Men's Golf | 2/8/2023 12:32:00 PM

Utah Tech begins its 2023 spring season this weekend as part of the field at the Southern Utah/Pat Hicks Thunderbird Invitational. The three-day, 54-hole event will be played Friday-through-Sunday at a very familiar course for the Trailblazers, the par-72, 6,900-yard Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George. Play is slated to begin each day at 9 a.m.

In addition to UT, the 10-team tournament field will include WAC foes SUU, Utah Valley, Stephen F. Austin and Tarleton. The field also features in-state schools Utah State and Weber State, along with Gonzaga, North Dakota and Western Illinois. 
 
The five player lineup for the Trailblazers will feature seniors Davis Heslington and Tyler Jones, sophomore Taft Lewis, and freshmen Zach Felts and Parker Reese. In addition, junior Camron Saunders and freshman Maddox Vincent will play as individuals. 
 
TRAILBLAZERS ALL-TIME AT THE SUU INVITE: This weekend will mark the 12^th time in UT's NCAA era that the Trailblazers have teed it up at the SUU/Pat Hicks Inv'l, though it will be their third appearance as a D-I program. 
            Utah Tech had played in the SUU event annually since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2006-07, but this is only the third time back to the tournament since the 2015-16 campaign when the Blazers posted a runner-up team finish. 
            The Trailblazers have won this event once (2011) and have recorded two other top-three finishes (2^ndin 2014, 3^rd in 2013). Utah Tech has finished no worse than ninth as a team in its 11 previous appearances overall against a predominantly Division-I laden field, including a fifth-place showing last season. 

HEAD COACH BRAD SUTTERFIELD: Brad Sutterfield (Brigham Young, 1994) is in his 11th season as head coach of the Utah Tech men's golf program. Last season, Sutterfield led the Trailblazers to three top-10 team finishes in 10 events, highlighted by a fifth-place showing at the SUU Pizza Hut/Pat Hicks Inv'l. 
            In the 2018-19 campaign, Coach Sutterfield and the Trailblazers enjoyed arguably their most successful season in the program's four-year era, posting six top-five team finishes and 11 total top-10 showings in 12 total team events, highlighted by a wire-to-wire victory at the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's Golf South Central/West Regional Championships. DSU also placed ninth-overall at the 2019 NCAA National Championships and recorded a runner-up finish in its debut at the RMAC Championships.
            In 2018, Sutterfield led UT to its third Pacific West Conference team title in four seasons, which earned him his second conference Coach of the Year award. The Trailblazers collected four tournament wins overall that season, along with seven-straight top-three team finishes and nine total top-10s in nine events overall.
        Under his direction, the program finished in the top-three overall in the PacWest in six seasons overall, including consecutive PacWest team titles in 2015 and 2016, and a runner-up finish in 2014, for which Sutterfield was named conference Coach of the Year. Prior to his arrival at Utah Tech, Sutterfield, who played collegiately at BYU, played professional golf for 15 years as a member of the PGA Tour, European Tour, the Web.com Tour, Canadian Tour, Asian Tour and European Challenge Tour.

LAST TIME OUT: Utah Tech wrapped up the 2022 fall season with a 14^th-place finish at the Pacific Visit Stockton Invitational, which was played this past Oct. 20-22, at the Stockton Country Club.
The Trailblazers opened with their low round of the fall, a 1-over 285 on Thursday to stand in 14th, and followed that with a 5-over 289 on their Friday loop to slip one spot to 15^th. UT then closed the event with a 2-over 286 to move back to 14^th at plus-8 860, which was the team's lowest 54-hole score of the fall season.  

TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through four fall events, Heslington leads the team with a 71.50 scoring average and a team-best six par or better rounds, highlighted by his medalist performance at the USAFA Miranda (9/9-11/22) individual tournament. 
            Felts is second at 72.92 with four par or better rounds in 12 total loops, which includes a t-sixth showing at the USAFA Miranda in his first collegiate event. 
Lewis is third at 73.56 with four par/better rounds, followed by Jones in fifth (74.92; three par/better rounds) and Reese in sixth (76.00; one par/better round).
Meanwhile, Vincent is fourth at 74.67 through six competitive rounds with two par-better rounds and has one top-10 to his credit, which came at the Miranda individual tournament (t-7^th), and Saunders is seventh at 76.67 after one event. 

2023 SPRING SCHEDULE: Utah Tech will play in six regular season events this spring, two of which will be hosted by WAC opponents, including the California Baptist Lancer Joust on Feb. 20-21 in Jurupa Valley, Calif. 
            UT will play in four total events in California, including the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, Calif., on March 1-3. The Trailblazers will also tee it up at the UC San Diego Invitational March 27-28, and at the UC Santa Barbara Invite on April 10-12, before wrapping up the regular season at the BYU PING Cougar Classic in Provo on April 21-22. 
            The 2023 WAC Championships will be played on April 28-30, at the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev.