Story Links
Dates: Sept. 19-20
Location: UNM Championship Course – Albuquerque, NM
Par/Yardage: Par 72 | 7,555 yards
Participating Teams: Tarleton State, Colorado, UTEP, Arkansas State, San Francisco, Oral Roberts, New Mexico State, Rice, Stetson, Fresno State, New Mexico, Colorado State, Grand Canyon, Santa Clara, North Texas, California State, Eastern Michigan, USC.
Tarleton State Players Competing: Juan Ballester, Maximilian Bjornstrom, Luis Buech, Alvaro Pastor Roman, Kellen Young
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – Tarleton State Men’s Golf continues its busy week of action in New Mexico at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate Friday and Saturday, hosted by the University of New Mexico at the UNM Championship Course.
The Texans will be three days removed from their season-opening 13th-place team finish at the Wohali, where they got a first look at their initial five-man lineup comprising two returners and three newcomers. All will compete again this weekend.
Sophomore Luis Buech shot 11 birdies in his Texan debut and was the team’s top finisher, tying for 34th at 8-over-par. The German will return to his previous school, New Mexico, where he averaged a 73.22 stroke score over three events as a freshman.
Redshirt freshman Alvaro Pastor Roman and freshman Maximilian Bjornstrom also made their Texan debuts earlier this week. Roman tied for 44th, shooting 10-over-par, and finished the tournament with the best single-round score on the team at 71. Bjornstrom tied for 64th with a 232 54-hole score, his best work coming in the first round where he shot 72.
Junior Juan Ballester is the most experienced of the bunch. The Spaniard had four top 45 finishes last season and had a 75.93 stroke average over the last five tournaments.
Sophomore Kellen Young tied for 66th with a 236 54-hole score, shooting 74 in the third round.
The William H. Tucker Intercollegiate consists of 18 teams from 11 conferences this year. Eight teams (Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Oral Roberts, Santa Clara, Grand Canyon, USC) made the 2025 NCAA Regionals.
10 teams in the field have already achieved top five team finishes this season, with two winning team titles. The Texans saw New Mexico tie for first at the Wohali, and USC won the Whirlwind Invitational in Arizona last week.
The Texans will face eight teams in the field for the first time and former WAC rival Grand Canyon, who joined the Mountain West Conference in July.
It will be the second time in program history, since the team reconfigured in 2022, that the Texans will play two tournaments in a three-day span.
Friday’s play will consist of 54 holes and tee off at 8:30 a.m. CT. Live stats will be provided by Scoreboard, powered by Clippd.