LA JOLLA, Calif. - The UC San Diego golf team is back in Colorado for the second-straight week, this time to compete in the Falcon Invitational.
Air Force is hosting the 21-team tournament September 20-22 at Eisenhower Golf Course in Colorado Springs.
The event features a traditional 54-hole team tourney and adds a separate individual event as well. All nine Tritons will be competing in one of the two tournaments.
Seven teams out of the Big West will be in contention (CSUN, Hawai'i, Idaho, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara).
This will be the third-consecutive season that the Tritons have competed at the Falcon Invitational (
2024 results |
2023 results).
UC San Diego is coming off Colorado State's Ram Masters, which Triton
Davis McDowell won and the team placed fifth of 16 squads.
All three rounds at Eisenhower can be followed with
live scoring.
THE TEAMS
(Final 2024-25 national ranking listed. First 2025-26 rankings will be released in October)
• Air Force (241)
• Boise State (108)
• CSUN (222)
• Denver (167)
• Gonzaga (177)
• Hawai'i (185)
• Idaho (170)
• Incarnate Word (190)
• Nevada (151)
• Northern Colorado (206)
• Southern Utah (284)
• Texas Arlington (273)
• UC Davis (154)
• UC Riverside (164)
• UC San Diego (148)
• UC Santa Barbara (192)
• Utah State (132)
• Utah Tech (139)
• Utah Valley (128)
• Weber State (243)
• Wyoming (109)
THE TRITON LINEUP
Team
1.
Davis McDowell
2.
Francis Catalano
3.
Justin Gill
4.
Nathan Tseng
5.
Hanjie Yu
Individuals
•
Leo Cheng
•
Calvin Kong
•
Ethan Lien
•
Austin Woods
THE COURSES
•
Eisenhower Golf Club
• 3169 Golf Course Rd, Air Force Academy, CO 80840
• Blue Course (team competition)
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,541
• About: The Blue Course of the Eisenhower Golf Club opened in the 1959 and is named after former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who took part in the dedication ceremony. The 7,541 yard, par 72 course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and was ranked as the third best military course in the nation (PGA.com) and the 24th best college course (Golf Week) in the country.
• Silver Course (individual competition)
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,510
• About: The Silver Course, designed by an excellent Colorado architect, Frank Hummel, is the newer of the two Eisenhower courses. It is shorter than the Blue Course, but makes up for its lack of length with fast, tricky greens, narrow fairways, and many hazards.
ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT
The Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational is in its 56th season. Formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Invitational and the Pikes Peak Invitational, the event was re-named the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational in 2003 to honor the legendary coach who headed up the Air Force program for 25 years and is a member of the Air Force Athletics' Hall of Fame.
MCDOWELL WINS SEASON OPENER
After not playing a collegiate event for almost a year,
Davis McDowell returned in a big way, winning the Ram Masters Invitational in Fort Collins, Colorado, on September 12. McDowell led the 91-player field wire-to-wire. Over 54 holes, he finished 6-under par, going 5-under and 1-under in Thursday's first two rounds and closing with an even par effort Friday. He finished one stroke ahead of Colorado State's Alessandro Trenta and two in front of Long Beach State's Alejandro de Castro. McDowell had last played a college event in October of 2024 at the White Sands Collegiate in the Bahamas. The win in Colorado was McDowell's second career victory as he won the Orange County Collegiate in February of 2023 as a sophomore.
TRITONS GET FIRST NCAA DIVISION I WIN
UC San Diego earned its first NCAA Division I victory last season at the El Macero Classic, hosted by UC Davis. The Tritons finished one-over par, topping second place Saint Mary's by a single stroke and third place Pacific by two strokes. There were 17 teams in contention. Individually, three Tritons placed in the top six.Â
Nathan Tseng (-3) was third,Â
Kyle Dougherty (-2) was fifth, andÂ
Francis Catalano (even par) finished sixth. Read the press release
here.
UC SAN DIEGO ACCEPTS OFFER TO JOIN WEST COAST CONFERENCE
On Sept. 3, 2025, UC San Diego accepted a formal invitation to join theÂ
West Coast Conference (WCC) and will begin competing in the conference starting with the 2027-28 season. Men's golf is a sport sponsored by the conference. In 2027-28, the WCC membership will consist of: University of California San Diego, Loyola Marymount University, University of the Pacific, Pepperdine University, University of Portland, Saint Mary's College, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Seattle University. UC San Diego will become the first public institution in the West Coast Conference since the departure of the University of Nevada-Reno in 1979.Â
Read the complete press release here.
A RETURN TO LA QUINTA FOR THE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2026 Big West Men's Golf Championship is set for May 3-5 at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif. In 2025, UC San Diego competed in its first-ever Big West Championship, which was also contested at La Quinta. The Tritons tied for seventh of 12 teams.
Kyle Dougherty was UC San Diego's top finisher, tying for 15th in the 72-player field.
WHY THE TRITONS
The Triton is described as the offspring of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a demigod of the sea with a lower part of the body like that of a fish. It is known as a mighty and fierce sea warrior. Given UC San Diego's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean and its connections with the world-famous Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Triton became UC San Diego's mascot in 1964.
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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
