OSU Men's Golf Opens Spring Season in Hawaii

Vincent Johnson is playing the #1 position again for the men's golf team. Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - The Oregon State men’s golf team begins its spring season this week at the 17th annual Hawaii-Hilo Invitational, which runs Wednesday through Friday.

Eighteen holes will be played each day with a shotgun start at the Waikaloa Village Golf Club.

The Beavers are one of 18 teams participating in the event (Golfstat rankings shown): #1 Stanford, #4 Oklahoma State, #5 USC, #13 Georgia Tech, #18 Arizona State, #32 Texas Tech, #36 Texas Christian, #39 Kansas, #41 Washington, #48 Colorado, #79 Oregon, #90 Oregon State, #93 Oklahoma, #130 Santa Clara, #146 Hawaii, #215 Pacific, Hawaii-Hilo and UC Davis.

OSU’s lineup, under the direction of head coach Brian Watts, will consist of junior Vincent Johnson (Portland, Ore./David Douglas HS), junior James Allenby (Langley, B.C./Langley Secondary/UTEP), senior Mitch Gillis (Williams Lake, B.C./Columneetza Secondary), freshman Diego Velasquez (Bogota, Colombia/Gimnasio Los Caobos) and sophomore Alex Williams (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview HS).

"Everyone has been playing really well," Watts said. "The weather will be a little different than we’re used to. It’s calm right now but the wind could be blowing really hard. It’s a great field and we’re looking forward to getting started."

Johnson played in just one tournament in the fall after being diagnosed with Graves’ Disease.

He’s doing much better health-wise and his golf game is back in fine shape as well.

Velasquez led the team in the fall with a 73.40 stroke average, while Allenby wasn’t far behind at 73.92.

Gillis, who won the season-opening Wolverine Intercollegiate, averaged 74.00 strokes per round. Williams averaged 75.17 strokes.

Golfstat’s latest statistics have the Beavers third nationally in greens in regulation (.700) and ninth in fairways hit (.724).

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