Men's Golf | 3/6/2026 11:21:00 AM

        After a two-week break, Utah Tech will return to action this weekend as the Trailblazers head to Bandon, Ore., to play in the Idaho-hosted 17^th-Annual Bandon Dunes Championships.   
        The three-day, 54-hole event will be played this Sunday-through-Tuesday at the par-71, 6,600-yard Pacific Dunes Golf Course, which is rated as the No. 2 public course in the United States by Golf Digest Magazine. 
        Along with the Trailblazers and host Vandals, the 15-team field will include fellow WAC member Utah Valley, along with Air Force, Denver, Eastern Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Penn, Sacramento State, Santa Clara, Seattle U, Seton Hall, SIU-Edwardsville, and Wofford, 
        The four player lineup for Utah Tech will feature juniors Braden Anderson and Ashton McArthur, 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: Utah Tech came away with an eighth-place showing at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, which was played this past Feb. 23-25, at The Classic Club in Palm Desert, Calif.
        The Trailblazers got off to a good start, opening with a 1-under 287, before firing a second round 5-under 283, which vaulted the team from t-ninth to solo seventh on the leaderboard at minus-6 570. 
        Unfortunately Utah Tech could not keep the momentum going on its loop, closing with a 6-over 294 to finish with a team total of even par 864. 
        McArthur paced the Trailblazers with his third top-15 result of the season as he finished in a two-way tie for 11^th at minus-6 210. McArthur opened his tourney with a bogey-free 3-under 69, then followed that up with three birdies and an eagle on his second loop en route to another 69 in round two. 
        McArthur, who penciled in nine birdies over the three rounds, then rolled in three more birdies on on his final loop to card an even par 72.
        Meanwhile, Liechty managed to bounce back from an opening 3-over 75 with a 2-under 70 and a final round 4-under 68, which vaulted him 31 spots into an eight-way tie for 17^th at minus-3 219. The freshman led Utah Tech with 12 total birdies, including five on day two, while he recorded four more birdies and an eagle on his final round.
        Zhou (eight total birdies) enjoyed a solid tournament, which began with four birdies as part of a collegiate career-low 1-under 71 in round one. Zhou followed that with a 72 and a 4-over 76 on his way to tying five others for 52^nd at plus-3 219. 
        In addition, Anderson (nine total birdies) started his second event as a Trailblazer with consecutive rounds of 72, but a final round 6-over 78 moved him into an 11-player logjam for 68^th-place at plus-6 222.    

TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through seven team events this season, Liechty leads all active players with a 72.14 scoring average with 10 par or better rounds and two top-10 finishes overall, which includes his individual victory at the CSUN Bill Cullum Inv'l last month.
        Meanwhile McArthur is second at 72.60 with eight par or better rounds out of the 15 loops he has played, followed by Anderson in fourth at 77.17 (six total rounds), and Zhou in fifth at 77.67 (12 total rounds). 

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech enjoy a three-week break before the Trailblazers head to University Park, Wash., to play in the Seattle U Redhawk Invitational on March 30-31. The tournament will be held at storied Chambers Bay Golf Course, which hosted the 2015 United States Open.