Report By LBSU
Men’s Golf Coach Bill Poutre has added two transfer student athletes to next season’s roster.
Robbie Berton (Huntington Beach, Calif.) will have one year of eligibility after transferring from the University of Hawaii. Berton was the number 1 player for Hawaii in the 2008-09 season finishing the year with a 73.2 stroke average. His career stroke average at Hawaii is 74.2 over 54 competitive rounds. In January, Berton was the Medalist in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open Pre-Qualifier with a five- under par 67. Berton followed with a 3 under par 69 in the Monday Qualifier missing by a single shot while beating several current PGA Tour Professionals including Kevin Stadler, Y.E. Yang and Bryce Molder. Berton spent his freshman year at Saddleback CC. While at Saddleback, he was a member of the California State Junior College Championship team and was selected to all-state honors.
Brian Albertazzi (Killington, Vermont) will transfer from the University of Hartford and will have two years of eligibility for the 49ers. Albertazzi, Hartford’s #1 player, was recruited by and played for Poutre at Hartford and now joins his former coach on the west coast. He is the current Vermont State Amateur Champion, the current America Sky Conference Individual Champion, and was an All-Conference selection during this past season. “Brian is a very good player, he has a very solid golf swing and is as mentally tough as any player I have ever coached,” said Poutre.
Albertazzi and Berton will be joined by the three high school recruits signed during the early signing period in November. Raymond Ho of Cerritos, Calif., Benjamin Lein of Diamond bar, Calif., and Philip Chian of Covina, Calif. Are ranked #7, #8 and #10 respectively in the current Junior Golf Scoreboard State Rankings for the class of 2009. Long Beach State is the only school with three recruits in the state’s top 10. Additionally, the three are all ranked in the top 150 in the world rankings.
The new 49ers will join a team returning a solid group of five players led by rising senior and two-time second team Big West selection Michael Drake, this year’s Big West Conference Co-Freshman of the Year Kevin Lim and Freshman Kevin Roy, who was the Big West Player of the Month in November after a third place finish at the Turtle Bay Invitational.
“I am very excited about our roster for the 2009-10 season. We will have great talent and depth. I expect this team to be in the post-season. Our internal competition will have us prepared for the strongest schedule in school history,” continued the coach.
2009-10 Schedule is Announced
In addition to a leading recruiting class, the men’s golf program has announced the strongest schedule in the program’s history. The 49ers will not open its season until the first week of October at Wyoming’s Desert Intercollegiate at The Classic Club in Palm Desert. “I am excited to have a full month to prepare for our first event. This is a luxury I did not have in the northeast as we had to rush out of the gate to beat the winter snow. We need to take advantage of the best weather in the country to maximize internal competition, coaching opportunities and preparation for competition.,” according to Poutre.
The late fall start will mean three October events and two November events before the winter break. Following the season opener, the team will travel to PGA West to play in The Prestige followed by the 14th Annual Del Walker Intercollegiate at Virginia Country Club. November will start with a return trip to the Turtle Bay Intercollegiate in Hawaii followed by the CordeValle Intercollegiate hosted by UCLA.
The spring season will begin with the inaugural Battle At The Beach at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast. This event will be co-hosted by Long Beach State and UCLA and will feature a national field of 14 including 8 of the top 25 teams in the country according to current rankings. After a short break, the team will return to Pauma Valley for the 3rd Annual Triumph at Pauma valley hosted by the University of San Francisco. Spring Break will feature a trip to the University of South Carolina’s “Hootie at Bulls Bay” event. This very strong tournament will feature many of the strongest programs from the ACC and SEC. The regular season will conclude at Stanford’s US Intercollegiate prior to the Big West Championship. “Any program wishing to be a national contender must have a very strong strength of schedule. Only once in the past nine years has a team with a strength of schedule above number 50 finished the year ranked in the top 25. Our strength of schedule for the upcoming year will be in the top 50 for the first time in program history,” commented Poutre.
The 2008-09 team improved nearly 50 spots in the national rankings and the team stroke average improved by four shots. The freshman class of Lim and Roy ranked #26 in the country according to the Golfstat Freshman Impact Rankings while the team registered 8 par or better rounds, good for second in team history. “I was proud of our team’s accomplishments during the past year. It is fair to expect the rapid pace of program development to continue. All roster players will be playing an intense national summer amateur schedule and I expect next year to be very exciting,” said the first year coach.