Lobos, Boneta Victorious at Wolf Pack Classic
RENO, Nev. –– The New Mexico men’s golf team captured its first title of the season, winning the Wolf Pack Classic at the Hidden Valley Country Club. The Lobos were wire-to-wire winners, shooting 14-under to post a four-shot victory.
Albert Boneta captured his second career individual title, shooting 6-under to take medalist honors. For winning the individual title, Boneta receives an exemption into next year’s Barracuda Championship, the Lake Tahoe stop on the PGA TOUR. That event will be July 14-17 at the Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, Calif.
New Mexico was the only team to shoot under par in all three rounds of the event, shooting 4-under in Monday’s first round, 3-under in the second round that was completed Tuesday due to darkness last night and 7-under in the final round. San Francisco was the runner-up at 10-under, the only other team to finish under par. Host Nevada was third at 13-over and UCLA was fourth at 14-over.
“This was a great tournament for us,” said head coach Glen Millican. “Webeat some very good teams and had to play two different types of golf. Yesterday was survival golf in that weather and then normal golf today, where they could take advantage of the conditions. It was very impressive to win and handle the situations well. It was an extra bonus for Albert to pick up his second win and earn an exemption into a PGA TOUR event. I am really happy for him. To have four guys finishing 11th or better is awesome and shows the depth he have on this team.”
Boneta shot 70-71-69 to win the title at 6-under par, one shot ahead of his teammate, Sam Choi and Thomas Hutchison of UC Davis, who both finished at 5-under. Choi led the Lobos in the final round with a 67 after shooting 71 and 73 in the first two rounds. Bastien Amat finished sixth at 3-under after posting rounds of 71-69-73. Brandon Shong shot even par 72 in all three rounds to finish T-11th on the individual leaderboard. Matthew Watkins rounded out the lineup at 15-over, while Ignacio Arcaya shot 8-over while playing as an individual.
The title is the first for the Lobos since last year’s Mountain West Championship. It is UNM’s first fall championship since winning their home event, the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate, in 2019.
The Lobos will conclude the fall portion of their schedule Nov. 8-10 with the Saint Mary’s Invitational in Monterey, Calif.