STANFORD, Calif. - No. 42 Stanford men’s golf begins the spring portion of the 2024-25 schedule this weekend at the 34th Amer Ari Intercollegiate on February 6-8. Co-hosted by both the University of Hawai’i and Hawai’i-Hilo, the tournament is set to make its second appearance on the North Course at the Mauna Lani Resort Golf Club.
THE COURSE » The North Course at Mauna Lani Resort is a par-72, 6,913-yard ground that was recently ranked at No. 87 on Golfweek’s listing of Top 200 Resort Courses in North America. This year marks the second time the Amer Ari Intercollegiate is heading to Mauna Lani Resort after a three-year stint at Hāpuna Golf Course in Waimea.
THE FIELD » The Amer Ari Intercollegiate boasts a field of 20 participants including nine ranked inside the Top 25. Participating teams include No. 2 Arizona State, No. 3 Auburn, No. 5 Texas, No. 6 North Carolina, No. 9 Oklahoma State, No, 10 UCLA, No. 13 Georgia Tech, No. 19 Pepperdine and No. 21 Texas Tech. No. 42 Stanford rounds out an international field that includes two teams from Japan (Osaka Gakuin and Waseda) as well as NCAA programs No. 38 Oregon, No. 50 Pacific, No. 67 San Jose State, No. 69 Oregon State, Washington and UC-Davis.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT » The tournament consists of 54 holes of competition with three rounds of 18 holes played each day under the play five, keep four format. Action begins with an 18-hole shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. PT all three days.
THE CARDINAL LINEUP » Hitting the course for the Cardinal will be Nathan Wang, Jay Leng, TK Chantananuwat, Ethan Gao and Brian Ma. Logan Kim will also compete this weekend as an individual.
TOURNAMENT COVERAGE » A live leaderboard for Amer Ari Intercollegiate is available on Scoreboard powered by Clippd.
STANFORD AT THE AMER ARI INTERCOLLEGIATE » Stanford has made an appearance to The Aloha State nearly every year since the turn of the century and has won the tournament three times in its history (2007-’08, 2010). Stanford grabbed an 11th place outing last season, shooting 40-under 824 with two golfers placing inside the top-20.
WANG’S BIG CLIMB » Closing out the fall slate of the 2024-25 campaign at The Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate, junior Nathan Wang climbed 22 spots on the final day to finish with share 11th on the leaderboard after turning in a final-round 67. The Cardinal grabbed a 13th place team finish shooting 15-over while Wang sat atop the Cardinal’s individual leaderboard shooting 4-under.
TK FINISHES TOP-20 » Returning to Colonial Country Club, Stanford turned in a seventh-place finish at the Ben Hogan Invitational with a 22-over performance for the week. Freshman TK Chantananuwat was the Cardinal's best finisher of the tournament, finishing T-19th with a 3-over 213, including an opening round 69 for the second sub-70 scorecard of his career.
BIG WIN IN WOODSIDE » In the fifth installment of the Big Match between the golf programs of Stanford and California, the Cardinal emerged victorious at Menlo Country Club, winning 4-2. It was the second time that Stanford has won the event, with its other victory coming in 2022. TK Chantananuwat, Ethan Gao, Logan Kim, and Nathan Wang each contributed match wins, sealing to win for Stanford.
LENG'S IMPRESSIVE DEBUT » In a condensed Fighting Illini Invitational that squeezed 54 holes of competition into two days rather than the scheduled three, Stanford opened the season with T-6th finish with an 8-over 848 weekend scorecard. Freshman Jay Leng impressed in his collegiate debut as Stanford's best finisher, placing T-15th on the weekend at 1-under par.
NATION'S TOP CLASS » Widely regarded as the top recruiting class of 2024, the Cardinal inked three exciting young golfers joining the program this season - TK Chantananuwat, Jay Leng Jr., and Logan Kim.
Chantananuwat, one of the world's best golf prospects, won the Trust Asian Mixed Cup at just 15 years of age to become the youngest player ever to win an event on a major professional tour. The Bangkok native has ranked as high as sixth in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and is the top Asian amateur golfer.
Leng is among California's elite in junior golf, ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the state according to Junior Golf Scoreboard. The San Diego native is a multiple AJGA Junior Tour champion and a two-time AJGA First-Team Rolex All-American.
Kim rounds out the 2024 class as yet another in-state commitment coming to The Farm. The San Jose native is the fourth-ranked recruit in the state of California according to Junior Golf Scoreboard, a Southern California Junior PGA Tour tournament winner, and has multiple top ten finishes on the AJGA Tour.
BOLSTERING THE STAFF » Stanford head coach Conrad Ray recently completed his staff ahead of the 2024-25 season, announcing the addition of Hong Seh Lim Assistant Men’s Golf Coach Alex Merrill on Monday afternoon.
Joining the staff in a newly-endowed role, Merrill comes to The Farm after a two-year tenure at Purdue as the Director of Administration & Performance for Golf, where he managed the operations and strength & conditioning for both the men's and women's golf programs. Under his guidance, the Boilermaker golf programs combined for six tournament wins and a pair of NCAA Championship appearances.
Previous stops for Merrill also includes Duke University, where he spent 12 seasons as a sports performance coach, as well as Attain Sports Performance in western Massachusetts.