Historic Tournaments: Arizona's N.I.T.
20+ Years of the National Invitational Tournament
Borne out of the ashes of another nationally named tournament, the University of Arizona annually hosts the National Invitational Tournament (“NIT”). For over two decades, this event has brought collegiate golfers from across the country to famed OMNI Tucson National, the site of multiple PGA Tour and NCAA Regional tournaments over the years.
BEFORE
You can’t tell the story of the NIT without first clearing up a few things.
For one, know that this is actually the second of Arizona’s two home tournaments. The Wildcats have hosted an event known as the Arizona (Thunderbirds) Intercollegiate at various locations in Tucson, including Tucson Country Club, since the 1970s.
Second, we must wade through the muddied history of a tournament called the US Collegiate Championship to get to the NIT. It might surprise you that we can directly connect Tiger Woods - whose last collegiate season with Stanford was 1995-96 - with the formation of a 2003 tournament in Arizona.
The U.S. Collegiate Championship
The 1996 Western Intercollegiate was set to be one of the biggest in its storied history. Not only were they celebrating 50 years at Pasatiempo, they also had one of the most marketable names in golf in the field: Stanford’s Tiger Woods. Seizing the opportunity, a Chicago based production company called Intersport - who had the rights to the men’s NCAA golf championship 1994-96 - used their connection with ESPN to purchase air time to televise this regular season tournament. For various reasons including marketing, tournament organizers agreed to rename the event - which was playing a week before the famed Masters tournament in Augusta - the “U.S. Collegiate Championship” for one year. They got Tiger - who rushed off to the Masters right afterwards - and they got a fantastic finish with Arron Oberholser of host San Jose State closing with a back-nine 30 to grab a dramatic victory.
The 1996 success led the Intersport folks to pursue another opportunity in 1997. Tiger was out of college golf, but there were other big name players to market, including Georgia Tech freshman (and soon to be US Amateur champion) Matt Kuchar. Hosting their annual Carpet Capital Invitational the week before the 1997 Masters, the Yellowjackets agreed to a one-year name change to capitalize on the same television and marketing benefits the Western Intercollegiate got the year before. Two years, two different tournaments, but one “US Collegiate Championship” and a whole lot of tv time for college golf.
The US Collegiate Championship took on a life of its own in 1998 as a brand new event hosted by (of all teams) Kent State at the newly opening World Golf Village in Florida. From 1999-01 the tournament moved each year, first around Florida and then down to Mexico. It also picked up sponsorships by Compaq and Ford Motor Company. No matter where it went it had one major draw: being aired on ESPN(2). As the only college golf event getting that treatment, this was a huge deal and thus attracted many of the top teams. That is, until the rug was pulled in 2002.
Tucson National and PING to the Rescue
The University of Arizona returned 5 starters for the 2001-02 season and began the Fall ranked number 2 in the nation after finishing 3rd in the 2001 NCAA championship (second straight 3rd place finish). Unfortunately for Coach Rick LaRose, one of the strongest tournaments on their Spring schedule, the U.S. Collegiate Championship, had been all but cancelled due to losing the Ford Motor Company sponsorship and the logistical difficulty of getting everyone to Mexico to play without those dollars.
Coach LaRose (and Coach Randy Lein of Arizona State, see below!) scrambled and in early March was able to line up dates at OMNI Tucson National for the tournament April 5-7. Additionally, they were able to get PING, who had just sponsored Arizona’s long-running Arizona Intercollegiate just a month before at Raven Golf Club, to act as emergency sponsor to save the event.
The US Collegiate originally had seven of the top 12 ranked teams and six Ben Hogan Award finalists (including Arizona’s Chris Nallen) in the field, however because of the scrambling they lost Georgia and Clemson who were both forced to make alternate plans.
In spite of all the obstacles, the event was a major success. Texas held on for a two stroke victory over the new hosts, and Oklahoma State’s Hunter Mahan - also the PING Arizona Intercollegiate medalist - was able to capitalize on a first round 62/-10 to edge out Nallen by the same two stroke margin. Arizona State’s Chez Reavie, reigning US Public Links champion, left straight from his T10 finish at the US Collegiate to play in the Masters.
NATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT (NIT)
So here’s where our story really begins as a new tournament with a new identity, but the same mission: top quality collegiate golf competition.
