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USC Men’s Golf Back In Action At Inverness Intercollegiate

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Men’s Golf | September 23, 2022

The USC men’s golf team, fresh off a pair of medalist honors from the season-opening week of action, returns to the links Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 26-27) at the Inverness Intercollegiate at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

The Trojans, in their third season under Head Coach JT Higgins and assistant coach Matt Waltonopened the 2022-23 season with a second at the Husky Invitational while a sophomore Jackson Rivera took first, complemented by senior Jack Boulger’s win at the adjacent Husky Individual Invitational.

Another challenge awaits the Trojans in Ohio against a packed 16-team field featuring host Toledo, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Virginia, Washington, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Louisville, Notre Dame, SMU, South Alabama, Texas Tech, Charlotte, East Tennessee State , Purdue and USC.

Two rounds of play begin Monday at 8:45 am CT with the final round beginning Tuesday at 8:30 am with tee times off 1 and 10. Results will be available at golfstat.com.

STREAMING COVERAGE
A portion of Tuesday’s final round can be viewed here on ESPN+ with a scheduled air time of 12-3 pm CT. In addition, featured holes will be streamed on YouTube here.

LAST TIME AT INVERNESS
The last time USC played at Inverness was in the fall of 2008 and the Trojans finished fourth while Jamie Lovemark and Tim Sluiter tied for 10th. USC won the event to kick off the 2006-07 season with Lovemark — the NCAA champion that season — finishing third.

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 GC 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.

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 seniors Jack Boulgersenior Parker Siskjuniors Krando Nishiba spirit Shane Ffrench and sophomore Gavin Aurilia. The Trojans welcome a pair of freshmen in Mahanth Chirravuri from Arizona and Rocky Chapman from the UK

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.