Men’s Golf in Colorado for Ninth Annual Mark Simpson Invitational

Live Scoring | First and Second Round Pairings

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin men's golf team will hit the links for competition for the third consecutive week, doing so Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 24-25 at the Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, Colorado, for the Ninth Annual Mark Simpson Invitational. The Lumberjacks began their 2018-19 campaign at the Golfweek Program Challenge in South Carolina and competed at the 16th Annual Sam Hall Intercollegiate in Mississippi last week.

The Format
The Mark Simpson Invitational, hosted by the University of Colorado, is a two-day, 54-hole tournament featuring 36 holes of continuous play Monday, Sept. 24 and 18 holes for the final round Tuesday, Sept. 25. Monday's action will get started at 9:15 a.m. CST with a shotgun start, while Tuesday's third round will get underway in a staggered shotgun format with the top four teams teeing off of hole one beginning at 8:55 a.m. and the remaining field starting at 9:15 a.m.

The Course
The Colorado National Golf Club is located about 12 miles east of Boulder, Colorado, where the University of Colorado is located, and is a lengthy par-72, 7,676-yard course. With bentgrass greens, the Colorado National Golf Club has hosted previous U.S. Amateur qualifiers, Colorado PGA Section championships, the 2011 NCAA Colorado Men's Regional and the 2012 NCAA Women's West Regional.

The Tournament Field
A total of 19 schools will be represented across the two days at the Mark Simpson Invitational, 16 teams appear in the field as an additional three have individuals competing at the two-day event. A heavy dose of West Coast teams make up the tournament's field with California Baptist, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, host Colorado, Gonzaga, Grand Canyon, Northern Colorado, Pacific, Southern Utah, UC-Riverside, Utah, Utah State, Utah Valley and Wyoming in action. SFA joins Houston Baptist as the lone representatives from the Southland Conference. The Pac-12's UCLA, along with Air Force and Colorado State, have individuals competing to make up an 84-man playing field. In the early Golfweek national rankings (Sept. 16), Utah is No. 53, Grand Canyon No. 67, Colorado No. 70, Wyoming No. 83 and Northern Colorado No. 93. In the final 2017-18 Golfstat.com rankings, the highest in the field are Colorado (46), Wyoming (80) and Grand Canyon (92).

The Lineup
Seniors Angelo Leyvani and Jake Hendrix will once again lead the 'Jacks at the top of the lineup, followed by sophomore Steven Fabik and freshman Isiah Henderson. Fellow freshman Alec Brown will be making his SFA debut and competing in his inaugural collegiate golf tournament. A native of Pearland, Texas, Brown was a four-year letter winner at Glenda Dawson High School where he was a two-time district champion and claimed first-team all-district and all-region accolades.

Tee Times
SFA has been paired with Cal State Fullerton, Utah State and Grand Canyon and will tee off at 9:15 a.m. CST Monday for the opening round. Leyvani will start on hole four, while Hendrix will begin on hole five, Fabik from hole six and both Brown and Henderson off of hole seven. The 'Jacks will remain with the same pairings through Monday afternoon's second round of play.

Last Week
At Southern Mississippi's Sam Hall Intercollegiate in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, last week, SFA tied for eighth among a 13-team field after shooting 16-over 868 across the three rounds. Leyvani continued his hot start to the 2018-19 season by turning in his second-straight top-10 finish with a sixth-place tie. He shot two out of the three rounds under par and finished with a 2-under 211, carding a 2-under 69 in the opening round and a 1-under 70 on the final 18 holes. Through two tournaments and six rounds of golf, Leyvani is averaging an impressive 69.67 score and has shot at or below par in five of the six rounds. Henderson was the Lumberjacks' second-highest finisher, tying for 41st in his second collegiate tournament by shooting a career-low 3-under 68 in the first round.

Up Next…
The 'Jacks will take a three week break from competing before playing in their fourth tournament of the fall season Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 15-16 at the Louisiana Tech Squire Creek Invitational in Ruston, Louisiana.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Lumberjack golf throughout the fall.

-SFA-

Schedule

Men’s Golf in Colorado for Ninth Annual Mark Simpson Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Alec Brown

Steven Fabik

Isiah Henderson

Jake Hendrix

Angelo Leyvani

Footer

Stephen F Austin

Upcoming Events