Lobos loose entering home regional
UNM confident as 5 seed on its course
Sam Choi, Albert Boneta, Matthew Watkins, Brandon Shong and Bastien Amat of the University of New Mexico men’s golf team were in a playful mood putting on the practice green at UNM Championship Golf Course on Wednesday morning.
Before Choi, Boneta and Amat met with the media for interviews they competed against each other with the loser regulated to doing up to 20 pushups depending on the wager. These are the Lobos, the fifth-seeded team at the NCAA Regional that takes place on their home course Monday through Wednesday. They are loose and confident, believing they are playing their best golf of the season.
“We’re feeling pretty good,” said sophomore Albert Boneta, UNM’s No. 2 player with a 71.33 scoring average in 21 rounds this spring. “We just won the Mountain West title. We’ve been playing a lot on the course. We had three guys (who took the top spots to advance to the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying) at the Open qualifier on Monday. The team is doing great. We are prepared for the regionals.”
If the Lobos can stay true to their seed among the 14 teams, they’ll advance to the NCAA Championships. The five lowest-shooting teams and the lowest-shooting individual not from those five teams will move on to the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 28-June 2.
UNM, the Mountain West champion, is coming off its best final round of the season, and one of the best rounds in program history, Lobos coach Glen Millican said. He saw his team rally from six strokes down to tie Nevada at the end of regulation on May 1 at the OMNI Tucson National Golf Course in Arizona, and then the Lobos beat the Wolf Pack on the first playoff hole for the title.
UNM set up the playoff with a league tournament record-breaking round, a third-round score of 19-under-par 269. The Lobos won their eighth MWC title and their second straight — they won it in 2019, and last spring’s golf season was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I do feel like our team has gotten better as the year has gone on,” Millican said. “We normally start in September, so we kind of went to 0 to 60 pretty quick in January . ... (After the MWC Championship) we know that we can play great.”
SOLID SQUAD: Boneta, the 19-year-old, 5-foot-7 Spaniard, has been big for the Lobos this season, and is an example that the UNM team has few weaknesses.
Boneta (73-72-65) finished tied for fifth, at 6-under 210 at the MWC Championship. He also has a win this season. tying for medalist honors with a 12-under par 201 at the Thunderbird Collegiate at Papago Golf Course on April 17.
Choi is No. 1 on the team with a 70.52 average in 21 rounds. He is ranked No. 23 in the nation. He finished tied for first in regulation and lost in a playoff to his high school teammate at Anaheim Discovery Christian High School in California, San Diego State’s Puwit Anupansuebsai, at the Mountain West Championship.
Amat, a freshman, has a 72.50 average in 21 rounds. He finished tied for fifth at the PING Cougar Classic at Riverside Country Club in Provo, Utah on April 24.
Shong, a junior whose average is 73.56 in 18 rounds, grabbed the top qualifying spot at the U.S. Open qualifier on Monday with a 6-under 66.
Amat shot 67 and Watkins (71.56 average in nine rounds this spring), also a freshman, carded a 68 to advance to sectional qualifying June 7, and one step closer to the U.S. Open (June 17-20 at Torrey Pines).
Choi was not in the field of 48 on Monday.
Millican said it was a good “sneak preview” for the UNM golfers who competed on Monday, but they all expect the greens to play much faster for the NCAA Regional.
“We’ve seen great play from five guys,” Millican said of his team. “When you see that, it puts us in a great position that a great round is possible. But we also have room for someone to struggle and someone to pick us up if that happens. We’re not just one or two guys. We have five guys that have shown they can play really well at any given time.”
SENSATIONAL SOONERS: The Southwest Regional features Oklahoma, the nation’s overall No. 1 seed.
The Sooners, with four All-Americans (Quade Cummins, Jonathan Brightwell, Garrett Reband, Patrick Welch) have finished at least third in all 11 tournaments this season, winning three of them. This is the third straight postseason that the Sooners have been named a No. 1 seed, and they last won the national championship in 2017.
“They’re really, really good,” Millican said. “Very disciplined team. Very composed team. They never beat themselves. They’re a very well-coached team. Always well prepared. They’re just never going to beat themselves.”
HOMECOMING: NMSU won the Western Athletic Conference title to secure a spot in the NCAA Regional. It will be a homecoming for Aidan Thomas, the former St. Pius standout who was named WAC Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the AllWAC first team. He led the Aggies with a 72.14 scoring average and finished fourth at the WAC Championship.