Oct. 24, 2004

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Briefly
After leaving the state the last two tournaments, the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team will stay in California as they travel north to the Santa Clara Men's Invitational on Oct. 25-26. The Lions were scheduled to make the trip to the SCU Invite a year ago but were grounded due to the heavy wild fires in 2003. The Invitational will be held at Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose.

SCU Invite
The Lions have been making the trip to the Santa Clara Invitational since at least 1994 and in their last appearance in 2002, they finished 10th as former Lions Joe Legacy (2004) finished in the top-10 with a 225, placing eighth in the 53-player field. The best finish for the Lions in the 54-hole format was 907 as they finished third in 1998. This year the Lions will be taking on host Santa Clara, Idaho State, Portland, Gonzaga and individuals from other local universities, including UCLA. Making the trip for the Lions is Jeremy Bovill, Chaz Inouye, Jason D'Amore, Brendan von Doehren and Jason Wilk. Of the five-player team, only Chaz Inouye has experience in this tournament. He did not finish his three rounds when he was a freshman.

The Course
The Silver Creek Valley Country Club is a par-72 course that plays 6,926 from the black tees. In 2002 it was renovated by Mike Strantz. While visually intimidating, his courses typically give the player more than ample room to play but the penalty for missed shots can be severe. The course has hosted qualifiers for events such as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, California State Amateur, and USGA Mid-Am as well as the 2004 WGAC State Championship. Fox Sports featured us on Hooked on Golf and the 2003 Championship site for the Toyota TV Team Golf show.

Missouri Bluffs Challenge
The Loyola Marymount men's golf team improved its team score in each of the three rounds at the Missouri Bluffs Challenge in St. Charles, MO, on Tuesday, as freshman Jason D'Amore took 12th place with a three-round score of 215. Making the biggest jump in the Challenge was junior Chaz Inouye, who posted a final round 72 to jump eight places on Tuesday to finish in a tie for 32nd. Inouye shot a three-round total of 221, jumping eight spots. D'Amore also posted a 72 in the final day as both he had Inouye were in the top-15 scores for the day out of the field of 75 golfers. D'Amore posted rounds of 73, 70 and 72 to finish leading the Lions as a team for the third time in as many tournaments. Inouye and D'Amore helped the Lions get better with each day as they posted a 308 in the first round, 303 in round two and a 298 on Tuesday. LMU finished 13th on the tournament. Freshman Jeremy Bovill finished with a three-round 237 to place in a tie for 66th. Rounding out the Lions scores were sophomores Brendan von Doehren with a 238 and Jason Wilk with a 252.

Vandal Classic
Playing in just his second collegiate tournament, LMU freshman Jason D'Amore shot a 10-under 203 to win the 2004 Vandal Fall Classic on Monday afternoon in Moscow, ID. As a team, the Lions posted the second best score in the final round to move up three spots to finish fourth overall. D'Amore shot rounds of 71, 64 and 68 on the par-71 course to post a two-stroke win in the field of 59 golfers at the Vandal Classic. His 54-hole total of 203 is the best in school history, shattering the old record of 209 set by Mike Farrell on March 4, 2002. D'Amore tied the school record for a single round score of 64 in round two on Sunday. In the final round the Lions finished with a team score of 284, trailing only host Idaho on the day. The score helped the Lions move from seventh to fourth overall in the nine-team tournament. D'Amore's win is the first individual title since Mike Farrell won the Cal State San Marcos Invitational on March 4, 2002 and is just the sixth since 1990. Helping the Lions move up in the standings was junior Chaz Inouye and junior Dean Delaye, both posting a tournament best 71 in the final round. Delaye and sophomore Brendan von Doehren each finished in a tie for 24th with three-round totals of 219. Inouye finished in a tie for 30th with a score of 221. Rounding out the Lions' scoring was sophomore Jason Wilk in 53rd with a 228.

Round One
The Loyola Marymount University men's golf team began the 2004-05 season with play in the UCLA Gold Rush California Collegiate Golf Showcase held Sept. 17-18 at the PGA Southern California Golf Club. The Lions earned an impressive showing from freshman Jason D'Amore in his debut at LMU, finishing 31st out of 175 golfers. LMU finished the tournament in 25th place overall as host UCLA earned the win. Junior Chaz Inouye, who has led the Lions in low average each of the last two years, finished with a 234, hitting a 75 in round one and round three. Rounding out the scores for the Lions was Brendan von Doehren with a 240, shooting a two-over 74 in round one, with a 78 in round two and an 88 in the final round. Freshman Jeremy Bovill shot a 244 and fellow freshman Gregg Gauvin hit a 261.

