Golf team still has high expectations
Disappointing start is no cause for alarm, coach says.
John Fields isn’t thrilled about the slow start by his golf team this fall. But he’s been around long enough to understand why it’s happening.
In two tournaments, the Longhorns have finished eighth and fourth. This from a squad that started the year ranked No. 2 nationally.
“There’s not one guy on my team, from a team perspective, that’s happy with the way we’ve played the last two tournaments,” Fields said.
Yet no one is panicking. Here’s why:
■ Beau Hossler, Texas’ top player, missed the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational last month because he was representing the U.S. in the Walker Cup. How valuable is Hossler? This week he made his season debut and shot a careerlow 64 in the final round to win the Nike Collegiate Invitational in Portland, Ore. He finished 18-under par, topping Duke’s Adam Wood by six strokes.
“When you leave a player like Beau Hossler off of your roster, it can cost you up to 25 strokes,” Fields said.
Fields likened it to 2012, when Texas won the national title but finished eighth and third in tournaments when Jordan Spieth was off playing on his own.
■ For the first time, Fields has three players in his five-person lineup navigating the McCombs School of Business. “That’s a pretty big grind,” he said.
■ The Horns are having a difficult time replacing Kramer Hickok, the lone senior and the No. 5 contributor on last year’s team that won the Big 12 and six other tournaments. Taylor Funk, Tayler Termeer and Kalena Preus are vying for the spot, and Preus, a former Hawaii state champion, appears to have taken the lead with his final-round 71 in Portland.
Preus, a redshirt sophomore, was playing in his first event as a Longhorn.
Fields said the abundance of golf his team played in the summer has taken a toll, as have some minor nicks and bumps.
Optimism remains strong heading into the U.S. Collegiate, Oct. 16-18 in Atlanta. Along with Hossler, the lineup is loaded with reigning Big 12 champion Scottie Scheffler, Big 12 runner-up Gavin Hall, and Doug Ghim, who tied for eighth at the NCAA championships.
“We’ll win tournaments this year,” Fields said. “It’s only a matter of time before we get into a rhythm.”
Baseball series: Texas’ baseball team will play a three-game intrasquad series. The games are set for Oct. 16 at 3 p.m., Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m. and Oct. 18 at 9:30 a.m. Admission is free.
Starting last fall, Texas did away with facing other schools so it could schedule additional games in the regular season. The NCAA limits the number of games a team can play over the fall and spring.
Denny still out: Kaleb Denny’s baseball debut has hit another snag, as the son of former Longhorns great David Denny is still working back from a knee injury that sidelined him for the past two seasons beginning with his senior year at Barbers Hill.
“That knee is taking its time healing,” coach Augie Garrido said.
If Denny gets healthy, he could replace Ben Johnson in left field.
As a high school junior, his last healthy season, Denny batted .440 with 10 home runs.
Is he better than his father, the program’s career hits leader?
“That’s high cotton right there, man,” Garrido said. “He’s a good hitter. We’d love to have him in the lineup.”