Tarleton State Men’s Golf Opens Season at The Wohali

COALVILLE, Utah - Tarleton State Men's Golf will tee off its 2025-26 campaign in Utah this week, taking part in The Wohali hosted by the University of Utah at Wohali Golf Club starting Monday.

The event marks the Texans' first tournament of the season and a return to competition after recording one of the best team performances in program history in a conference meet. Tarleton State placed fourth overall at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championship last April, posting a team score of 889 at Chaparral Pines in Payson, Arizona.

Head coach Chance Cain enters his fourth season at the helm of the Texans, returning to his old stomping grounds. Cain spent six years as an assistant coach at Utah before joining Tarleton State, helping lead the Utes to their first NCAA postseason appearance in 29 years. He also led multiple players to top-200 national rankings during his six seasons on the coaching staff.

The Texans' lineup includes freshmen Alvaro Pastor Roman and Maximilian Bjornstrom, sophomores Luis Buech and Kellen Young and junior Juan Ballester.

Ballester and Young provided key contributions during the 2024-25 season, both competing in every tournament last season. Ballester, a junior, earned GCAA Academic All-American and CSC Academic All-District honors while finishing with a 75.5 scoring average and one top-20 finish. His best showing came with a T-13th placement at the Bandon Dunes Invitational, where he shot even-par in the final round.

Young, now a sophomore, made an immediate impact in his freshman campaign. He posted a 76.7 average over 30 rounds, highlighted by a 4-under-par 68 at the Mark Simpson Invitational. That round was tied for the lowest round by a Tarleton State freshman in the Division I era.

Pastor Roman, a redshirt freshman from Spain, will make his Texan debut this week. He currently ranks No. 228 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and was Spain's No. 5-ranked U18 player at the time of his signing. He owns several national titles, including the 2024 Copa Andalucia and 2022 RSHEC Men's Individual Championship.

Buech arrives from the University of New Mexico, where he held a 73.22 stroke average in three tournaments as a freshman and tied for 16th at the Papago Individual. An accomplished amateur in Europe, he was a three-time Global Junior Golf Tour champion and a runner-up at the 2023 U18 German Championship.

Bjornstrom brings an impressive resume from Sweden, where he was consistently ranked in the top 10 of the Swedish Boys U21 rankings and won four titles. The Swedish National Team member shot 7-under-par in multiple junior tournaments, including a 65 during the Swedish Junior Tour.

The Texans will face a stacked field at The Wohali, featuring five teams who finished in the top 25 national rankings last season. That field includes Arizona State (No. 3), UCLA (No. 14), San Diego State (No. 15), Utah (No. 17), and BYU (No. 19). Tarleton State will play 14 total teams in Utah.

Arizona State enters as the team to beat after finishing first in stroke play and fifth in match play at last year's NCAA Division I Men's National Championship. BYU also made waves with a 13th-place finish in stroke play at the NCAA Championship. For Tarleton State, the tournament offers an early and valuable test against some of the nation's best.

Live scoring can be seen on Scoreboard presented by Clipped. Texans tee off at 10:15 a.m. CT Monday.

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Players Mentioned

Juan Ballester: Junior

Alvaro Pastor Roman: Redshirt Freshman

Kellen Young: Sophomore

Luis Buech: Sophomore

Maximilian Bjornstrom: Freshman

Players Mentioned

Juan Ballester
: Junior

Alvaro Pastor Roman
: Redshirt Freshman

Kellen Young
: Sophomore

Luis Buech
: Sophomore

Maximilian Bjornstrom
: Freshman