As the CCAA men’s golf championship approaches, senior Tyler Ashman and junior Dakota Ochoa look to lead the Wildcats to their first conference title since 2018.
The Wildcats men’s golf team will travel to Santa Rosa on Monday for the 2024 CCAA Men’s Golf Championship. Chico State is the host of this year’s tournament at the Santa Rosa Country Club.
The Wildcats didn’t perform as well as they had hoped in last years championship. However, they did win the individual medal thanks to Ochoa, who shot the sixth-best individual score in championship tournament history, scoring a 206 through 54 holes.
This year, the Wildcats are ready for a different outcome. Their play throughout the season has given them more than enough confidence.
“I feel like we’ve been consistently good all year, with six out of our eight finishes having been in the top three, while five of them were within second,” head coach Nick Green said, “I feel like that’s a good campaign for anybody.”
Ashman has played exceptionally well this season, averaging a score of 71.5 in 24 rounds. In his most recent performance, he won the individual award at the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational and tied the program record for the lowest round, scoring 8-under 64. The record was previously scored by Myoung Kim in 2019.
“On that final day, everything just kind of clicked that we’ve been working on, and those days are fun,” Ashman said. “I’ve been trying to just keep those good feelings going into conference, and hopefully I can put up something close to that.”
The Wildcats are currently ranked second in the NCAA Western Region and are, therefore, the second seed in this year’s championship tournament. For the Wildcats to achieve their goals in this tournament, it will take a full group effort piloted by the team’s core leaders.
“The time spent with all of these guys has been very special,” Green said. “You just look at guys like Tyler, Dakota, and Travis Miller who have sat through a season where they haven’t played as well as in years past. It’s just very special.”
Chico State will tee off for their first round of the tournament on Monday morning, with the tournament tee times beginning at 9:40 a.m.
You can find the live tournament updates at the following link.
Lukas Mann can be reached at [email protected].
