No. 8 USC Set For Season Opener At OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational

The No. 8 USC men's golf team, coming off three straight trips to the NCAA Championships match play bracket and a five-win season last year, begins the 2017-18 campaign at the 2017 OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational, Friday through Sunday (Sept. 15-17), at the Olympia Fields C.C.

In addition to host Illinois and USC, the stacked field features Alabama, Baylor, California, Florida State, Indiana, Navy, UNLV, North Carolina, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Texas A&M and Texas.

Action on the 7,353-yard, par 70 course is set to start at 6 a.m. PT each day. USC will tee off in the first round at 7:30 a.m. PT on Friday with Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.

The Trojans and Illinois are familiar with each other, as the Illini knocked out USC in the NCAA Championships quarterfinals in May two years after USC downed them in the 2015 NCAA semifinals.

USC is led by its pair of returning starters in junior Justin Suh, who earned All-American honors his first two years in school, and sophomore Cheng Jin. Both are ranked among the top 50 amateurs in the world.

Also returning from last year is sophomore Kyle Suppa, who saw spot action as a freshman reserve, redshirt sophomore Ryan Slater (who sat out last year), and redshirt sophomore Ing Ratanavadi, another reserve.

The Trojans welcome four newcomers, including freshmen Kaito Onishi, Owen Calvin-Smith and Issei Tanabe and junior transfer Sam Kim, who comes to USC after two years at New Mexico.

USC's starting lineup for the season opening weekend includes Suh, Jin, Suppa, Onishi and Kim.

Players Mentioned

Owen Calvin-Smith

Cheng Jin

Sam Kim

Kaito Onishi

Ing Ratanavadi

Ryan Slater

Justin Suh

Kyle Suppa

Issei Tanabe