Even though we play 18 holes 3-4 times a week and practice on the other days, we find time to have fun in our hectic schedules, and Halloween was no exception. Somehow it developed into a team tradition to wear Top Gun flight suits for the occasion, so on the weekend preceding and the big night itself we put on our uniforms, complete with custom dog tags with names and quotes from the movie, and had a good time. As Goose, I had a good time gettin our Freshman set up in a suit and ready to join the rest of the team. Of course, putting our priorities straight as usual, we had 7am workouts the morning after Halloween night so we weren't the last ones out, but had a great time nonetheless.
We had a normal 3 round qualifier for our tournament at Cordevalle, which we played at Cordevalle and Los Altos C.C. The Cordevalle event is hosted by UCLA and is one of the premier events every year in the country, and this year was no different, with most of the Pac-10 in attendence as well as other top teams. The course was in great, although tough, condition and I watched us play some great golf, although we struggled and gave up a few shots the last day. Overall though, our fall season really gave us some momentum and good thoughts heading into the spring, which we start off by heading to Hawaii in early February. I know myself and all of the guys will be ready for what will be a fierce qualifier to get the chance to make that trip.
It was a long fall season, and we were glad to have the chance to let off a little steam this weekend after the conclusion of the Cordevalle event. We can't have coach-organized practice until after Winter Break, but we will still be working out with the team and working on our games for the next few weeks as we grind through midterms and finals in a few weeks. I know we are all looking forward to going home next week for Thanksgiving - a 6-tournament fall doesn't leave us many weekends to see our families so this will be the first time since pre-season in August for most of us, including myself.
Thats about all for now, I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving! Thanks for checking in.
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
Since my last update, we have had a very busy 3 weeks with 3 tournaments in a row: Cal's event at The Meadow Club followed by Oklahoma's tournament at Oak Tree G.C. in Oklahoma, and our home tournament which we host at Silver Creek C.C. here in San Jose. We've had very strong individual performances in each event, which really confirms what we knew about our team going into the season about our depth, since a different guy has stepped up and led the team every week. At Cal's tournament we finished at -4 as a team for the 3 rounds, with Jimmy Cacho tieing for 8th place after shooting -6 individually, including a second round 65. The course and weather conditions were perfect and overall scoring was very low, but it was great for us to fire some low numbers regardless and get some confidence heading to Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma tournament was a bit different, with a very tough course on which almost nobody scored well. The winning score was over par, which is pretty rare for a college event. This week Jonathan Keane led the team with a total score of +13 and a top 15 finish, and it was a great learning experience for all the guys there in how to deal with difficult course conditions on a PGA championship course. Last week we hosted our tournament, and with Jimmy and Tyler opting to catch up on schoolwork because of having played the last few tournaments, we had a new five players including Stuart Loop, who is trying to earn a spot on our team through an extended tryout and played his way into the tournament, and Shaun Peinkos, who after coming back from shoulder surgery last summer is playing in his first college tournament. Shaun came out and shot a first round 71, which fired up all of the guys I think and led to a great second round which included Tim Lynch's 66. Tim ended up finishing the tournament in 2nd place, but we fell one shot short of the win and fnished second as a team as well.
It was tough being so close, but after setting a goal of breaking even par as a team, we shot -5, our lowest team score ever in this tournament, and have a ton of confidence heading into UCLA's tournament at nearby Cordevalle C.C. next week. We are qualifying for that event at Lake Merced CC, Cordevalle, and Los Altos CC this week so we will see who makes the lineup. It is nice to know, however, that we could put any five guys in at any time and have a shot to win, as we've shown all fall.
