The men’s golf WAC Championship starts Monday when the Vandals travel to Las Vegas.
The Vandals have had an up and down spring season, finishing as low as No. 19 and as high as No. 1 in tournaments. Idaho’s most recent outing, the Winchester Classic in Sacramento, resulted in a second-place team finish. Senior Jarred Bossio won the tournament with an even-par 216.
Bossio said the tournament will hopefully act as a springboard for the team as it enters the WAC Championship.
“It feels good,” Bossio said. “Hopefully it’s going to build some momentum going into the WAC. The game feels good. The course was really tough and it’s going to prepare our whole team for the WAC pretty well because the courses are kind of similar.”
While the Vandals performed well at the Winchester Classic, they’ve struggled to remain consistent from week to week. Idaho coach John Means said the team has progressed this season and needs to show it.
“We’ve been getting better all the time, but it doesn’t always show up in some of the tournaments we’ve played in,” Means said. “We have a lot of talent here and this is probably the biggest roller-coaster ride I’ve ever had working with a team.”
The Rio Secco Golf Club, where the tournament will be held, is similar to the Winchester course. The desert course features fairways surrounded by rocks that challenge golfers to hit fairways regularly.
Bossio said it’s an all-around tough course to play.
“The fairways are pretty generous, but if you miss the fairways, there are rocks and sometimes you don’t even have a shot from the rocks,” Bossio said. “They usually make it a good test and try to make it as tough as possible for us.”
The golf course design demands that players stay mentally strong and cool and not try to force anything.
“Course management is going to be so important because they have to be able to throttle back, especially if they’ve made a couple bogies and feel the need to get that back by making some birdies,” Means said. “They have to throttle that back and they have to stay in the moment and hit the right club off the tee and not try to press and make something happen. If they do that they can be successful.”
Bossio and fellow seniors Stefan Richardson and Justin Kadin take their last shot at a WAC title. Bossio said the time has gone fast and it’s hard to believe he’s facing what could be his last collegiate tournament.
Bossio enters the tournament with momentum and Means said if he executes, he’ll have a legitimate shot at winning.
“Jarred is undoubtedly one of the best players in the conference,” Means said. “Fundamentally he’s probably the best player I’ve had in 30 years of coaching as far as being able to roll the ball on the line he wants to roll in on.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]