Men's Golf | 9/9/2026 10:21:00 AM

Utah Tech opens the 2026-27 fall season this Thursday and Friday with an appearance at the Colorado State Ram Masters Invitational. The two-day, 54-hole event will be played at the par-70, 7,218-yard Fort Collins Country Club. 
 
In addition to Utah Tech and the host Rams, the 17-team tournament field will feature fellow in-state schools Utah State and Utah Valley, along with UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado, Denver, Merrimack, Northern Colorado, San Francisco, Seattle U, Tarleton State, Tulsa, and Wyoming.

HEAD COACH BRAD SUTTERFIELD: Brad Sutterfield (BYU, 1994) begins his 15th season as head coach of the Utah Tech men's golf program. Last season, Sutterfield led the Trailblazers to six top-six showings in 10 team events, highlighted by a third place finish at last season's Colorado State Ram Masters Invitational (9/11-12/25), and a sixth place showing in their final appearance at the Western Athletic Conference 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.
 
GOING BIG IN 2026-27: Utah Tech men's golf begins a new era this season as new members of the Big Sky Conference. 
    Utah Tech was picked to finish third in the 2026-27 Big Sky preseason coaches poll, which was released on September 1.
    Idaho received five of a possible seven first place votes and 35 total points to be tabbed as the Big Sky preseason favorite, while Northern Colorado collected one first place nod to finish second in the poll with 26 points.
    Utah Tech also secured one first place vote and 25 points to finish third, followed by Weber State (23 pts) in fourth, Eastern Washington and affiliate member Francis Marion (14 pts) both wound up tied fifth, and Southern Utah (10 pts) was picked to finish seventh.

2026-27 TRAILBLAZER PREVIEW: The Trailblazers return four players from last year's squad, led by senior Ashton McArthur, who earned second team all-WAC honors a season ago.
    McArthur played in eight of Utah Tech's 10 team events this past season and finished third on squad with an even 73.00 stroke average. He posted four top-15 finishes on the year, highlighted by a t-11^thshowing at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate (Feb. 23-25), during which he fired consecutive rounds of 3-under 69 and a final round even par 72. 
    McArthur, who finished second on the team with 12 par-of-better rounds, also tied for 14^th at the Air Force Gene Miranda Falcon Invite (Sept. 20-22), and tied for 21^st the 2026 WAC Championships. 
Utah Tech also welcomed back senior Braden Anderson, junior Frank Miao, and sophomore Joe Zhou.
    Anderson played in all six spring events last season and posted a 77.00 scoring average with four par or better rounds. He finished a season-best t-21^st at the WAC Championships, where he fired a season-low 1-under 71 in the second round.
    Miao was in the line-up for all 10 team events last year and finished fifth on the team in stroke average at 74.13 with seven par-or-better rounds. He posted a season-best t-17^th place showing at the Pacific Visit Stockton Inv'l (10/9-11), where fired rounds of 71-72-69 on his way to a collegiate career low minus-4 212. Miao tied for 18^th at the UC Santa Barbara Gaucho Inv'l (4/6-7), and closed the year with a t-21^st finish at the WAC Championships (4/27-29).
    Zhou played in eight events in his collegiate debut season, including all six spring events in the starting lineup, and posted a 77.71 scoring average with four par or better rounds. He finished a season-best solo 30th at the WAC Championships, and fired rounds of 71-72-76 to post his collegiate low score of 219 (+3) at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate (2/23-25).
    In addition, Utah Tech added a pair of veteran transfers in Nikko Taggart from Southern Virginia, and Jack Yu from UC Irvine. Taggart played three seasons at SVU, where he earned NCAA Division III PING All-Region and first team all-USA South Conference honors as a junior last season.
    Meanwhile Yu played two seasons with the Anteaters program, where he finished second on the team with a 74.23 scoring average during the 2025-26 campaign, and tied for 26^th at the 2026 Big West Championships. During his freshman year, Yu earned all-Big West honorable mention honors and finished second on the team with a 72.48 stroke average.
    Utah Tech also brought in three talented freshmen in Chase Cesarek, Preston Cheney and Max Landon.
 
UTAH TECH'S LINEUP AT CSU: Utah Tech five-player lineup at CSU will feature McArthur, Taggart, Yu, Miao and Cesarek. 
 
NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech returns to Colorado later this month to play the Air Force Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational. The three-day, 54-hole event will take place Sept. 19-21 at the USAFA Eisenhower Blue Course.