men's golf team has recorded two top-five finishes to begin the fall campaign and heads to a familiar setting in Stockton, California, where it has won back-to-back Visit Stockton Invitationals.
The Lopes will look to three-peat in a tournament it has dominated in the past two seasons, winning in 2022 by six strokes and claiming the title in 2023 by eight. This year's tournament heads back to where the Lopes claimed victory in 2022 at the Stockton Golf and Country Club.
Fifteen teams will compete over a three-day stretch, with the first round beginning Monday at 7:45 a.m. GCU is one of three WAC teams competing, joining both Utah Tech and California Baptist.
The rest of the field includes host Pacific, UC Riverside, California, UC Irvine, Washington State, CSUN, Sacramento State, Idaho, UC San Diego, San Diego, Cal State Fullerton and Nevada.
GCU tied for fourth out of 17 schools in its last event at the William H. Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sept. 21. Prior to that, it opened the 2024-25 campaign with a second-place showing at the Southern Dunes Invitational in Maricopa.
The same starting five that has finished in the top five of both tournaments will look to make it three straight, featuring freshmen Nixon Laurtizen and
Matthew Diehl, sophomore
Gavin O'Neill, senior
Kiko Coelho and graduate
Tommaso Zorzetto. Junior
Antonio Bulgheroni will compete for the second time this season as an individual.
Laurtizen was named WAC Golfer of the Month for September, placing in the top 10 in both tournaments, while Diehl and O'Neill each have a top-10 placement.
Live scoring can be found
here.