Men’s golf finishes ninth in Southwest Invitational

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At the conclusion of the three-day Southwestern Invitational in Westlake Village, Calif., the Trojans finished near the bottom of the leaderboard with a combined score of 29-over par. 

USC finished behind Pac-12 schools Arizona State, UCLA and Washington. The Sun Devils won the entire tournament. 

The invitational included both team and individual competitions among 12 schools. USC has won the tournament seven times, most recently in 2019.

Before the final round of competition, USC ranked ninth in the overall team leaderboard, bringing a score of 1-under 287 to move to 10-over 586. However, the Trojans shot 19-over par Wednesday — the second to lowest finish of all the schools. 

Sophomore Shane Ffrench had the highest overall score for USC, shooting 6-over par over three rounds. He played his season-best 2-under par in the second round then concluded with 5-over par Wednesday. 

Ffrench finished as the highest scoring Trojan in the player leaderboard at 31st. He was voted in the 2021 All-Pac-12 Newcomer Team after last season. 

Freshman Jackson Rivera had a strong display going into the last day of competition after back-to-back rounds of 1-under par. He tied for 12th in the player leaderboard at 2-under 142 after six birdies on Tuesday and team-best eighth round of par or better. 

Even though Rivera led the Trojans after the first day of play on Monday, he shot a 9-over par Wednesday to finish tied for 34th in the player leaderboard. Ffrench managed to take over Rivera on the leaderboard.

Although senior Cameron Henry also notched 1-under 71 Tuesday he finished with a 7-over par on Wednesday for a final score of +13. 

Ffrench birdied five of seven holes on Tuesday and finished with a 2-under par performance, tying for 29th place. Henry tied for 41st place at 6-over par after three straight birdies between holes 15 and 17. 

Making his Trojan debut as an individual, junior Parker Sisk tied for 48th in the player leaderboard after two straight days of shooting 2-over par. 

Sisk and sophomore Krando Nishiba tied at 33rd after Monday. However, Nishiba shot a 7-over par in the second round and 3-over in the final round to tie for 40th with a score of +10. Freshman Gavin Aurillia finished with 16-over par after shooting 4-over Wednesday. 

USC’s next tournament is the John A. Burns Invitational in Hawaii Feb. 17 to 19.