Golf team struggles in tourney
Utah State’s men’s golf team finished the Bite/Pacific Intercollegiate golf tournament Tuesday, but the Aggies were unable to improve from their last-place standing after day one.
The young team, comprised of five sophomores and three freshman, finished 18th out of 18 teams that participated in the tournament.
The two day tournament was hosted by UC Santa Barbara; the setting was the La Purisima golf course in Lompoc, Calif.
“The first tournament of the year is always tough,” said Utah State Head Coach Dean Johansen. “Plus all the teams there had already played in three or four tournaments.”
UC Davis ended up at the top of the board after all was said and done.
Travis Bertoni, a sophomore at Cal Poly, was the top individual performer at the Pacific Intercollegiate tourney. He shot a 72, 69 and a 72, to finish 3-under par.
Johansen said all the teams were very good, and USU’s inexperience, plus the course difficulty, was just too much for the Aggies.
“This was the hardest course I’ve seen in five years coaching,” said Johansen. “We won’t see anything like that again this spring.”
Devin Daniels had a solid performance on Monday, but dropped from 45th to 56th overall because of the third round Tuesday. He finished the two rounds shooting a 78 and a 75, and finished with a 79 on Tuesday. Daniels will go into the Aggie’s next tournament with a 77.33 average.
“Devin has shown a lot of improvement,” Johansen said. “He’s just a freshman and he’s playing pretty well.”
Cody Huot, USU’s top fall performer, had a rough go in the first round Monday with an 82. But the poor mark sparked Huot Tuesday, and he finished the tournament with scores of 75 and 73. Huot’s 73 on Tuesday was the best score of any Aggie at the tournament. The sophomore ended the three round tourney with an average of 76.66.
“I felt like Cody did well,” said Johansen. “I think he was hitting the ball very well.”
The Aggies finished 18th after two days of play, shooting a 86-over par.
Marcus Myers and Preston Otte ranked third and fourth, respectively, among the Aggies in Lompoc. Myers finished with scores of 79, 81 and 81. Otte started off on fire with a 76 in the first round, then trailed off, scoring an 86 and an 85 in the final rounds.
Freshman Ryan Worthy, playing in his first tournament as an Aggie, struggled and ended up with an average of 88.66.
“We had a freshman going for the first time for us,” said Johansen. “Overall, this isn’t the best we could have played.”
The Aggies will travel to the Wyoming Cowboy Classic, in Scottsdale, Ariz., starting April 12, and concluding the next day.
“Our next tournament will be nowhere near as tough as this one,” said Johansen, again noting the difficulty of the La Purisina course. “We should be able to go in to this one and do pretty well.”
When asked if his team’s play on Monday and Tuesday will force him to mix up the rotation, Johansen blatantly replied, “Yes.”
-bcb@cc.usu.edu