FAIRFIELD, Calif. — The University of San Diego men's golf team has competed in 10 tournaments throughout the 2025-26 season going back to the fall. 

And it has led to preparing for the West Coast Conference Tournament this week at Green Valley Country Club in Fairfield, Calif. 

"We got a great group of nine guys," head coach Evan Emerick said. "They're all united as one. They're putting the work in the classroom, the gym, and practice. So it's really nice to form friendships on and off the golf course and really work hard together." 

The Toreros enter the conference tournament with a positive showing at the Thunderbird Collegiate in Arizona as all six players finished even par or better to help USD finish fourth as a team.

Ian Maspat led the way for San Diego as an opening round 65 fueled him to a 10-under 203 and a tie for fourth individually. 

"I feel pretty good about my game, pretty confident," said Maspat, who heads into the WCC Tournament with four straight top-10 individual finishes. "Me, Coach Emerick and Coach (Sam) Foust have been working on all the right things. They've definitely been a big factor in helping me play good golf out there and stay in the moment."  

In addition to the graduate student recording the tie for fourth in Arizona, tying his best individual finish of the season, Maspat finished tied for ninth at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic, eighth at the Pauma Valley Invitational and sixth at the R.E. Lamkin Invitational. 

"Ian's grown up a lot in these two years that I've been with him," Emerick said of Maspat. "He's really trusted the process, focused on himself, believing in himself and keeping golf really simple is a key to him. It's not overdoing one shot here or there. It's really staying present and he's really bought into it and he's played really well."

That sixth place finish for Maspat at 6-under par was part of a week where San Diego won its home tournament at San Diego Country Club. 

The Toreros had its depth behind Maspat as Reed Arnaldo, Cooper Humphreys and Reid Piron all finished within the top 12, including Arnaldo being one shot back of Maspat. 

"That was awesome," Arnaldo said. "First college win with the guys was really cool, especially to do that at the home tournament. It was nice to be in contention down the stretch. I was in the final group, so I had everyone there watching me when we finished. To be the guy with the winning putt was really fun. Celebrating it with the team was awesome." 

As USD gets set to try and win its second WCC title in three years, and its third title since 2008,  it is returning to Green Valley Country Club for the second straight year. 

In addition to Emerick, San Diego has three returners – Maspat, Humphreys and You Seong Choi – who played last year to provide that experience with the course to the rest of the team.   

"That course is so important to hit the fairways, wedges are super important," Humphreys said on what he recalls of Green Valley Country Club last year. "So, we've been incorporating that into a lot of our practices lately, lots of wedge work, lots of focus on tee balls." 

During last year's WCC Tournament, Choi led the team with a top-10 finish before Humphreys finished tied for 26th and Maspat had a closing 6-under 66. 

The first and second rounds will take place Friday before Saturday's final round. If San Diego advances, they will have match play for both the semifinals and the finals on Sunday to determine the conference champion. 

"Match play is always super fun because it's totally different than stroke play," Humphreys said. "You can play some mind games sometimes. That's actually pretty fun. So, we're looking forward to it." 

The WCC Tournament has the potential to be a springboard for this postseason as it could then lead into NCAA Regionals, in which San Diego succeeded and advanced to the NCAA Championships through regional qualifying a season ago. 

Although the WCC Tournament is currently the primary focus, finishing the season strong by competing at the NCAA Championship as getting past the regionals is the year-long objective.

"That's the main goal from the start of the season: to make Nationals and give us a chance to get a national championship, bring it back to SD," Maspat said. "We got a good group of guys to do it. 

"But step one is getting there."