Oct. 14, 2011
New Mexico Men’s Golf – At Lone Star Invitational, San Antonio, Texas
When/Where: Briggs Ranch Golf Club/Sunday-Tuesday
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — After starting the season with three top-five finishes, the University of New Mexico men’s golf team will look to break through with a tournament victory at the Lone Star Invitational, Sunday-Tuesday.
The Lobos are ranked 15th and 16th in the nation in the latest Golfweek.com and Golfstat.com polls, respectively, entering the 15-team invitational. Baylor, Nos. 19 and 18 in the golf rankings, respectively, is serving as co-host with SMU for the event.
UNM already has two runner-up finishes — at the Mark Simpson Invitational in Erie, Colo., and its own William H. Tucker Intercollegiate — on its 2011-12 resume. The Lobos also placed fourth at the Golfweek Conference Challenge.
“We’re definitely off to a good start,” 11th-year UNM coach Glen Millican said. “We’ve played well and competed in all three events. We’ve made a few mistakes that have kept us from winning a couple of them, but we’ve done a lot of great things that have allowed us to beat a ton of good teams. So we’ve been happy with the way the first three tournaments have gone.”
Juniors John Catlin (Carmichael Calif.), James Erkenbeck (San Diego) and Benjamin Bauch (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.), and freshmen Gavin Green (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and Victor Perez (Semeac, France) will comprise the Lobo team in the tournament. Senior Alex Estrada (Belen, N.M.) will play as an individual.
Catlin and Erkenbeck share top honors on the team with a stroke average of 71.11 per round, and the play of freshmen Green, Perez and Sean Romero (Texarkana, Texas) have contributed to the team’s early momentum. Perez has a top-10 finish already under his belt, and Green has two top 20s this season.
“Anytime you have freshmen coming in, no matter what their record is before they get here, you never know exactly where they’re going to be until they get here,” Millican said. “You have to see how they’re tuned into the program because they have a lot of adjustments to make with school and a couple of them are coming from a long way away.
“We’ve been real happy with the way every freshman has played for us; they’ve helped us at every tournament.”
The Lobos will play at the Briggs Ranch Golf Club for the first time. The course will be the site of the 2012 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships.
“I’ve heard some great things about it,” Millican said. “We’ll find out during our practice round (Saturday) what we need to do Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to play well.
“I imagine if we hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens and putt well, we’ll play pretty good.”