Jan. 26, 2011
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For the University of New Mexico men’s golf team this spring, the mantra is simple:
Play like the first three, not the last two.
The Lobos’ first three tournaments of the fall season saw them at or near the top of the team leaderboards. They closed with a pair of performances that left a bit of a sour taste in their collective mouths. It also left them hungry to prove they’re really the team that climbed to as high as 24th in the Golfweek/Sagarin National rankings.
New Mexico opened things up with a solid fourth-place showing in a field of 15 at Golfweek’s Conference Challenge. The Lobos shot a 6-under 288-285-285=858, good enough to fend every member of the 15-team field except host Iowa (268-285-280=833, -31), North Carolina State (283-289-276=848, -16) and Liberty (289-295-271=855, -9).
Individually, the Lobos also scored a pair of top-10 finishes. Senior Tom Carlson and sophomore John Catlin each carded a 4-under 212 to finish tied for ninth place.
New Mexico followed that up by winning the Mark Simpson Invitational a week later. The Lobos led wire-to-wire, fending off Colorado State to pull down the team crown by a single stroke with a 5-under 300-276-283=859. The win was head coach Glen Millican’s 16th at the helm of the Lobos.
“Winning the Simpson was awesome,” Millican said. “Anytime you win in college golf, it’s hard to do. You’re playing a tournament against 15, 16, 17 other teams and you’re counting four scores per day.”
Adding another trophy to New Mexico’s case isn’t the only value Millican finds in winning a tournament like the Simpson.
“To go head-to-head with Colorado State in that kind of a situation where every single shot might be the one that makes it or breaks it for you – that was a great experience for us to go through. The more often we go through that, the better we’re going to be – the more they’re going to want to get back in that situation.”
Individually, senior Travis Ross carded a 5-under 74-69-68=211 to finish in second place – his highest showing as a Lobo. Fellow senior Sam Chavez also had his best performance with New Mexico, shooting a tournament-low 66 in the first round en route to a 3-under 213. Carlson and sophomore Ryan Gay also finished in the top 25, tying for 20th with identical 3-over 219s.
Next up was New Mexico’s home tourney, the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate. The Lobos came within a whisker of winning back-to-back tourneys, only to come up a couple of strokes short of tournament champ San Diego State, finishing third behind the Aztecs and North Texas.
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“There was enough good in our fall tournaments to make us pretty optimistic for the spring.” Head Coach Glen Millican |
The Lobos held a slim lead over the then-10th ranked Mean Green with only a couple of holes left, but saw SDSU – ranked seventh at the time – close with the second-best round of the day to move past both UNM and North Texas.
Ross and Chavez notched their second top-10 finishes of the young season, tying for 10th with 3-over 219s. Carlson tied for 16th with a 5-over 221. Catlin also scored a top-25 finish, tying for 18th with a 6-over 222.
New Mexico couldn’t carry the momentum from their hot start through the fall’s last two events. The Lobos followed a 13th-place showing at the Alister MacKenzie in mid-October by finishing 11th at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate on the first day of November.
Ross did score another top-10 finish at the MacKenzie, finishing sixth with an 11-under 65-70-67=202. Carlson landed his second top-10 finish of the season at Royal Oaks, finishing 10th with a 4-under 70-68=138. The final round of the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate was cancelled due to inclement weather.
“There was enough good in our fall tournaments to make us pretty optimistic for the spring,” Millican said. “We’ve got three seniors who do a great job, and then we’ve got John (Catlin) and Ryan (Gay) playing. That was our lineup in all five tournaments. We’ve got three good senior leaders and then a couple of sophomores.”
It also has to help that the Lobos played in five of their seven spring tournaments last season – something not lost on Millican.
“It’s good to have four guys who’ve played in a lot of these same tournaments last year,” he said. “The fact that they’ve been to those tournaments gives them a better opportunity to prepare.
“Right now, we’re preparing for Arizona National and those guys are talking to each other about the different holes. So they’re thinking that way already. It gives them a chance to be more ready then they were last year when they went to these events and hadn’t seen these courses before. It’s good. We like this schedule. We know these courses and we’ve played well on them before, so we know it’s there, if we’re ready. All of those guys have come back and are working hard, so we’re going to go to Tucson and see if we can get off to a great start.”
Waiting for the Lobos in Tucson at the end of January is the Arizona Intercollegiate, the first event of the spring season. The Lobos won the Arizona in 2005, but are coming off a ninth-place finish last season and eighth place the year before.
After the Arizona Intercollegiate comes a trip to Hawaii in the John A. Burns Intercollegiate Feb. 16-18. The Lobos saw junior James Erkenbeck with the event as a true freshman two seasons ago. Erkenbeck is redshirting in 2010-11.
New to New Mexico’s slate is the Fresno State Lexus Classic, held at the Sunnyside Country Club, March 7-8. Then back to the familiar in the National Invitational Tournament, March 21-22. The Lobos won both the team title and medalist honors in 2009, with 2010 graduate Nick Geyer winning the individual race by two strokes with a 9-under 207. New Mexico’s 14-under that year was twice as low as the next best score.
From there UNM travels to San Diego to take part in the Barona Collegiate Cup – a tourney the Lobos finished third at in 2009. After that, New Mexico closes its regular season with a pair of dates in Texas – the Morris Williams Intercollegiate and Aggie Invitational.
“I think what we did in Colorado and here at the Tucker shows what we’re definitely capable of,” Millican said. “It gives us something to be real optimistic about. We know that, if we execute the way we can and prepare the way we need to, we can be preparing for a chance to win a golf tournament.”