Aaron Cockerill sports his mustache before a visit to El Paso, Texas, and the Price’s Give ‘Em Five Intercollegiate tournament.
When the Idaho men’s golf team thinks Texas, they think facial hair, more specifically, mustaches.
“It’s a rarity these days that you don’t see too often,” said mustache-sporting senior Alex Pounds. “It’s a thing of magnificence on the golf course, it’s really quit majestic.”
The Vandals will be in El Paso, Texas, this Friday and Saturday competing in the Price’s Give ‘Em Five Intercollegiate, a tournament they won last year when they were all sporting mustaches.
“Once you grow a mustache, its magic.” Pounds said. “If we win again, I think we might have to implement it in the team rules — you must have a ‘stache.”
Idaho coach John Means wants to take a different approach with the facial hair fad, though. In hopes to not use up all their luck, he said to maybe only bring out the mustaches on special occasions. He doesn’t want to ruin that perfect record.
Which might be a good idea too, because not everyone on the team can grow a ‘stache with the prestige that junior Aaron Cockerill is sporting these days, which is just a little mustache wax away from being a perfect 10 out of 10.
“I think I have the best ‘stache, Scott (Riley’s) is good, but I got him,” Cockerill said.
Since some of the mustaches were lagging behind, junior Garrett Howard decided he would help himself and some of the other players out by buying some Just for Men facial hair color enhancer. This even got the attention of Cockerill, who might just be the Jose Canseco of mustache enhancing, because it clearly worked out well for him. As for some of the other players, not so much.
“My ‘stache is awful, it’s just fur, no color at all” said sophomore Rylee Iacolucci, whose mustache is barely visible. “Just for Men would just dye my skin, it’d be bad.”
Most coaches might get mad at the use of facial hair enhancers, but coach Means doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.
“As long as the NCAA doesn’t come after me, saying it’s illegal, we should be okay,” Means said.
Being from Canada, Cockerill is well versed in his mustache growing, as he will be getting a head start on Movember, which Canadians participate in to raise awareness for prostate cancer research. Movember is basically the equivalent to No Shave November in the U.S.
The tournament will be held at Butterfield Trail, where they won the tournament last year, and a place that has a very similar layout to the course they see everyday at Palouse Ridge.
What started as a joke last year might have turned into a winning tradition, but this time it will come with a challenge.
“This will easily be the toughest field we’ve seen all year,” Cockerill said. “But we still expect to go down there and defend our title.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at arg-sports@uidaho. edu