Host Lobos finish fifth in Tucker Invite

The University of Mexico’s men’s golf team was a top-three team over the final two rounds of the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate tourney.

Too bad it couldn’t have the first round back.

The Lobos finished fifth overall at its home tournament Saturday in a 17-team field at the UNM Championship Course. Leading the Lobos was Sam Choi, a freshman from Anaheim, Calif., who tied for fourth individually.

Choi had momentum entering the third round coming off a 4-underpar 68 to conclude his 36-hole opening day, which was Friday.

Starting his final round on the fourth hole, Choi played out the final six holes of the front nine at 3-under, pushing him into the top three overall at 7-under.

“After nine, I was thinking to myself, ‘OK, maybe I have a chance to win this tournament,’” Choi said.

Then the 10th hole happened. Choi struck a tee shot that ended in a bush. After taking a penalty stroke for an unplayable lie, he wound up with a triple bogey and lost his early gains.

As all players who aspire to greatness do, Choi put that bad hole behind him quickly and finished his day at 1-under.

“That just shows he has a lot of maturity for a freshman,” said UNM men’s coach Glen Millican of Choi. “To bounce back after a triple, especially when you have it going. … I’ve been around him a little bit the first three events, and he has one of the best attitudes I’ve ever been around on the golf course for a competitive golfer.”

Senior Sean Carlon, an Albuquerque native and Hope Christian graduate, had a forgettable Friday in which his second-round offering — the Lobos’ best team round this season — was the throw-out score.

Among the pre-tournament favorites based on his recent top-10 performance in Dallas, Carlon saw his victory hopes wash away, and the spiral continued after a 4-over-par start to his first seven holes Saturday.

“That hurt a lot, especially being from Albuquerque,” Carlon said of Friday’s performance. “I’ve probably put more rounds in on this golf course than the entire field combined.”

Carlon, a previous winner of the Albuquerque City Golf Championship, found some magic with his putter on his ninth hole on Saturday by birdieing the par-4 15th hole. He followed that with six more birdies to turn his round into a 3-under 69.

“It was a little bit of a brutal start, but you have to keep your head in it,” Carlon said. “I felt good about my game coming in, and I’ve been preparing for this tournament for a few months because I knew I wanted to win it before I finished school. So not playing good on Friday hurt, but the thing that made it OK was how good my team played in the afternoon. I was struggling and fighting whatever it was, but the younger guys stepped up, and that was awesome.”

BYU captured the team title, making up a three-shot deficit to secondround leader UNLV and finishing at 16-under overall, two strokes better than the Runnin’ Rebels.

BYU’s Peter Kuest and UNLV’s Harry Hall shared individual medalist honors as each finished at 11-under.

UNM has improved by two places in each of its three tournaments this season, and the manner in which the Lobos salvaged the weekend after a lackluster start has Millican optimistic going into next week’s Maridoe Collegiate in Carrollton, Texas.

“I was a little concerned after the first round here, but yesterday afternoon showed me a lot,” Millican said. “It showed the character of our team, and how we were able hang in there. Not just hang in there, we flipped it around to play a great round the same day we played probably our worst round of the year.

“… We had a lot of positive things and things we can still work on, but that’s golf.”