USC Men's Golf In Texas For Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational
The USC men's golf team, with a pair of medalist honors to its credit this young season, is back for its third event in as many weeks as it travels to Texas for the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational, Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 3-4), at the Colonial C.C. in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Trojans, in their third year under Head Coach J.T. Higgins and assistant coach Matt Walton, opened the 2022-23 season with a second at the Husky Invitational while sophomore Jackson Rivera took first, complemented by senior Jack Boulger's win at the adjacent Husky Individual Invitational.
After a tough second outing at Inverness, USC looks to rebound in Texas as it plays at the par 70, 7204-yard Colonial for the second season in a row. Sophomore Jackson Rivera led USC last season with a tie for 13th, the Trojans tying for 10th overall.
The 16-team field — which includes seven top 10 teams and 13 in the top 25 — includes host TCU, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pepperdine, Stanford, Texas, Texas Tech, USC, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.
Teams will play two rounds Monday beginning at 8:15 a.m. CT/ Live results will be available at Golfstat.com.
USC will feature a different starting five for the third event in a row, featuring senior Parker Sisk, junior Krando Nishiba, sophomores Jackson Rivera and Gavin Aurilia and freshman Mahanth Chirravuri.
SEASON-OPENING SUCCESS
Sophomore Jackson Rivera won the Husky Invitational by four strokes while senior Jack Boulger won the Husky Individual Invitational by six — both the first titles of their collegiate careers — while the USC men's team finished second at the Gold Mountain G.C. in Bremerton, Wash., to kick off the 2022-23 season. USC combined for a three-round 7-over 871 (293-281-297), finishing three strokes back of first-place Washington State and two ahead of third-place and host Washington.
Rivera never wavered during the final round and maintained at least a two-stroke lead throughout Tuesday and finished at 8-under 208 (67-70-71), closing with a birdie on 18. Rivera, who posted a pair of sixth-place finishes and a 10th as a freshman, has four top 10s in his past five starts. Boulger won going away on Gold Mountain's Cascade Course at 12-under 201 (68-67-66), posting his best three rounds in Cardinal and Gold.
Freshman Mahanth Chirravuri led USC at the Inverness Intercollegiate with a tie for 20th at 6-over.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
The Trojans return six golfers from last year's squad, led by Rivera, who was All-West Region as well as All-Pac-12 second team during a freshman season that saw him start all 12 tournaments, leading the team in stroke average (71.70), rounds in the 60s (nine), rounds under par (20) and rounds of par or better (23).
He posted a team-best three top 10 finishes, six top 18s and seven top 21s and was USC's top finisher in eight of 11 events. Two of his top 10 results came in the postseason. He tied for sixth at the Pac-12 Championships at par 284 (73-68-74-69) and followed that with a tie for 10th at the NCAA Stockton Regional at 7-under 209 (68-71-70).
Also back are graduate senior Jack Boulger, senior Parker Sisk, juniors Krando Nishiba and Shane Ffrench and sophomore Gavin Aurilia. The Trojans welcome a pair of freshmen in Mahanth Chirravuri from Arizona and Rocky Chapman from the U.K.
Aurilia started nine times last year, Ffrench eight times, Nishiba seven times, Boulger six times and Sisk twice.
Chirravuri was a 2020 Rolex/AJGA All-American honorable mention selection and won the Arizona state title in 2020 at 10-under while helping his school to state team titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021, finishing third individually in 2021. Chapman is a talented up-and-coming golfer from England who will compete for starting time.