See all of the scoring data from 2003-current:
https://www.5count4.com/tournament-history/nit-dashboard
What’s In a Name
The name “National Invitational Tournament” seems like a natural pivot from the “U.S. Collegiate Championship” for a new-ish tournament. According to Coach LaRose, however, the event actually gets it’s name from the collegiate basketball tournament. Intentional or not, the name certainly works on multiple levels and it doesn’t hurt that it’s easy to market.
2003-13
The first decade of the NIT kicked off with a 2003 victory for the host Wildcats who battled strong winds and New Mexico for their fourth win of the Spring, the most since their 1992 championship season. Arizona was led by Ricky Barnes who finished runner-up to Arizona State freshman Alejandro Canizares, that season’s NCAA individual champion.
UNLV junior Ryan Moore kicked off a historic year - which included winning the NCAA Championship, Western Amateur, US Public Links, and US Amateur - by first going wire-to-wire at the 2004 NIT for his second career collegiate victory. Arizona State took the team title by two strokes despite a late charge by host Arizona.
The next several years saw multiple team titles by TCU although they never managed to garner the individual title. The second of the Horned Frog’s three total wins in this era came in 2008 when three players - Nicolas Geyger (Tulsa), David Markle (Kent St), and Ben Moser (Houston) - shared co-medalist honors. Moser’s first collegiate win was made especially interesting as he shared it with Kent State’s Markle, his teammate from the previous year.
In 2011, Arizona’s Jonathan Khan captured medalist honors and led the Wildcats to a third place finish as Tulsa took the team title. Just a couple months later, Tucson National played host to the NCAA D1 Regionals and it took some closing hole dramatics but Arizona managed to snag the final qualifying spot. San Diego State won the Regional and then returned to Tucson National for the NIT the following year and took home the hardware again. This time it was future US Open champ JJ Spaun hoisting the medalist trophy and setting a new tournament record (201/-15, over 24 shots better than the field average!) in the process.
At the conclusion of the 2011-12 season, Coach LaRose retired after 34 years at helm of Arizona Wildcat golf. Former New Mexico Lobo player, Texas A&M assistant coach under JT Higgins, and recent (2012) Jan Strickland Assistant Coach of the Year award winner Jim Anderson was hired in June to fill some mighty large (and well worn) shoes. As a part of stewarding the rich tradition of Wildcat golf, Coach Anderson continued both the Arizona Intercollegiate and NIT.
“Jim [Anderson] is a very bright young man,” LaRose said. “I knew him when he played in college and when he was an assistant, and thought he was talented then. So, I’m very happy to see him here at Arizona. I have a feeling he’s going to be successful.”
-Coach Rick LaRose, Arizona Daily Wildcat
Coach Anderson’s first year at the helm coincided with a one-year name change to honor a long-time volunteer and friend of the program: the Don Puckette National Invitational Tournament. In the final round, New Mexico surged past TCU for first place on the team side by a single stroke. The Horned Frog’s Julien Brun took the individual hardware by one stroke over Ben Crancer (Texas A&M) and two over a group at T3 which included Bryson DeChambeau (SMU) and Victor Perez (New Mexico).
2014-19
Under Coach Anderson’s care, the NIT has continued to attract some of the best collegiate competition. Take for example the 2014 edition which featured Talor Gooch (Ok St) finishing T8 behind such names as Bryson DeChambeau (SMU), Harry Higgs (SMU), Wyndham Clark (Ok St), and Xander Schauffele (SDSU). Joel Stalter led the Cal Bears to the first of two consecutive NIT team titles 2014 & 2015.
The Iowa State Cyclones had back-to-back individual medalists in this timeframe - Scott Hernandez (2015) and Nick Voke (2016) - and finally captured the team trophy in 2017. Hernandez set the tournament margin of victory record (7 strokes) while Voke shared co-medalist honors with New Mexico’s Gustavo Morantes, the Venezuelan Amateur Champion who came back to be the assistant coach at his alma mater and eventually Arkansas. The 2016 team NIT title went to Santa Clara behind sophomore Hayden Shieh who shot a blistering first round 62/-10 and finished one stroke back of the co-medalists.
UNLV’s victory in 2018 was exceptionally special as they managed to do something Coach Dwaine Knight had never seen in his long tenure. Not only did all five Rebels finish in the red - from medalist Shintaro Ban’s 200/-16 to Harry Hall & Justin Kim’s 208/-8 (T12) - but they all had shot under par in every round. UNLV finished at 814/-50 to establish a new NIT record. Had their drop scores of 71-69-69 been an individual, it would have added up to a 209/-7 and placed T15, a full 7.5 strokes better than the field average!
