The Wyoming Cowboy golf team returns to action for the first time in 2019, hosting the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, Calif.  The tournament will be played on the Classic Club in Palm Desert.  The tournament format will feature an 18-hole round each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 22, 23 and 24.
 
"This is an important week for our program," said University of Wyoming Director of Golf and Head Coach Joe Jensen.  "We'll have 21 teams and 120 players at our tournament in Palm Desert, and we want to put on a first-class event for all the teams participating.  On top of that, it is the first tournament of the spring season for our team. 
     
"We had players get in rounds during the winter, and we of course had John (Murdock) and Dan (Starzinski) participate in the Genesis Open Collegiate Showcase last week where they played hard and had a great experience.  But now it is time to get all of our guys back in competition.  I'm sure we'll be a little rusty and so I'm tempering my expectations a little bit.
     
"It takes awhile to get into a rhythm and a routine after a long winter break away from school and away from our training facility, but I want to maintain the process that we followed in the fall.  With that said, we have been pretty productive on the road at tournaments, and we need to maximize our time in California this week both playing some practice rounds and carrying that into the tournament.
  
"We still have a young team overall, so this is the first time that a lot of them have played a spring season.  We have two really nice players in John and Dan, and if we can lean on them and get good leadership from them that is 50 percent of our team score.  I feel like I have four guys competing for the other three spots, and we'll see how they grow as the spring season moves on.  I just want to see us have a good first week, compete hard, get some good work in and build from that." 
 
Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate Tournament Field
The 2019 Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate will feature 21 teams from across the country, including: Boise State, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado, Colorado State, Denver, Kansas, Little Rock, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Seattle, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, Southern Utah, TCU, Texas Tech, UC Riverside, UT Arlington, Western Carolina and Wyoming. 
 
2019 Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate Will Feature Nationally Ranked Teams
Among the teams competing in this week's Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate field will be five teams ranked among the Top 60 men's golf programs out of 300 in the nation based on the most recent Golfweek/Sagarin Men's College Team Ratings (As of Feb. 18).  Those ranked teams include: Texas Tech (No. 28), Kansas (40), TCU (49), Colorado State (52) and San Francisco (54).
  
Texas Tech is also ranked in the Top 25 in both the most recent Golfstat rankings and the most recent Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Coaches poll.  The Red Raiders are ranked No. 17 in the Golfstat Rankings (As of Feb. 12) and are ranked No. 19 in the GCAA Coaches Poll (As of Feb. 15).
 
Consistent Cowboys
The Wyoming Cowboys enjoyed an outstanding fall season, including the following highlights:
•A team best second-place finish at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational hosted by the Air Force Academy. 
•The Cowboys finished in the top half of the field in five of six fall tournaments.
•Junior Dan Starzinski captured the individual medalist honors at the Ram Masters Invitational hosted by Colorado State.
•Starzinski placed in the Top 25 in five of six fall tournaments.
•Senior John Murdock also had a Top 10 finish, placing sixth at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational.
•Murdock posted three Top 20 finishes during the fall season.
•The third Cowboy to post multiple Top 25 finishes during the fall was true freshman Kirby Coe-Kirkham.  He had three Top 25 finishes, including a 13th-place showing at the William H. Tucker Invitational hosted by the University of New Mexico and a 14th-place finish at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational.
•Sophomore Carl Underwood and true freshman Tyler Severin also placed in the Top 25 at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, finishing 23rd and 25th, respectively.
 
2019 Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate Tournament Stats
•Live scoring will be available at GolfStat.com.  The live scoring link is: http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=15813
 
Course Information
•Classic Club, Palm Desert, Calif.
•7,305 yards, Par 72
 
Tee Times
•Each day will be a double-tee start off of holes 1 and 10 starting at 7 a.m. P.T (8 a.m., M.T.)