One would think that competing in your first ever collegiate golf tournament would get the butterflies going, at least a little bit. Freshman Jared du Toit showed no signs of any butterflies during his first collegiate golf tournament, playing in the Itani Invitational in Pullman.
Du Toit finished fifth overall hitting a 69 in all three rounds of play, putting him at three under for the tournament.
“I was pretty steady all three days, made a couple of mistakes, but made a couple of good shots, and good holes,” he said.
One of those good holes was his last one. On hole 18, of round three, the freshman from Kimberly, British Columbia, sank a 10-foot putt to give him an eagle to finish the day.
“It was a nice way to finish the tournament, end on a good note for sure,” du Toit said.
That eagle, and du Toit’s stellar play, helped guide the Vandals to a fourth place finish in their first tournament of the season.
“That golf course was set up extremely difficult during that last round of play,” Idaho coach John Means said. “We had our lowest round of the three rounds when the golf course was at its toughest conditions.”
Helping achieve that low round of the tournament was junior Sean McMullen who, despite being stung by three bees throughout the day, managed to shoot a 67. That tied him for the lowest score of the day.
“That was my first college round of blemish free golf, no bogies, so that was good,” McMullen said. “On 13 I had to make a 12-foot par save, kind of down the slope, birdies are nice, but those par saves are the ones that keep it going.”
McMullen finished the tournament tied for 13th.
As for the rest of the Vandals, junior Aaron Cockerill shot five over, finishing 25thoverall,sophomore Rylee Iacolucci shot six over, tied for 26thoverall and Garret Howard shot 17 over, putting him at 72nd overall. Competing as individuals were Alex Pounds, who shot 27 over, finishing 80th and Chris Wilson, who shot 14 over, tying him for 58th.
Fourth place is a respectable finish, and shows signs of improvement for a Vandal team that struggled much of last year, but don’t think that they’re content with just that. They are not the least bit satisfied and are looking for ways to improve.
“Obviously we would want to play better as a team,” McMullen said. “I would have liked to have finished under par you know, but it was good to see Jared play well, and my 67 was nice, but definitely back to the drawing board and see what we can do better.”
The highlight of the tournament came when Aaron Cockerill chipped in for birdie on back-to-back holes.
“We had something happen that has never happened here before, well at least since I’ve been here,” Means said. “Chipping it in is not easy to begin with, and he did it two holes in a row. That was fun to watch.”
The Vandals travel to Boise to compete in the Dash Thomas Invitational on Monday, Sept. 23.
Korbin McDonald
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