Arizona State also found success in this era on both the team and individual sides. Chun An Yu won as a freshman in 2017 and then returned to finish runner-up the next year to Ban. The 2019 NIT belonged to the Sun Devils as junior Alex del Rey took medalist honors at 199/-17, a stroke better than USC’s Justin Suh, for his second collegiate victory after winning the 2017 Maui Jim Intercollegiate. ASU reached 50-under par (814) in three rounds thanks in large part to a program record (since broken) second round -25/263. Their 21 stroke margin of victory remains a tournament record, as does their 3.43 Team Strokes Gained Differential (SG per player per round) over the field! By the way, Chun An Yu finished T5 in his final NIT, making it the most successful three year run in the tournament history.
2021-25
College golf, like much of the world, came to a sudden halt just days before the scheduled start of the 2020 edition of the NIT. When it returned in 2021, the state of Oklahoma immediately made its presence known. The #2 ranked Sooners got to 43-under/821 behind senior Garett Reband’s medalist play, but they fell four strokes short of Oklahoma State. As good as they were in 2021, the Cowboys came back in 2022 and defended their title with a record-setting -53/811 that was (a record tying) 21 strokes better than Texas. Oklahoma State senior Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, who finished runner-up the year before, closed with back-to-back bogey-free rounds to set the new tournament scoring record at 196/-20.
Twenty years after the inaugural NIT, Arizona again captured the team title, this time by one stroke over Pepperdine. Appropriately, Coach Anderson and co-medalist Zach Pollo each received a nice celebratory cooler shower after the freshman sank his par putt on the 54th hole to become the first Wildcat frosh to win a tournament since 2004. Pollo shared medalist honors with USC’s Jackson Rivera who turned in the best Trojan performance in a tournament since Justin Suh’s 2019 win at this same event. Rivera’s -9/63 is the best final round score in NIT history, and just one stroke behind the tournament 18-hole scoring record of 62/-10 shared by Hayden Shieh (Santa Clara, 2016) and Trevor Werbylo (Arizona to-par record, 2019).
The home team broke records on their way to a 50-under par runner-up finish the next year in 2024, one stroke ahead of ASU and one behind New Mexico. Arizona shot its second lowest team 18 hole score with a 2nd round -20/268 and then matched it in the 3rd round. The Lobos set their own program records with a 2nd round 268/-20 and -51/813 total while matching UNLV’s 2018 feat of all five players shooting under par in every round. On the individual side, highly touted ASU freshman (and US Junior Amateur champ) Wenyi Ding had a remarkable start to his collegiate career with a 199/-17 runner-up finish. Ding was one stroke short of BYU’s Zac Jones who had opened his previous Spring (2023) with an individual win at the Arizona Intercollegiate.
BYU returned in 2025 with a vengeance and left Tucson with the team trophy and a 14 stroke victory in which three of their players finished in the top5 and four in the top10. As a team the Cougars led the field in both birdies and eagles, and individual runner-up Simon Kwon tied with teammate Kevin Wu in most birdies. Iowa State junior Paul Beauvy became the third Cyclone to capture NIT medalist honors and the first individual (co-)medalist in tournament history to have a hole-in-one. Beauvy’s ace came on the 17th hole - his 12th hole of the round - and kicked off a stretch of going 6-under in his final 8 holes to secure his first career victory by just two strokes.
2026 Edition
The host Wildcats have finished in the top2 as a team three years running, and have placed an individual in the top3 each of the last four years. This year they face stiff competition against the likes of reigning NIT champs BYU and the #5 ranked Texas Longhorns. Paul Beauvy is back for the Cyclones to defend his medalist honors in this tournament and potentially add his second such honors for the 2025-26 season. Others ranked in the top 100 to end the Fall 2025 season and looking to join Beauvy in the record books include Arizona’s own senior Filip Jakubcik, BYU’s Simon Kwon, and all five Texas starters Luke Potter, Daniel Bennett, Christiaan Maas, Tommy Morrison, and Matt Comegys.
No matter who ends up leaving Tucson National with the hardware, each of these players will have added to the two+ decade-old legacy of high-level collegiate golf.
The NIT has been a great event for our program over the decades. We feel very fortunate to have the ability to stage a competitive event at a beautiful site creating competitive experiences for our players, along visiting teams. Omni Tucson National has a long history of hosting high level competitions, including PGA Tour, Champions Tour, NCAA Postseason, and other top events within the state of Arizona. Along with the staff on property, we are excited to put on a great event to get the College Golf season started again in 2026!
-Coach Jim Anderson
Thanks for reading!