Men's Golf | 2/20/2026 1:50:00 PM

Utah Tech returns to action early next week when the Trailblazers tee it up at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, Calif.
        The three-day, 54-hole event will be played this Monday-through-Wednesday at the par-72, 7,322-yard Classic Club Golf Course. 
        Along with the Trailblazers, the 24-team field will include fellow WAC members California Baptist and Southern Utah. In addition, UC Irvine, UC Riverside UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Cal Poly, College of the Desert, Colorado, Drake, Eastern Washington, East Texas A&M, Hawai'i, Maryland, New Mexico, Northern Iowa, Omaha, Oral Roberts, Sacramento State, Seattle U, Valparaiso, and the host Cowboys round out the field. 
 
The five player lineup for Utah Tech will feature juniors Braden Anderson and Ashton McArthur, sophomore Frank Miao, and freshmen David Liechty and Joe Zhou. 

GOING "BIG" IN 2026: This past June 25, Utah Tech announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the Big Sky Conference beginning on July 1, 2026. 
      Starting in the 2026-27 season, 14 of the Trailblazers' 17 sports, including men's golf, will compete under the Big Sky Conference banner.

HEAD COACH BRAD SUTTERFIELD: Brad Sutterfield (BYU, 1994) is in his 14th season as head coach of the Utah Tech men's golf program. Last season, Sutterfield led the Trailblazers to seven top-eight showings in 10 team events, highlighted by a runner-up finish at last season's Colorado State Ram Masters Invitational (9/17-18/24), and a seventh place showing at the 2025 WAC Championships.
        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. Utah Tech 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 Utah Tech 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.
        Coach Sutterfield is joined on his staff by former Utah Tech standout player Spencer Wallace, who is in second season as an assistant coach, along with volunteer coach Marc Briggs.  

LAST TIME OUT: Liechty became the first Trailblazer men's golfer in the program's NCAA Division I era to claim medalist honors at an in-season team tournament, doing so at the 2026 spring season-opening CSUN Bill Cullum Invitational, which was played this past February 2-3, at The Saticoy Club in Somis, Calif. 
        Liechty defeated Cal Poly's Rafael Bobo-Lloret with a par on the first playoff hole to win the event's individual title.
        After opening the 54-hole event with a 4-over 76, Liechty, rolled in four birdies as part of a second round 3-under 69 to vault from t-20^th into t-third place after 36 holes.
        The freshman then went out on final loop and fired a 1-under 71 with four more birdies to finish with a 54-hole total of even par 216. 
        With the victory, Liechty earned WAC Player of the Week recognition (Feb. 5), and became the seventh different Trailblazer in Utah Tech's 20-year NCAA era to win medalist honors at a tournament. He also is the first to do it a team event since former Blazer standout Nicklaus Britt won the 2019 RMAC conference individual title. 
         Of note, former Utah Tech player Davis Heslington also won a medalist title during the program's D-I era, doing so at the Air Force Miranda Falcon Invitational individual tournament early in the 2023-24 season (9/9-11-23). 
        As a team, the Trailblazers did not figure into the team standings at the CSUN event after both McArthur and Miao had to withdraw during Monday's first round due to injury.
        Anderson (83-82-76) tied for 63^rd place in his season debut at plus-25 241, while Zhou (79-78-85) joined two others tied for 65^th at plus-26 242.

TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through six team events this season, Liechty leads all active players with a 72.33 scoring average with eight par or better rounds and two top-10 finishes overall.
        Meanwhile McArthur is second at 73.25 with five par or better rounds out of the 12 loops he has played, followed by Miao in third at 73.27 (six par or better rounds), and Zhou in fourth at 79.22 (nine total rounds), while Anderson (80.33) will be playing in his second team event at this tournament. 

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech will return to action in two weeks when the Trailblazers head to Bandon, Ore., to play in the Idaho-hosted Bandon Dunes Championships on March 8-10.