USC Men's Golf to Compete at Pac-12 Championships

Carefree, ARIZ. — The USC men's golf team heads into the postseason of its 2024 campaign, traveling to Carefree, Arizona for the Pac-12 Championships at Desert Forest Golf Club starting Friday (April 26). The three-day competition is the longest of the Trojans' season with four rounds being played. The first two will occur back-to-back on Friday, with the third round taking place on Saturday (April 27) and the final round being played on Sunday (April 28). The Trojans will be competing in the final edition of the Pac-12 Championship before moving to the Big Ten Conference next season. 
 
In 2023, tournament host Stanford took home the title at a total score of 19-under, 13 shots in front of second place Arizona State. Current World Amateur No. 1 Micheal Thorbjornson of Stanford won the individual event.
 
The Trojans, who placed solo 10th last year, look to cap off their season with a strong performance. The final edition of the Pac-12 Championship includes; No. 4 Arizona State, No. 8 Washington, No. 9 Arizona, No. 23 California, No. 24 Oregon, Colorado, Washington State, Stanford, Oregon State, USC, Utah and UCLA. 
 
"The Pac 12 is always a top tournament in the country with 12 great teams and a championship atmosphere.  It's a great opportunity for us, and we will compete and keep pushing individually and as a team until we complete our last round on Sunday," said USC men's golf head coach Mark Hankins. 
 
The Desert Forest Golf Club was the first of its kind as it boasts to be the "first desert course ever built". Designed by Red Lawrence in 1962 and later re-done in 2013 by David Zinkland, Golf Digest has twice ranked Desert Forest inside the top 100 courses in the country and consistently ranks it as a top 10 course in Arizona. The course is designed to blend in with the desert landscape around it and utilizes a minimalist design with no out-of-bounds markers on the course. Its newly renovated greens are seeded with bentgrass with the rest of the course playing on Bermuda across 7203 yards in a par 71 setup.