Waves Head to Vegas for Southern Highlands Collegiate

MALIBU, Calif. — After highlighting the spring with a first-place finish at The Prestige for the first time in program history earlier this week, the Pepperdine men's golf team will keep that energy as they head to Las Vegas, Nev. for the Southern Highlands Collegiate, hosted by UNLV.

EVENT INFO — The Southern Highlands Collegiate will be held at the par-72, 7,510-yard Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev. There will be 18 holes of golf each day between Sunday at Tuesday (February 26-28).

Play will begin at 9 a.m. PT each day with tee times off the first and 10th holes. Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.

FIELD — In addition to #14 Pepperdine, the 15-team field includes host UNLV, #4 North Carolina, #7 Illinois, #8 Georgia Tech, #9 Oklahoma, #11 Florida, #15 Texas A&M, #6 Texas, #25 San Diego State, Georgia, New Mexico, SMU, TCU and UCF.

EVENT HISTORY — This is Pepperdine's sixth appearance at the exclusive Southern Highlands event. The Waves played in four-straight from 2017-20 and then again in 2022. The team's best finish came at their most recent, second place in 2022. Joe Highsmith finished tied for second as an individual as well, while Derek Hitchner finished tied for 10th.

PEPPERDINE LINEUP — Pairings will be made available on the Golfstat live scoring link when released.

RANKINGS — The Waves are currently #14 by Golfstat and #16 by Golfweek/Sagarin and the Bushnell/Golfweek coaches poll.

Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings: Hitchner #10, Mouw #47.

Golfstat individual rankings: Hitchner #26, Mouw #41, Choi #79, Gifford #216.

PGA Tour University rankings: Mouw #7, Choi #18, Hitchner #23, Gifford #87, Nieves #105.

World Amateur Golf Rankings: Mouw #13, Hitchner #35, Choi #41.

SPRING HIGHLIGHTS — The Waves had a strong performance at The Prestige, finishing on top out of 24 teams and winning the well-known 22-year-old tournament for the first time in program history. William Mouw had the lead after day one, shooting 7-under for a 65, one shy of his career best performance and he ended in second overall. Derek Hitchner moved up 18 spots on the leaderboard in the final round to finish tied for fifth and Sam Choi finished tied for ninth. Pepperdine began slowly at its own Southwestern Invitational to open the Spring campaign, finishing the first round tied-sixth. The Waves had better second and third rounds than any other team, moving up four spots to finish second overall with a 1-under, but it would not be enough to overcome a 14-under display from Texas for the win.

FALL HIGHLIGHTS — The Waves finished tied-second at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate tied-third at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational in October. William Mouw finished third and second respectively as an individual in the two tournaments. Pepperdine competed at the prestigious East Lake Cup as well, finishing fourth in stroke play. The Waves defeated Texas 4-1 before falling to 2022 NCAA Champions Arizona State by a narrow 3-2 margin.

HONORS — William Mouw and Derek Hitchner were recently named to the Ben Hogan Award watch list ... Mouw was named to Golfweek's preseason All-American first team and the Golf Channel's second team ... Hitchner was named to the preseason All-American third team by both the Golf Channel and Golfweek ... Hitchner was one of three nominees for the Ben Hogan Award's Player of the Month for August ... Hitchner is one of four college golfers who had been selected to play at the East West Matches at Maridoe Golf Club in November ... Hitchner, Mouw, Sam Choi and Ian Maspat were named preseason All-WCC.

RECORDS WATCH — William Mouw ranks #3 all-time in scoring average (71.04) and is tied #6 alongside head coach Michael Beard (1999-02) in below-par rounds (55) ... Derek Hitchner is #7 all-time in scoring average (71.62) and #9 below-par round (51).

Waves Head to Vegas for Southern Highlands Collegiate

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Players Mentioned

Sam Choi

Joe Highsmith

Derek Hitchner

Ian Maspat

William Mouw

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