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007
I left off as we were heading to Utah to compete in the Purple and Red Invitational in Salt Lake City. We arrived in Utah to temperatures in the mid-30s and rain, and the tournament was shortened to 36 holes instead of 54. After the first day, which was only 18 holes because of the rain, we were in 2nd place and only 3 shots back of the tournament host, Utah. Although individually Scott Travers had his best finish (T-6), Jimmy Cacho finished 11th, and Blair Myers had a solid tournament at Even par after a great first round, we didn't get that solid 4th countable score with Tim and I struggling the final round on Tuesday and dropped to 5th place. Although we were a little dissapointed, it was great to once again be in the hunt, in the final group, and is a great experience to build on for our next tournament.
We had a great time on the trip and arrived back to Santa Clara Tuesday night full of confidence and excited for our first weekend without a tournament, which we needed to relax and get ready for a tough 3-week stretch of tournaments, including Cal's this coming weekend, Oklahoma's, and then our home tournament the week after. We began qualifying for the Cal event on Friday at beautiful Lake Merced C.C., and everyone had a great time and played pretty well, including 3 eagles for the team by myself, Scott, and Tyler, who holed ou dramatically on the 18th hole from the fairway. Friday night we entertained a recruit and had a great time showing him the basics of Santa Clara and our golf program.
After taking the recuit to the airport on Saturday afternoon, the whole team headed up to Discovery Bay, where Coach has a house, sporting boats and jetski's, and all the fixings for a great weekend of team bondng. We had a lot of fun, as we always to hanging out together, until it came to my turn to attempt the wakeboard and I twisted my knee getting up, tearing my meniscus and straining some other ligaments. I am writing today after having a successful surgery, which will most likely end my fall season but after the few months of intense short game and putting practice I have planned while I'm recovering I should be back much improved to help out the team in the spring. The injury came at a tough time for me, as I was just starting to gain a lot of confidence and was leading the Cal qualifier, but our team has amazing depth and of course we are still very excited for and expecting to have a great tournament next week at The Meadow Club. Though I'll be on the sidelines I'll be sure to keep the updates coming, thanks for reading.
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
Our 2007-2008 Men's Golf team has been practicing for a little over 2 weeks now. We reported back to school on September 5th, and have been busy ever since. We opened the year in qualifying for our first tournament, the St. Mary's Invitational, and played at Poppy Hills (the site of the tournament and a PGA Tour stop) followed by Mayacama, in Santa Rosa, which is a new addition to the U.S.A. top 100 course list. The low 5 players after those rounds were myself, Jimmy Cacho, Blair Myers, Jonathan Keane, and our lone freshman Tyler Ichikawa, who I can't say enough about as far as being a great teammate so far.
Our first tournament of the year was a successful one for us, and as you can see with the updates posted on our athletic website we had players in contention for the individual title as well as being in contention for the team title, only a few shots back after the first day of 36 holes. The last day did not go so well, and although I ended the tournament with my best individual standing thus far and Blair was able to make a good comeback from a tough first day, we did not score very well as a team. However, it was a good start to the season and definitely something to build on.
Coach Miller pulled his latest act of coaching brilliance this week in getting us out to Pebble Beach as our last qualifier for the tournament in Utah next week, although qualifying was far from any of our minds as we enjoyed Pebble in perfect weather conditions. Only a few of us had played the course before, and it was just a great day for the whole team; I think we really appreciated and took advantage of the one-of-a-kind experience. At the end of the day, however, the scores did count and the lineup was set for next week's event. Although Shaun Pienkos, fresh off shoulder surgery, won the qualifier, he opted out of the tournament because he feels he is not physically ready for the 36 hole day, a gesture that really exemplifies the team-oriented spirit of our group this year. With a great lineup of tournaments left, however, he will get another great opportunity whenever he is ready to get out there in competition. Replacing him will be Blair Myers, who will join Jimmy Cacho, Scott Travers, Tim Lynch, and myself in the lineup. I am really excited for our second tournament of the year; it is one that we won as a team 2 years ago and I think we have all of the tools to succeed again this year. We fly out to Salt Lake City on Saturday morning and will be back Tuesday night, hopefully with some hardware. Thanks for reading and I'll be sure to keep the updates coming.
