Men's Golf | 4/19/2023 11:43:00 AM

Utah Tech wraps up the 2022-23 regular season this Friday and Saturday at the BYU  PING Cougar Classic. The two-day, 54-hole event will be played at the par-72, 7,142-yard Riverside Country Club in Provo, Utah.
        Along with the Trailblazers, the 16-team tournament field will include fellow WAC members Utah Valley, California Baptist and New Mexico State, along with Boise State, Colorado, CSUN, Denver, Gonzaga, Hawai'i, Nevada, Saint Mary's, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Wyoming, and the host Cougars.  
        The five player scoring lineup for the Trailblazers will feature seniors Davis Heslington and Tyler Jones, sophomore Taft Lewis, and freshmen Zach Felts and Maddox Vincent. In addition, freshmanParker Reese play as an individual.  

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. UT 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 California portion of its 2022-23 season slate with a seventh place showing at the fog-shortened UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Invitational, which was played this past April 10-11 at the Sandpiper Golf Course in Santa Barbara. 
        The tournament was shortened to 36 holes after heavy fog rolled late on day one and halted play during the second round. The fog remained through the next morning, and due to travel issues with several participating teams, the event was called before the start of the third and final round. 
        The Trailblazers opened with a plus-21 309 to stand in eighth place after its morning loop, and improved by 10 strokes in round two, which allowed them to move up one spot to seventh overall.  
        Jones posted his first UT top-three individual finish as the joined three other tied for third at plus-1 145. Jones rolled in three birdies and 12 pars on his opening loop on his way to an even-par 72, and followed that up with a 1-over 73 in round two. 
        In all, three Trailblazers wound up in the top-30 on the player leaderboard, including Heslington (78-74) who finished in a six-way tie for 23^rd at plus-8 152. Meanwhile, Vincent (78-75) tied for 29^th at plus-9 153.
Felts (81-78) followed in t-48^th place at plus-15 159, and Reese (84-77) tied for 50^th at plus-17 161.

TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through nine events this season, Heslington leads the team with a 72.85 scoring average in 26 competitive rounds and a team-best 11 par or better rounds, highlighted by his medalist performance at the USAFA Miranda (9/9-11/22) individual tournament. 
        Bolstered by his performance at UCSD last month, Vincent is second at 73.65 with seven par/better rounds, while Felts is third at 73.69 with eight par or better rounds in 26 total loops, which includes a t-sixth showing at the USAFA Miranda in his first collegiate event. 
        Jones is currently in fourth overall (74.31; eight par/better rounds), followed by Lewis in fifth (74.73; five par/better rounds), and Reese in seventh (76.11; two par/better rounds). 

NEXT UP: Utah Tech will wrap up the season at the 2023 Western Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championships, which will be held next weekend, April 28-30, at the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev.