Lobo men, women learn golf lessons
Golf can be one of the most rewarding sports there is. And man, can it also be cruel. The University of New Mexico men’s and women’s golf teams are well aware of both ends of the golf spectrum. And if anyone on either team ever forgets the many shades of the game, they need to just look back to the past weekend.
The men played host to the 62nd annual Tucker Intercollegiate — the second-longest running college golf tournament in the country.
The Lobos had captured the event each of the past four years, and after Friday morning’s opening round looked like they would make another run this year.
Led by junior Andre Garcia’s 6-under-par 66, UNM shot 6 under as a team (the top four scores from each five-player squad make each round’s team total) and trailed firstplace San Diego State by just two shots.
The Lobos were hanging right with the Aztecs near the lead in Friday afternoon’s second round of the 54-hole event, and were just getting to the toughest holes —7 through 10 — of the course nicknamed The Monster, when the winds picked up to about 35 miles per hour and the temperature plummeted about 10-to-15 degrees.
The storm lasted nearly two hours. By the time it had ended, the Lobos were blown out of contention.
“Other teams were playing the same holes at the same time,” said UNM coach Glen Millican. “We can’t use the weather as an excuse. We just didn’t handle adversity very well.”
Despite a perfect morning for the third and final round on Saturday, the Lobos fell flat coming out of the gates and dropped within a shot of 10th place before a late rally — 7 under in the final few holes — lifted them into a tie for fifth. SDSU won the title by 10 shots.
“There were a lot of lessons to be learned from this tournament,” said Millican, who returned all five players from last year’s team that barely missed making the NCAA Championships. “We need to learn them.”
Lobo sophomore Sean Carlon — a 2015 Hope Christian High graduate — is one of those still with plenty to learn about college golf. But chances are, he’s going to be schooling a lot of folks along the way.
“For Sean to come out and shoot par, and to tie for 8th in these conditions, is just a great sign,” Millican said. “Having a local guy like that is great for the program, and great for local high school golf.”
For Carlon, a three-time state prep champ and winner of the 2015 Greater Albuquerque Men’s City Amateur, it was his first top-10 finish in college.
“It still really hurts, because I’m all about the team and we really wanted to win this,” Carlon said. “But we’re an extremely talented team, and it’s just a matter of putting it all together. Once we do, we’re going to start winning a lot.”
A learning experience
The women’s golf team also learned a few things during the weekend at the Lady Paladin Invitational in South Carolina. And relearned, as well. UNM junior standout Ingrid Gutierrez had it rolling. She shot a 1-over 73 in the opening round and came back with a sizzling 5-under 67 in the second round to fly up the leaderboard and into contention for the individual title.
Ah, golf — again, it certainly can be a cruel game.
“Hopefully in the future, the rules of golf can change so someone doesn’t have to suffer such a severe penalty,” UNM women’s coach Jill Trujillo said on Monday. “But that doesn’t guarantee something like that won’t ever happen again.”
What happened, was that Gutierrez didn’t have all of the proper signatures from her playing partners on her scorecard.
By the time the rules officials — who are also supposed to check with players to make sure everything has been handed in properly — discovered the mistake, Gutierrez had left the scoring area. The 67 became a DQ. The Lobos took a huge hit. Because the top four scores on each five-player team count towards for the team total, the Lobos had to use an 83 instead of the 67/DQ.
“That’s a 16-shot penalty for the team, but I really felt sick for Ingrid,” Trujillo said. That’s a mistake I know she’ll never make again.”
Even though she was no longer eligible for individual honors, Gutierrez posted the team’s best score in Sunday’s final round with a 71. Had her 67 counted, she would have finished tied for second, one shot behind medalist Emilee Hoffman of Texas. The Lobos would have tied for 11th in the 20-team field. Instead they finished 18th.
“What happened with Ingrid really let the air out of our tires,” Trujillo said. “But one of the really great things about this team, is they keep fighting. They’ve been down several times, but are never out. It’s a learning experience.”
UNM plays two more tournaments in the fall part of the season — at Texas and at UNLV — before playing in the more-important spring season.
… Texas freshman Dominique Galloway, the three-time state high school champion from Cleveland High in Rio Rancho, shot rounds of 75-71-72 to finish 2 over and tied for 24th in the event. Her team, coached by former Lobo Ryan Murphy, won at 11 under.
Going Green
Former Lobo Gavin Green qualified for the CIMB Classic after defeating defending champion Ben Leong on the first hole of sudden death to wins the SapuraKencana National Classic last week on the Asian Development Tour (ADT).
Green won two events on the tour this season and represented Malaysia in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last month.
The CIMB Classic, now in its seventh year, features a 78-player elite field, comprising 60 from the PGA Tour, 10 from the Asian Tour and eight sponsor’s exemptions.
The $1.26 million event is in Kuala Lumpur next month.
Green is in Nevada this week at the first stage of Web.com Tour Qualifying.
King for a life
I didn’t follow golf in the 1960s or 70s.
There were too many other sports for a kid from Burque.
NFL? Big time (Cowboys fan, believe it or not). Baseball? Of course — Twins fanatic.
NBA and NHL? Celtics and Rangers, baby.
Boxing? Ali, Frazier, Norton, Foreman. Best era ever. But golf? Sure, I knew the names Arnie and Jack.
But I didn’t give a hoot what they would shoot.
If I was forced to choose between watching American Sportsman, Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf or eating raw egg whites — I’d have probably beaten Rocky to the blender.
Fortunately, it never came down to that.
After college, I started playing the game. Then I started following it. Soon, I loved it. Arnold Palmer was long out of his prime by the time I became a golf nut.
But like everyone who has ever felt that sweet spot smack a ball with an oversized driver, every sportswriter who has ever enjoyed covering a tournament, or any fan who has rooted to Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Calvin Peete, Nancy Lopez or Jan Stephenson — for whatever reason — to drain a clutch putt, I owe praise to the man who took golf from the sports bunkers to the Augusta National stage.
Thanks King.