The No. 11-ranked Arizona men's golf team begins its spring season Monday by playing host to the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate. The tournament, which will be held at The Raven at Sabino Springs, will feature 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday.

Each year, the PING-Arizona Intercollegiate draws one of the most elite fields in college golf, and this year is no exception. Joining UA are seven other Top 25 opponents including ASU, California, South Carolina and defending champions Southern California.

UA assistant coach John Knauer is looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this spring.

"Historically, we start slow in the fall and play better in the spring," Knauer said. "Hopefully, we will do it again this year. The past two years we have finished third nationally (even after) we struggled in our fall season."

To accomplish this continued success in the spring, Knauer is going to look for an entire team effort.

"You can't really look at it like positions 1 to 5," Knauer said. "You need five No. 1 players to step up each week. We want the back of our lineup turning in a (score of) 68."

Currently, only three of the five positions have been given out - to juniors Ricky Barnes and Reid Hatley, as well as sophomore Chris Nallen. The other two starters will be named tomorrow.

The Raven at Sabino Springs also doubles as the Wildcats' practice facility for most of the regular season. However, Knauer said there is a tremendous difference between playing a practice round and competing in a national tournament.

"The way that we will play it this weekend will be different from the way we play it in practice," Knauer said. "The pins will be in entirely new places. It's not going to be easy."

Last year, the Wildcats finished No. 8 in the tournament, a standing that they will look to improve upon this year.

Nallen, a native of Blairstown, N.J., completed his fall season on a high note at the Savane College All-American Golf Classic by finishing in a tie for eighth place. He finished at even par with a three-round total of 213.

Now Nallen is ready to take on the challenge of the upcoming spring season.

"It would be really good to win this one," Nallen said. "Winning this tournament at home is our first goal of the season."