Arizona hangs on to win its own National Invitational Tournament

March 18, 2023 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

Arizona Athletics photo

Wildcats fend off hard-charging Pepperdine while Arizona's Zach Pollo and USC's Jackson Rivera share medalist honors

The Arizona Wildcats came from four shots back and fended off a red-hot Pepperdine team to capture their own National Invitational Tournament on Saturday at Omni Tucson National.

The Wildcats, ranked 17th nationally by Golfweek/Sagarin, finished the 54-hole event at 24-under par while the Waves finished one back after turning in a sizzling 18-under 270 in the final round to jump seven spots up the leaderboard into solo second.

Three other teams -- Arizona State (-22), Illinois (-21) and Oklahoma State (-21) -- finished within three shots of the lead.

Arizona's Zach Pollo and USC's Jackson Rivera shared medalist honors at 13-under 203 while Pepperdine's William Mouw finished three back at 10-under.

Pollo entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over Oklahoma's Matthew Troutman following a brilliant 7-under 65 in his second round on Friday while Rivera was just one off the pace.

A shaky inward nine dropped Troutman off the pace, leaving Pollo and Rivera to decide the individual title.

Rivera took a one-shot lead with a birdie on 15 but fell back into a tie with Pollo after making a bogey on the par-4, 469-yard finishing hole.

Pepperdine simply ran out of holes. The Waves began the day 14-strokes off the lead but Mouw (66), Sam Choi (67), Luke Gifford (68) and Roberto Nieves (69) all caught fire at the same time to lead a furious comeback which ended up falling one stroke short.

Results: National Invitational

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
T1	Jackson Rivera	Rancho Sante Fe, CA	700	69-67-67=203
T1	Zach Pollo	Rocklin, CA	700	70-65-68=203
3	William Mouw	Chino, CA	400	70-70-66=206
T4	Stephen Campbell	Richmond, TX	400	71-70-66=207
T4	Davis Bryant	Aurora, CO	400	70-69-68=207