Prestige turns 25: Desert's largest men's college golf event brings star power to PGA West

Prestige turns 25: Desert’s largest men’s college golf event brings star power to PGA West

Posted by author February 4, 2025 Golf

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Twenty-five years seems like a long time to Mark Weissman, but that’s how long ago he decided with the help of some friends from UC Davis and Stanford to bring a major men’s college golf tournament to the desert.

“I didn’t know if it was going to go 25 years, but I’m sure pleased that they are pleased at the moment,” said Weissman, the founder of The Prestige college tournament that will be played for the 25th year on Feb. 17-19 at the Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta.

A tournament that in the beginning tried to celebrate top golf teams as well as top academic institutions, the Prestige has transformed into one of the top college events in the country. Featuring a format of 24 teams, top teams from the west and across the country have played and won the tournament, including Pepperdine, Texas Tech, LSU and others. The tournament is hosted annually by UC Davis and Stanford.

More recently, the tournament has seen talented individuals like Viktor Hovland of Oklahoma State, Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech and Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford, all now on the PGA Tour. Aberg and Thorbjornsen have each earned their tour cards through PGA Tour U, which grants a tour exemption to the top players in college golf. In the past the event had future PGA Tour winners like Jhonnatan Vegas, Wyndham Clark and Jon Rahm.

That was a tradition that started at the Prestige in its first year, when Northwestern’s top player was a young Luke Donald. The star power also shows up at the Sunday clinic the day before the tournament, where top players demonstrate shots for junior golfers.

“Some of the names of top players that have played who, you know, demonstrated shots at the junior clinic were Jon Rahm, Xander (Schauffele) played, Victor Hovland, Maverick McNealy, Ludvig Aberg, and a number of other stars,” Weissman said.

Stanford and UC Davis will return to the event this year, as well as Pepperdine which won the title in 2023 but did not play in the event in 2024. Other top schools include North Carolina, Northwestern, Oregon, UNLV, Louisville, Colorado State, Colorado, Texas Tech, Little Rock and Kansas.

It has been the support of UC Davis and Stanford, with coaches Cy Williams and Conrad Ray, respectively, that has kept the Prestige moving forward, Weissman said.

“When I met (Williams), he was an interim coach who was then made coach,” Weissman said. “He started talking about it and called Stanford and within a week the late Wally Goodwin, he was a great coach, and Stanford came on board.”

With the help of Style Driver, a company that does everything from help organize tournaments on the PGA Tour, LPGA and Korn Ferry Tour to providing apparel and other products for tournaments, Weissman believes the Prestige can continue with its current format for years. That format includes 24 teams playing three days of golf at the Norman Course, with several dozen players from either participating teams and even teams not entered in the Prestige playing in an individual competition at Terra Lago Golf Club in Indio.

“That’s been a great acceptable format at the Norman Course,” Weissman said. “And we’ve added probably more officials than we’ve had. The people, the volunteers keep growing. So we always wanted to make improvements.”

The tournament continues to hold the junior clinic on Sunday, with help from The First Tee of the Coachella Valley and the SCPGA, allowing junior to watch top players hit balls and then get personalized instruction from coaches of the teams. But the size of the field and the need to get practice time on the Norman Course has caused the tournament in the last few years to cancel its college-am event, something Weissman admits he would love to reinstate someday.

For now, Weissman is happy to see that the Prestige has survived for a quarter of a century and happy to see what the event brings to the desert.

“It’s a good format, I believe there’s a good chance to see some great teams and that’s been interesting because we’ve drawn people from around different parts of the country that can support the teams these days,” Weissman said. “You see a lot of people with Washington banners, Oregon banners and LSU banners and a bunch of other teams that have played over the first years. So that’s the fun part.”