University of New Mexico Men’s Golf
Season Opener: The Gopher Invitational
Host: University of Minnesota
Dates: Sept. 7-8
Course: Windsong Farm Golf Club, Independence, Minnesota
Lobos in the field: Joe Abella, Andrej Bevins, Nelson da Silva Ramos, Gavin Green, Sam Saunders
Live scoring: birdiefire.com
Before University of New Mexico men’s golf coach Glen Millican gets to the 2014-15 season, which starts Sunday, he wants to say a few final words about the 2013-14 team.
“Obviously, everybody puts emphasis on what happens at the end of the year,” the 14th-year Lobo coach says, referring to the team missing out on qualifying for the NCAA Championship by a single stroke. “But in our sport, every year is a long season, and every event is significant. We won four tournaments, including the conference and had one All-American (a second-team nod for then-junior Gavin Green). Even though we missed nationals by a stroke, it was a great year.”
Which raises his, and his team’s level of, excitement for 2014-15. The Lobos return their top seven players from a year ago – including everyone that participate in the team scores for their 14 events last season – and have two or three more players in the mix that they hope propel them beyond last year’s final result.
Last year’s finish “really does motivate us,” says senior and reigning Albuquerque Men’s City Amateur champion Sam Saunders. “We really have only one goal this year and that’s to give ourselves a chance to win a national championship.
“Winning a conference championship would be great, but it’d be a failure to me if we didn’t make nationals.”
It may be bold talk coming from the Lobos, but the precedent has been set. UNM also missed out on qualifying for the National Championship Tournament by one stroke in 2011-12 (actually, New Mexico has missed out on nationals by one stroke in three of the last six years). The 2012-13 team, which also returned every single starter, not only qualified for the NCAA Championship, but also made it to the final eight, match-play portion.
UNM lost in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Alabama.
“That experience is what made us better,” says Green, now a senior on the squad. “We hope that experience last year makes us better this year. I think everybody on the team is motivated. But for me and Victor (fellow senior Perez who started with Green on that 2011-12 team as true freshmen), missing it twice by a stroke is kind of painful.
“But with that experience, I think the whole team knows what to do, what to work on. When Coach tells us what we need, I think everybody understands that we have to get it done.”
The Lobos already have gotten a lot done in the past three seasons. They have won 10 tournaments, including back-to-back Mountain West championships in 2013 and 2014. They’ve qualified for three consecutive NCAA Regionals and one NCAA Championship, finishing fifth in the nation in 2013.
Both Saunders and Green say they learned the amount of work required studying upperclassmen such as James Erkenbeck, John Catlin and Ben Bauch, who were the senior anchors on the 2013’s No. 5 team. They understand that one of their roles is to set an example, set a standard of how to prepare – on the golf course, in the weight room and in the classroom – for the younger players to follow.
Last year’s team, for example, had a collective grade-point average of 3.346.
“When you have guys that are real motivated, the way these last few classes have been, I think it naturally happens where the younger guys see the success the older guys have had and it rubs off,” Millican says. “And they all have their own approaches to it, so it gives the younger guys different ways to go about it. It’s a great cycle to have.”
Redshirt freshman Andre Garcia, who is one of a handful of players who will compete for a spot on UNM’s traveling five for each tournament, says he continues to study the habits of the older players to give him a sense of the work ethic required to contribute to an elite NCAA golf program.
“Just noticing how much work goes into it each and every day is eye-opening to see what it takes to get to that level,” he says. “It’s made a big impression on me; it motivates me to do more.”
And the 2014-15 Lobos have a lineup worth emulating.
Green, the defending Mountain West champion and two-time All-America (he was third team in 2013), is the returner with the most accolades. He has five individual titles, which ties him with Tim Herron for most all-time in school history. He is the only Lobo to win William H. Tucker Intercollegiate – UNM’s home golf tournament – twice.
He currently ranks third all-time in stroke average (72.27 per round) and could become just the third Lobo all-time to earn three All-America nods (Tim Herron has two first-team and one second-team honors from 1991-93, and Mitch Mooney was a three-time All-America from 1977-79, before multiple teams were recognized).
“He’s already one of the best players to come through here,” Millican said. “With a great season, he has a chance to do some things that have never been done here before.”
Perez is trying to join Herron as the only four-time all-conference honorees. Perez, who will miss the season opener at the Gopher Invitational in Independence, Minn., because of a commitment with the French national team, is fifth on UNM’s career-low stroke average at 72.47 per round.
Saunders came on during the spring to be a big contributor to the 2013-14 Lobos team and used that experience to help him win the Albuquerque Men’s City Amateur in July.
Senior Sean Romero had three top-10 finishes in UNM’s last five events in the 2014 spring season and has played 90 rounds of golf experience on the team.
Junior Joe Abella had the team’s low round at the NCAA Auburn Regional with an even-par 216 for an 11th-place tie. He also had a sixth-place performance at the Lone Star Invitational in San Antonio, Texas in March.
Sophomore Andrej Bevins burst onto the scene as a true freshman last season, tying Green for honors at the Tucker (Green won the event in a playoff but both player officially earn credit for a victory).
Sophomore Mitch Johnson played in a couple of events for the Lobos last season, and transfer Nelson da Silva Ramos qualified to play on the Lobos squad at the season-opening Gopher Invitational. Millican said those two, plus Garcia and fellow redshirt freshman Ryan Medhaug could compete for the fourth or fifth spots on the traveling squad to each event.
“We have a lot of guys we know that can play,” Millican said. “If those guys stay engaged and work hard, it’s going to help us, not only this year, but next year as well. The competition should make everyone better.”
And that could be a difference from the 2012-13 team, which really had just six players in the mix for tournament play. If qualifying to play in the tournaments becomes as difficult as the tournaments themselves, the Lobos expect positive results in 2014-15.
And that should help them put the 2013-14 season to rest once and for all.
“After we missed by a stroke last year, all I wanted to do was practice and get it back,” Green said. “But the only way to get it back is to get back to match play (at the NCAA Championship) this year. That’s the only way to make the pain go away.”
But if that only makes the pain go away, what in Green’s mind will be a successful season?
“As a team?” he asks, and then responds without hesitating, “bringing home a national trophy.”