Air Force Academy

Sept. 7, 2004

This Week... The Air Force golf team opens up its 2004 fall season this weekend as it hosts the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational on Sept. 10-11 at Eisenhower Golf Course. Fourteen teams will take part in the tournament, now in its 36th season. The Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational... 2004 marks the 36th year of the annual Falcon Invitational (formerly known as the Pikes Peak Invitational). The tournament takes place on the Eisenhower Blue Course at the Academy. The 54-hole tournament, which is played over two days, was renamed the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational in 2003 in honor of former head coach Gene Miranda, who spent 25 years at the helm of the Air Force golf program. Last year's winner of the Falcon Invitational was the Univeristy of Texas at San Antonio, paced by Mike Mezei who picked up medallist honors with a nine-under-par 207. The Field... Air Force will be joined by the following teams in this year's Falcon Invitational: Boise State CSU-Pueblo Gonzaga Grand Canyon Idaho State North Dakota State Southern Utah UCCS Utah Utah State Utah Valley State Weber State Wyoming Scouting the Falcons... The 2004-05 Air Force golf team returns seven letterwinners from last year's squad which finished eighth at the MWC Championship. The Falcons' top returner is sophomore Tyler Goulding, who led Air Force in four tournaments last year, including three of four in the fall. The Falcons are coached by George Koury, who enters his third season at the helm of the Air Force program. They've Won it Before... Including Air Force, four programs which have won the Falcon Invitational at least once will compete this weekend. Leading the way is Weber State, which has won six team titles at the Invitational, tying New Mexico's varsity team for the most victories in the tournament's history (New Mexico's JV squad tied for the win in 2001). Air Force has two team titles at its home tournament, winning the inaugural competition in 1969 while tying for the victory in 2001. Utah State (1980) and Wyoming (1988) are the other two programs in this year's field with a prior win at the Falcon Invitational. Familiar Faces... Two fellow MWC teams join Air Force in this weekend's tournament -- Utah and Wyoming, which finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at the 2004 MWC Conference Championship. Up Next... Next on the schedule for the Falcons is the 12th-annual Service Academy Golf Classic, held at the Trophy Club in Dallas, Texas, Sept. 26-27. There Air Force will battle Army, Navy and the Merchant Marines for the Reemstma Trophy, which it has won for the past nine straight years.