The spring portion of the collegiate season begins with the 46th edition of the Southwestern Invitational at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, 2025.
This is the 46th edition of the Southwestern Invitational. According to Pepperdine University, The tournament began in 1978 at North Ranch Country Club with USC as the host. C.W. Johnson served as tournament director for more than 25 years. North Ranch also hosted the 1988 NCAA Championships.
Over the years, the Southwestern Invitational has also been known as the Southwestern Intercollegiate, the USC Collegiate Invitational, the North Ranch Intercollegiate, or the Cleveland Golf Classic. Pepperdine and USC co-hosted the event in 2013 and 2014, and the Waves then took over sole hosting duties beginning in 2016.
Arizona State holds the record for most victories, with nine. Host Pepperdine has marked three first-place finishes (2006, 2017, and 2020), with Sahith Theegala (2017, 2020) being one of four two-time winners.
2024 Teams
Duke
Texas
UCLA
Pepperdine
USC
San Diego State
California
Vanderbilt
San Jose State
Washington
Florida
Chattanooga
Arizona
UNLV
Notable players
Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt is the highest ranked player in the field, ranked No. 3 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings. Ian Gilligan of Florida is ranked No. 5 and Jackson Van Paris of Vanderbilt is ranked No. 7. Justin Hastings, ranked No. 19, of San Diego State will be making his collegiate debut since winning the 2025 Latin America Amateur.
Tommy Morrison of Texas, Omar Morales of UCLA, and Christiaan Maas of Texas are also ranked in the top 20 and are in the field.
Past champions
Neal Shipley of Ohio State won the 2024 individual title and Michael Brennan of Wake Forest won the 2023 individual medal. Sahith Theegala of Pepperdine (2017, 2020) and David Puig of Arizona State (2021, 2022) have both won twice. Other individual winners include Justin Suh of USC, Maverick McNealy of Stanford, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, Anthony Kim of Oklahoma, and in 1996, Tiger Woods won the tournament while he was at Stanford.
Last time
The 2024 Southwestern Invitational was a foreshadowing of one of the top amateur golf stories of the year, which was the play of Ohio State's Neal Shipley. Shipley won the individual title, and Ohio State won the team title. Shipley went on to earn low amateur honors at the 2024 Masters Tournament and 2024 U.S. Open.
Pepperdine Athletics contributed to this report