Matt Paulson
Special to the Times
Famine or feast: Battling rabid winds, the University of La Verne golf team opened the West Region Invitational Monday and Tuesday with its worst round as a team all year and finished with one of its best, earning a sixth-place overall finish.
ULV shot 333 in the first round of the tournament, played in Texas at Teravista Golf Club, having to take scores of 84, 85 and 88.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot with the first round,” head coach Rex Huigens said. “We just played absolutely awful.”
In fact, the lone highlight for the Leopards came at the hands of senior Andrew Garcia, who shot a 76, after finishing bogey, double-bogey.
Garcia was even under par through 11 holes, he said.
“In those conditions, anything under 80 was damn good in the first round,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the wind blew from the second they stepped off the plane in Texas to the second they stepped back on.
On the course, it peaked at 40 mph.
“Conditions were the toughest I’ve ever played in, really, really difficult,” said freshman Chris Davis, who followed a first-round 85 with rounds of 79 and 75 to tie for 23rd individually. “I’ve played in rain before. I’ve actually played in snow before. But with winds at 40 mph, you’re nearly blown off the ball. It’s hard to stand. I couldn’t really tell if I was playing good. I’d step up there and think I made a good swing, but it didn’t go where I thought it was going.”
Davis said he entered the tournament feeling good about his game after a recent lesson. But winds strong enough to move the ball while on the green change everything.
“Your whole game plan is switched around,” he said.
Doug Green, who fired an 88 in the opening round but bounced back to shoot two 75s for a team-best 238, said even his 15-yard, chest-high pitches were slicing with the wind.
But the Leopards rebounded, firing a 302 on the second day and the third round of the tournament. (The teams played 36 of the 54 holes in the tournament on the first day.) The score, which consisted of three 75s and a 79, was the best of the day by five shots, Garcia said.
“I was real proud of the guys,” Huigens said. “It was frustrating, and yet, there were some positives about it.”
The final round helped ULV claw its way back up to sixth place in the tournament.
La Verne was one of the four Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools to place in the top 10.
The Leopards are currently ranked 15th in the nation at the Division III level.
“Our goal really was to be in the top three in the tournament,” Huigens said. “But after you shoot 333, it’s pretty tough to get into the top three.”
But even after the first-round debacle, the national tournament remains within reach.
“This tournament just put us more on the edge,” Huigens said. “Certainly, we’re not in any sort of commanding position.”
To make it to nationals, ULV must be in the top three teams in the Region, which includes Texas, Washington, Oregon and California.
As of right now, Redlands and Texas Lutheran look to be secure.
However, that third spot will probably go to someone in the SCIAC..
To hope for a spot, ULV must beat out Cal Lutheran, which finished fifth place in Texas (947), and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who finished in seventh place (958).
“If we do that, we have an outside chance of getting into the nationals,” Huigens said. “And that should be our goal.”
First, ULV must play Claremont Monday at Empire Lakes, where the Stags handed Redlands its only conference loss of the season.
Monday is only the next step on the long and winding road to a possible bid, with a multitude of holes remaining in the season.
“It’s always an uphill battle with this team this year,” Garcia said. “We need to finish strong. If we don’t finish strong, we’re not going.”
Matt Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@ulv.edu.
