March 6, 2005

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Briefly
The Loyola Marymount University men's golf team will continue the 2005 spring portion of its schedule when they travel to the Braveheart Classic hosted by UC Riverside at the PGA West Golf Course in Beaumont, CA. The 19-team field will be the toughest field since the first tournament of the season in September. This will be the third tournament of the spring seaosn as the Lions continue to head toward the West Coast Conference Championships in April.

This Week
The Lions will make the trip east to Beaumont, CA for the Braveheart Classic. The 19-team field will play on both courses at the PGA, the Champions Course and the Legends Course. The Champions has been rated #1 in Southern California in the 2003 Zagat Golf Survey and was designed by noted architects Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley. The 7,377-yard course is distinguished by gently rolling terrain, extraordinary views and a rugged bunkering style reminiscent of a linksland course. The Legends, designed by noted architects Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley, is a dramatically beautiful layout and features riparian streams and is flush with oak woodlands. The 7,442-yard course is defined by it's classic style of bunkering and dramatic elevation changes.Making up the Lions team this year in the Braveheart Classic is Jason D'Amore, Chaz Inouye, Brendan von Doehren, Josh Escobedo and Jason Wilk.

What A Debut
The true freshman Jason D'Amore from Mira Costa High School started his collegiate career with a two-under par 70 in the first round. He finished with a second round 75 and a third round 73 to place in a tie for 31st with a two-over 218. For the tournament he finished with 13 birdies. He one-upped himself with his record-setting performance at the Vandal Fall Classic just a week later. After shooting a first-round 71, D'Amore vaulted to first place after two rounds, shooting a record-tying 64 in the second round. The 64 tied Nicolas Beauvy's single round score set in 1981. D'Amore would remain in first place the entire third round thanks to his 68 to finish 10-under for the tournament. The three-round 203 shattered the school's record of 209 set by Mike Farrell in 2002. After the Lions first seven tournaments, he leads the team with a 72.67 average over the course of 21 rounds of golf. He has led the Lions in all seven events this season. The Loyola Marymount University men's golf team finished the final round at the Pala Mesa Invitational on Tuesday with the fourth best score of the day at 292. The Lions finished the tournament with a three-round score of 920.

Top-5 APR
Loyola Marymount University ranked fifth in the nation among all NCAA Division I schools in the first Academic Progress Rates (APR) report, issued by the NCAA on Feb. 28 for its 326 Division I schools. The APR measures an institutions success in retaining scholarship athletes and keeping them eligible in each sport. The Lions earned an APR score of 991, placing them in a tie for fifth with Villanova among all 326 Division I institutions. Rounding out the top-5 are Yale (999), Princeton (994), Penn (993) and William & Mary (992). LMU also ranks number one among all scores in the state of California, number one among all Jesuit institutions and best in the West Coast Conference (WCC). The average APR among the eight schools in the WCC sits at 964. The national average among all Division I schools is 948. The APR data is from the 2003-04 academic year and evaluates the institution's overall APR as well as each NCAA championship sport a school sponsors. LMU had 11 of the 16 sports earn a perfect score of 1000 and every sport earned a rate above a 967. Included in that 11 was the LMU men's golf team, who competes in the WCC. The average among all Division I institutions is 961.

Pala Mesa
The final round push was made possible by the play of sophomore Brendan von Doehren and junior Chaz Inouye. The pair finished with rounds of 70 on the final day. The 70s came after a pair of tough rounds for both von Doehren and Inouye, who finished 34th and 47th respectively. Inouye finished with a 231 (plus-15) while von Doehren had a 227 (plus-11). Leading the Lions once again was freshman Jason D'Amore. The first-year player has led the Lions in every event this season as he finished 31st overall at Pala Mesa. D'Amore shot a first round 72 and recovered after a second-round 81 with a final round of 73. He finished with a 226 (plus-10). Rounding out the Lions' play was freshman Jason Wilk and Josh Escobedo. Wilk finished with a 243 and Escobedo with a 244.