What A Debut
The true freshman Jason D'Amore from Mira Costa High School started his collegiate career with a two-under par 70 in the first round. He finished with a second round 75 and a third round 73 to place in a tie for 31st with a two-over 218. For the tournament he finished with 13 birdies. He one-upped himself with his record-setting performance at the Vandal Fall Classic just a week later. After shooting a first-round 71, D'Amore vaulted to first place after two rounds, shooting a record-tying 64 in the second round. The 64 tied Nicolas Beauvy's single round score set in 1981. D'Amore would remain in first place the entire third round thanks to his 68 to finish 10-under for the tournament. The three-round 203 shattered the school's record of 209 set by Mike Farrell in 2002. After the Lions first three tournaments, he leads the team with a 70.7 average over the course of nine rounds of golf.

2003 WCC Championships
The Loyola Marymount University men's golf team concluded an impressive showing at the 2004 West Coast Conference Championships with a fifth place finish, overcoming cold and windy conditions at the Riverbend Golf Club. After record-breaking scores in the first day of action on Monday, which included 11 rounds in the 60s, windy conditions made the course much tougher. No player in the 40-man field shot under par on day two as the Lions posted a final round of 312 to finish one stroke behind San Diego for fourth. The Toreros trailed the Lions by one stroke after two rounds and finished the third round with a 310. Leading the way for the Lions was sophomore Chaz Inouye, who posted his second consecutive top-10 finish with a final score of 219 to finish eighth overall. The score of three-over par was highlighted by a 68 in round two as he finishes the tournament with a 76 in round three. In team play each team qualifies five golfers with the four lowest counting towards the team total each round. For the first time in program history the Lions had the four golfers counting toward the team score finish in the top-20. Seniors Joe Legacy and Gavin Witzer closed their four-year careers at LMU tied with one another at 15th. Both seniors were tied entering round three and finished with a score of 80 on Tuesday for a final score of 224. Freshman Brendan von Doehren finished in a tie for 17th thanks to a final round of 76. He finished with a 225 for the three rounds. Rounding out the Lions' scores was junior Peter Heilbron in 37th with a three-round score of 242.

All-WCC, Again
Sophomore Chaz Inouye of the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team set history with his eighth place finish in the 2004 West Coast Conference Championships at Riverbend Golf Club in Madera, Calif. The Wailuku, Hi, native became the first Lion to earn All-WCC honors in back-to-back seasons. Inouye, who finished third in his first season in 2003 to earn WCC Freshman of the Year honors, finished 2004's final round with a 76 to earn a three-round total of 219. He finished alone in eighth place and became the first LMU player in program history to have two top-10 finishes in the WCC Championship, both coming in back-to-back seasons. The top-10 finish allowed Inouye to earn WCC All-Conference Honorable Mention honors. On the season Inouye finished leading the Lions with a round average of 75.19, a half stroke higher than his average as a freshman.

Academic Honors
Loyola Marymount athletics placed five student-athletes on the West Coast Conference's Spring All-Academic team, the conference announced. Golf's Chaz Inouye, men's tennis' Carlos Malet, and Naomi Hoogestefer, Caitlin McClain, and Erin Ludwig of women's crew all earned the academic all-conference honor. This season, Inouye became the first LMU golfer to twice finish in the top 10 at the WCC Championships and the first to earn back-to-back All-WCC recognition. The sophomore, who was the 2003 WCC Freshman Golfer of the Year, holds a 3.37 cumulative grade point average in communication studies.

In the Pros
Former golfer and 1997 graduate of Loyola Marymount University Scott Heyn qualified for the PGA Tour's Nissan Open, which opened play Feb. 18 at the Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif. Heyn played for the Lions' golf team from 1995-97 and had an impressive career. He was the first LMU player to earn all-conference honors in the West Coast Conference. He finished his senior season with a fourth place finish in the WCC Championships. In his career at LMU, Heyn led the Lions for low score in six tournaments, including his best three-round finish of 217 at the Santa Clara Invitational on Nov. 19, 1996. He finished in fifth place out of 44 golfers with a score of one-over par.

Head Coach
Alex Galvan became just the second head coach of the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team in the history of the program when he was hired in 2002. In two seasons with the program, Galvan has led the team to a pair of fifth place finishes in the West Coast Conference Championships. In the process, however, he has built a team with its best recruitting classes. For the first time in program history the team had a WCC Freshman of the Year in 2003 when Chaz Inouye took third in the WCCs a year ago. Galvan then helped Inouye earn All-WCC honorable mention honors in 2004, the first time a player has earned back-to-back WCC honors in program history.