Aggies dig early hole and struggle to get out
For the third time in four matches, the Aggies played in California., and once again, the Aggies hurt themselves by digging a big hole that they struggled to climb out of for the rest of the match.
The Aggie men’s golf team finished a two-day tournament Friday afternoon in Arroyo Grande, Calif. After shooting a mediocre first round, the Aggies managed to finish in 14th place as a team for the tournament despite the terrible first round score.
“I was pretty disappointed,” Coach Dean Johansen said about his team’s finish. “Since the weather turned good they’ve worked, I think, really hard at it, and we just got out there and couldn’t putt for good scores on the board.”
The Aggies came out on the first round and shot a 307, creating a lot of work for themselves to do in order to move up the leader board.
“We dug ourselves a pretty good hole on the first round,” Johansen said. “We played horrible the first round. It was perfect conditions – the course was perfect – we just played horrible. We were able to dig ourselves out a little bit in the afternoon, but it was disappointing.”
A bright spot for the Aggies was the play of senior Preston Otte, who tied for 23rd in the individual side of the match. Otte, who in his last tournament struggled and averaged more than 80, shot 77, 71, and closed with a 76. It was the fourth time in seven tournaments this season that Otte has been the top Aggie finisher.
“[Otte] did better,” Johansen said. “This was a good golf course for him. It set him up good, but he kind of did the same thing – he dug himself a hole the first round. He didn’t play very well, but he came out the next two rounds and played fairly well.”
Bran Locke, from Loyola Marymount University, had the best individual match and took first while shooting a five under par 67, a 73, and then finishing with a 69.
Host Cal Poly took the team crown, shooting 866. They were followed by Loyola Marymount, who shot 879. The Aggies shot a 907.
Other individual scores for the Aggies included Devin Daniels (tied for 35th) who shot 76-74-74, Jeremy Pack (tied for 42nd) who shot 75-78-74, Jake Blair (tied for 79th) with a 79-80-77, and Alex Putnam (tied for 82nd) who shot 79-74-84.
Pack, who played in his fourth tournament of the season showed some promise for the future, and his coach agreed.
“Jeremy Pack showed some improvement,” Johansen said. “I thought he played fairly well. He is fairly new to the team and new to college golf on the road. I thought he did well.”
The Aggies will look to improve their play over the next couple weeks as they get ready to play southern rival BYU at the Cougar Classic. Johansen said he might try to set up a head-to-head match against Utah Valley to help get his team get ready for BYU.
“We’re as good as anybody out there off the tee,” Johansen said. “We’re hitting the hard shots really well. It’s just those little chip shots around the green and those little 80-yard shots that we’re not doing very well, and we’re not putting very good. We are going to spend the next two and half weeks working on chipping and putting.”
-wwm@cc.usu.edu