or many people, the sun-drenched beaches of Hawaii offer a place to wind down and relax. That’s not the case for the Cougar men’s golf team, which is ready to open its spring season in Lihue, Hawaii, at the 39th annual John A. Burns Intercollegiate, which runs for the next three days.

“It’s great to get this season started,” head coach Garrett Clegg said. “This group is ready to get going.”

The Cougars will have five players participating in the tournament, three of which participated in the same competition last season. Senior Michael Anderson and redshirt seniors Sang Lee and Alex Wagner all have experience on the Wailua Golf Course.

“Our seniors are ready to tee-off their final semester at WSU,” Clegg said.

Anderson had the most success at the tournament last year, finishing eighth overall out of 90 players while shooting a 141 (-8). Lee and Wagner shot a 151 (+7) and 152 (+8), respectively. The team finished seventh overall out of 17 teams by shooting 6-over par (582), 22 strokes out of first place.

Senior Charlie Mroz and freshman Derek Bayley round out the WSU players. Both performed well in the fall season finale at the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational in California, in which the Cougars won by carding an 841 (-11).

Bayley led the Cougars by shooting a 208 (-5) which was good enough for third place overall in the tournament. Mroz also found success, finishing 2-under par (211) and seventh overall in the tournament.

“We had this same lineup in our home tournament last fall and we had a lot of success,” Clegg said. “Three of them played last year at Wailua and know the course, which has helped in their preparation.”

The road to a first place finish won’t be easy for WSU. California comes in with four consecutive wins at the Intercollegiate, winning by nine strokes last year.

Texas A&M and Brigham Young are also formidable teams who tied for second at the Intercollegiate last season. They were also the only other teams to finish under par in the competition, although A&M has stumbled during the fall season and didn’t finish higher than ninth in their last four tournaments.

A key to success will be the continued maturation of Bayley to go along with the senior presence that WSU will have in the tournament.

The tournament begins at 10:30 a.m. PT on Feb. 18 and runs through Feb. 20. Live stats will be available at golfstat.com.

Reporting by Kevin Vallene