The No. 16 Arizona men's golf team takes a cut at its first tournament of the season today and tomorrow at the William H. Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.
Arizona assistant coach John Knauer said that the Wildcats, who last won the tournament in 1992, are hoping to keep in line with past squads that placed consistently in the top three.
"The guys know this golf course well and have played in this tournament before," he said. "They have some home-course knowledge."
Knauer said that any one of the Arizona players at the tournament - including juniors Josh Esler, Mark Lamb, Henry Liaw and Josh Wilks, as well as sophomore Travis Esway - could break out of the field and have an excellent performance.
Liaw, in particular.
"It's just like your starting quarterback, you expect him to play well," Knauer said.
Liaw is coming off an impressive sophomore season, when he was named first-team All-Pacific 10 Conference for the second straight season.
Liaw was the Wildcats' top finisher in six of 13 stroke play events and was also an honorable mention All-America pick by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Knauer said that he sees the recent transfer Wilks playing well.
Wilks moved to Tucson after playing two seasons at Scottsdale Community College, where he was named conference player of the year in 2004 and 2005.
He was also ranked No. 49 in an Arizona Daily Star list of Southern Arizona's top-100 sports figures.
Liaw said he just wants to improve his play during the tournament, saying that he would like to play better final rounds this season. He said two years' experience with the team should help toward that end.
However, he added, he remains focused on the team's prosperity first.
"A victory would be good, to win as a team," he said.
Arizona head coach Rick LaRose said he is looking to use the invitational to study Wilks and see how the rest of the players perform in their first action since June's NCAA Championships.
"Five of these guys have played in this tournament before," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see what happens."
Cheseret returns to lead men's cross country
The Arizona men's and women's cross country teams host the Dave Murray Invitational today, their first home meet of the year.
The Wildcat men's team receives a boost with the return of junior Robert Cheseret, who was out of action last week. Cheseret, last year's Pac-10 champion, will head a team that won the University of San Francisco Invitational on Sept. 3.
In that meet, the Wildcats boasted the top four finishers, led by junior college transfer Obed Mutanya, and topped Pac-10 rival Stanford.
Arizona's women's team will look to improve off a second-place finish at the USF Invitational. Sophomore Angelina Cabrera may be the runner to watch today. She led the team with a seventh-place finish over the weekend.
The competition will be headlined by last year's Pac-10 Championship runner-up ASU, as the Sun Devils carried high expectations with them into this season. ASU is fresh off a sweep of the men's and women's races at the George Kyte Classic hosted by NAU on Sept. 3.
Also running in Friday's meet will be Paradise Valley Community College, Glendale Community College, Mesa Community College and Central Arizona College.
The meet will be held at the Dell Ulrich Golf Course. The women's race will start at 5 p.m., followed by the men's race at 5:45 p.m.
- Staff and wire reports