USC men’s golf returns to tournament play after a three-week hiatus at the Trinity Forest Invitational Oct. 4-6. Of the 54 holes of competition, none will be as important as the final 18.
The Trojans were co-champions at the event in Dallas last year, on the strength of a sizzling final round, but have since had uneven finishes in the season’s first two tournaments. USC must focus on the finale to have a chance of retaining its championship.Last year, USC posted the best team score of the final round and was propelled two spots up the leaderboard to continue its historically positive performance at Trinity Forest. In the three times USC has traveled to Trinity Forest, the Trojans have been co-champions (2025), in the top five (2024) and had Justin Suh win individual medalist honors (2017).
“It was a tough battle today,” head coach Mark Hankins told USC Athletics after the 2025 co-championship. “We had some ground to make up and needed some heroics by these guys to pull off the W. Congrats to Jaden [Dumdumaya] on a clean 9-under 63, to pull a lot of weight for our team on day three.”
That 63 tied the second-lowest score ever recorded by a Trojan in a tournament round. Given that, it will be up to Dumdumaya — the 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year — and All-West Region Team nominee Jack Buchanan to make sure the Trojans fight on to the finish.
This year’s tournament format could help.
Whereas USC’s previous two tournaments stacked 36 holes in a single day and 18 the next, which can abruptly interrupt momentum built during the first outing, the Trinity Forest Invitational has three 18-hole rounds spread across three days. This should allow the Trojans to learn and strategize for round two, and be fresher for the finish.
Round three will decide USC’s week.
USC has finished in two very different fashions so far this season.
It was 15 strokes shy of Santa Clara after the last round of the season-opening Bombs Darts Birds Collegiate despite entering the day two strokes behind. Their one-under-par final round was tied for the worst single-round score of the tournament.
The following week at the Vuori Invitational, USC posted the best final-round score of any team in the field and jumped three spots to finish third place.
That performance was reminiscent of last year’s Trinity Forest Invitational.
USC entered the final day in third place, three strokes behind Southern Alabama and one behind Rice, and then fired 12-under par as a team. The score was the fourth-best of the tournament and took the Trojans from third to tied-first.
In addition to Dumdumaya’s electric nine-under-par 63, junior Nicolas Dominguez and former Trojan Jose Antonio Safa both posted two-under-par 70s.
Trojans to watch out for
All eyes are on Dumdumaya (again) after his two-under 70 at the final round of the Vuori Invitational made him one of two Trojans to finish a round under par. The performance builds upon his 8-under 64 at the Bombs Darts Birds Collegiate season opener eight days prior — the lowest score of any Trojan this season.
Junior Jack Buchanan will also be an asset and laid the foundation for USC’s success at Trinity Forest last year. Whereas Dumdumaya was a driving force in closing the tournament out, Buchanan led the charge with an opening round four-under-par 68. His tied-18th finish put him among four Trojans in the top 25.
Buchanan is coming off a 10th-place finish at the Vuori and was the only other Trojan to shoot under par after his opening-round two-under 70. Buchanan followed it up with a 74 and 73, not as hot as the day prior, but no small feat at a course with especially narrow fairways and unforgiving greens.
Rice poses a threat; host Southern Methodist University not so much
The Rice Owls are coming off of a win, and while SMU has a proven track record at Trinity Forest, the Mustangs have lagged in recent competition.
Rice recently won the Bayou City Collegiate Classic, finished third in stroke play at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup and tied USC last year at Trinity Forest.
Rice’s win at Bayou City marked the second year in a row it’s taken top honors at the tournament. The performance was highlighted by five players finishing in the top 25 — including redshirt senior David Byrd, who finished tied-third in his career-best performance.
While the Owls proved powerful last year, it may be difficult to match it in ’26 without Lukas Boandl, who graduated this spring. He was instrumental in last year’s finish, going 15-under-par on a team that went 32-under collectively, including two six-under 66s.
The closest equivalent to Boandl this year is senior Reggie Zhu, but his 72.91 scoring average last year is nearly 2.5 strokes off Boandl’s senior year 70.46. Even with Zhu’s strong outing last year — finishing tied 12th at seven-under — Rice would have finished tied-sixth without Boandl.
USC and Rice will also face SMU, which has won at Trinity Forest twice and runner-up three times. They trailed USC by only two strokes entering the final round last year, but the Mustangs finished at the back of the field in their last two tournaments.
SMU finished fifth of six teams at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup season opener — 53 strokes behind the leader — and last of 15 teams at the William H. Tucker Invitational one week later.
USC will see how Rice, SMU and the 13 other competing teams stack up when they tee off Sunday.