MALIBU, California – After winning the first two tournaments of the spring season, the Pepperdine men's golf team has attained the #1 national ranking in both the Golfstat and Golfweek/Sagarin computer rankings for the first time in program history.
The Waves have won three times in 2019-20, including their own Southwestern Invitational at North Ranch Country Club and the Amer Ari Invitational in Hawai'i in the past couple of weeks. Their hot start to the spring season has given them a slight edge over Oklahoma in both rankings.
The Waves won the 1997 NCAA championship but did not reach a #1 computer ranking that season.
Senior
Sahith Theegala (Chino Hills, Calif./Diamond Bar HS), a two-time All-American and the Ben Hogan Award's Player of the Month for January, has won two college tournaments this year and he's risen to #2 in the individual Golfweek/Sagarin ratings and #5 by Golfstat. Freshman
William Mouw (Chino, Calif./Ontario Christian HS) earned his first college victory at last weekend's Amer Ari Invitational and he's ranked #3 by Golfstat and #11 by Golfweek/Sagarin.
Other highly ranked Waves including junior
Joey Vrzich (El Cajon, Calif./Christian HS/Nevada) at #57 by Golfstat and #77 by Golfweek/Sagarin, freshman
Dylan Menante (Carlsbad, Calif./Sage Creek HS) at #71 by Golfstat and #131 by Golfweek/Sagarin, and sophomore
Joe Highsmith (Lakewood, Wash./Bellarmine Preparatory School) at #78 by Golfstat and #84 by Golfweek/Sagarin. The Waves have 10 players in Golfstat's top 250.
The Waves have won back-to-back tournaments for only the second time in program history and the first time since 1996. Pepperdine has won three tournaments total, tied for the most in school single-season history.
Pepperdine's current scoring average is 278.4 strokes per round. The school record is 285.9 set in both 2015-16 and 2018-19. Three Waves (Theegala, Mouw and Vrzich) are currently averaging below 70 strokes per round (the school record is 70.58 by Michael Putnam in 2004-05).
Last season, Pepperdine won the West Coast Conference title for the 20th time and finished 11th at the NCAA Championships. Although five of the six players who took part in that postseason run returned, remarkably, the Waves used a lineup to win the Amer Ari Invitational that only featured one of those returners.
The Waves will go for their third title in a row at the upcoming Prestige in La Quinta, Calif., from February 17-19.