Despite fielding one of the youngest teams in years, Idaho men’s golf coach John Means won’t settle for anything less than winning the WAC.
“Because our team is young, our team gets no respect, which is fine,” Means said. “We’ve got three new players this year and they’ve all been integral in the success we’ve had this fall. I’m not going to be happy with anything but being able to win the WAC Championship.”
One key to Idaho’s success is freshman Jared du Toit, who finished 5-under-par in the final fall tournament in Princeville, Hawaii.
“We’ve been working on swing mechanics and changing minor things to get ready for this year,” du Toit said. “We’re definitely excited to try out the new changes.”
Idaho captain Aaron Cockerill said he thinks the team has a good chance to win the WAC Championship.
“We have a solid core group of guys,” Cockerill said. “We had kind of been missing that fifth man the whole fall. We had a solid four guys, and one of our freshmen stepped in at the last tournament and played well for us. So hopefully, we can keep that going.”
The freshman Cockerill is referring to, Ryan Porch, will round out the field for Idaho in the team’s first spring tournament this weekend in Palm Springs, Calif. The team will have a practice round Thursday before play begins on Friday for the Wyoming Desert Invitational.
“We played a little bit this weekend and I think we’re decently prepared for this tournament,” Cockerill said.
The brisk, North Idaho weather has played a role in the team’s training this offseason.
“The conditions have been really windy and very cold,” Means said. “It’s tough to work on your short game when it’s cold. If you want to do some putting drills or chipping drills and you have very limited motion, your hands get cold and you can’t get as much accomplished.”
If wind and snow conditions are severe enough, Cockerill said the team practices in an indoor hitting facility.
The team won’t have to worry about weather this weekend though, as it’s supposed to reach the mid-80s this weekend in Palm Springs, Calif.
“Our expectation level is pretty high,” Means said. “I think we’re ready to play.”
Both players and coaches are excited for the upcoming season, despite having a young group of players.”I think we definitely have progressed,” du Toit said. “We’re getting better all the time. We’ve got such a young team and we’re definitely excited to prove a couple people wrong and hopefully turn some heads this season.”
Idaho can make the NCAA Golf Championship at the end of the season one of two ways. The team can either win the WAC Championship Tournament or be given an at-large bid, much like the NCAA Tournament in basketball.
Means said there are generally about 30 at-large bids and the amount depends on which teams win their conference championship.
“You use your regular season to prove that you can play with the best teams in the country, in case that you don’t win the conference championship,” Means said.
Conor Gleason can be reached at [email protected]