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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Meehan: Future PGA stars will shine at Palouse Ridge

Chances are you haven’t heard of the Golfstat Cup. Chances are you have heard of Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Ryan Moore, Bill Haas, Hunter Mahan, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar and Tiger Woods.

They’re among past winners of the Golfstat Cup, presented annually to the collegiate golfer with the lowest adjusted scoring average.

When the Pac-12 Conference men’s championships take place Monday through Wednesday at Washington State University’s Palouse Ridge, the current top four in the Golfstat Cup rankings will tee it up. Three of the world’s top nine amateurs will be in Pullman. Seven top 25 programs will be on hand.

Serious star power will be on display at the enjoyable links course weaved into the rolling hills of the Palouse.

“If you keep a tee sheet and eight years from now pull it out and look on the PGA Tour there’ll probably be 8-10 players you’ll know very well,” Cougars coach Garrett Clegg said.

Eight years ago, Spokane’s Alex Prugh was wrapping up his University of Washington career as a second-team All-Pac-12 selection. He has two top 10s in 14 PGA starts this season. Prugh was paired with former Arizona Wildcat Ricky Barnes for the first two rounds of this week’s PGA Tour stop in New Orleans. The tee time for ex-UCLA Bruin Kevin Chappell, first-team All-Pac-12 in 2007-08, was 10 minutes later.

World No. 1-ranked amateur Jon Rahm headlines the current Pac-12 standouts. The Arizona State junior finished tied for fifth at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, one shot ahead of Masters champ Spieth. The Spaniard has been selected to represent Europe in the Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style event in June. He’ll be joined by ASU teammate and German native Max Rottluff, who is fourth in the Golfstat Cup rankings.

They’ll compete against U.S. team selection and Stanford sophomore Maverick McNealy, whose 69.1 adjusted scoring average leads the GolfStat Cup list. Stanford has had a Palmer Cup representative for seven straight years.

Washington’s Cheng-Tsung Pan, fifth in the amateur rankings, joins Rahm and McNealy among 10 semifinalists for the prestigious Ben Hogan Award. Former Husky Chris Williams, a Moscow High graduate, won the award in 2013, sandwiched between Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers last year and UCLA’s Patrick Cantlay in 2012.

Not to go all Bill Walton here but the Conference of Champions knows its way around a golf course, despite its current six-year NCAA title drought. UCLA claimed the Pac-12’s last NCAA crown in 2008. Stanford was the runner-up in 2008 and the champion in 2007. Cal and UCLA finished 1-2 in 2004.

Arizona State won twice in the 1990s, the 1990 squad led by the second of Phil Mickelson’s three individual titles. Arizona was No. 1 in 1992. Woods (Stanford 1995-96) ranks first on the PGA Tour’s all-time money list, followed by Mickelson.

WSU senior Sang Lee has faced the Pac-12’s best throughout his career. In September, Lee shared first place with Cal’s Cameron Shaw at a Palouse Ridge tournament that featured seven Pac-12 schools. Lee and Shaw completed the 54-holes in 6-under.

WSU placed fourth, behind Oregon, USC and Cal and ahead of Washington, Arizona State and Oregon State.

“I can list off many good players that are eventually going to make the PGA Tour if they keep at it,” Lee said. “I beat a lot of them in the fall, I play against them all the time. It’s very marginal the things they do more consistently and consistency is the name of the sport.

“It’s very exciting, more than nerve-wracking, to play with those guys.”

It should be good theater to see how the Pac-12’s best players and teams deal with Palouse Ridge, which is no pushover, particularly in windy conditions. The 7,257-yard layout will play as a par 70. At a media-day event Monday, the course was firming up and the rough should be thick after a week of growth.

“I wish we could get a ton of people out here and hopefully we do,” Clegg said. “It’s too bad you don’t get more at an event like this because the caliber of golf is so good. There are four or five guys that have already played in major championships.”

Admission is free, the course is in great shape and the field is loaded. Golf fans might want to hop in the car.