CSUN Countrywide Intercollegiate
After a frustrating first day that saw the second round called due to darkness at the Bill Cullum/Countrywide Home Loans Intercolleigate, the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team put together solid scores in the final two rounds to move up two spots in the final standings. The Lions finished in a tie for 13th after posting a final score 904. Freshman Jason D'Amore shot the highest round of his collegiate career in the first round on Monday with an 80. However, showing why he has led the Lions in every tournament this season, he bounced back to post a second round 70 and a final round 72 to move up 44 spots in the standings the final 36 holes to finish in a tie for 33rd. He finished with a three-round 222. Junior Chaz Inouye continues to improve throughout the young season with a 224 over three rounds, finishing in a tie for 42nd. His best round was in round two with a 83. Freshman Brendan von Doehren was one stroke behind Inouye with a 225, posting a 74 in round two. Rounding out the Lions scores was sophomore Jason Wilk with a 238 (t-74th) and freshman Jeremy Bovill with a 240 (78th). Playing as an individual in his first tournament as a Lion was freshman Josh Escobedo. He finished in 72nd with a 237.

Santa Clara Invitational
After the first two rounds featured just one golfer earn a round under par, the scores came back down as the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team had a pair of golfers finish in the top-15 at the 2004 Santa Clara Men's Invitational at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose on Oct. 26. Freshman Jason D'Amore earned his third consecutive top-15 finish as he made a huge charge in the final round with a two-under par 70 to finish in a tie for eighth place. He finished with a seven-over 223 in the three-round tournament. Earning his best finish of the new season was sophomore Brendan von Doehren with a 14th-place tie. He shot a one-under par 71 on Tuesday to finish with a 225 in the tournament. As a team the Lions had an impressive 294 on the round to finish in seventh place overall. Rounding out the Lions scores were junior Chaz Inouye (232, t-31st), sophomore Jason Wilk (239, t-46th) and freshman Jeremy Bovill (249, 52nd).

All-WCC, Again
Sophomore Chaz Inouye of the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team set history with his eighth place finish in the 2004 West Coast Conference Championships at Riverbend Golf Club in Madera, Calif. The Wailuku, Hi, native became the first Lion to earn All-WCC honors in back-to-back seasons. Inouye, who finished third in his first season in 2003 to earn WCC Freshman of the Year honors, finished 2004's final round with a 76 to earn a three-round total of 219. He finished alone in eighth place and became the first LMU player in program history to have two top-10 finishes in the WCC Championship, both coming in back-to-back seasons. The top-10 finish allowed Inouye to earn WCC All-Conference Honorable Mention honors. On the season Inouye finished leading the Lions with a round average of 75.19, a half stroke higher than his average as a freshman.

Academic Honors
Loyola Marymount athletics placed five student-athletes on the West Coast Conference's Spring All-Academic team, the conference announced. Golf's Chaz Inouye, men's tennis' Carlos Malet, and Naomi Hoogestefer, Caitlin McClain, and Erin Ludwig of women's crew all earned the academic all-conference honor. This season, Inouye became the first LMU golfer to twice finish in the top 10 at the WCC Championships and the first to earn back-to-back All-WCC recognition. The sophomore, who was the 2003 WCC Freshman Golfer of the Year, holds a 3.37 cumulative grade point average in communication studies.

In the Pros
Former golfer and 1997 graduate of Loyola Marymount University Scott Heyn qualified for the PGA Tour's Nissan Open, which opened play Feb. 18 at the Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, Calif. Heyn played for the Lions' golf team from 1995-97 and had an impressive career. He was the first LMU player to earn all-conference honors in the West Coast Conference. He finished his senior season with a fourth place finish in the WCC Championships. In his career at LMU, Heyn led the Lions for low score in six tournaments, including his best three-round finish of 217 at the Santa Clara Invitational on Nov. 19, 1996. He finished in fifth place out of 44 golfers with a score of one-over par.

Head Coach
Alex Galvan became just the second head coach of the Loyola Marymount University men's golf team in the history of the program when he was hired in 2002. In two seasons with the program, Galvan has led the team to a pair of fifth place finishes in the West Coast Conference Championships. In the process, however, he has built a team with its best recruitting classes. For the first time in program history the team had a WCC Freshman of the Year in 2003 when Chaz Inouye took third in the WCCs a year ago. Galvan then helped Inouye earn All-WCC honorable mention honors in 2004, the first time a player has earned back-to-back WCC honors in program history.

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