Idaho men’s golf has received several conference awards, focused on next step
Ever since the Idaho men’s golf team won the Big Sky Conference Championship by 21 strokes April 29 in Angels Camp, California, Big Sky awards have been flying into Moscow.
Sophomore Jared du Toit won the individual conference championship. He also earned the Big Sky Player of the Year award and earned a spot on the first-team All-Big Sky list with senior Aaron Cockerill and freshman Dan Sutton, who was also named Freshman of the Year.
Sophomore Jared du Toit watches a competitor putt in the Itani Classic Monday at Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman. Du Toit finished fifth in the Doc Gimmler Golf Tournament at Bethpage Red Course at Farmindale, N.Y.
Junior Rylee Iacolucci earned a second-team selection and sophomore Ryan Porch was an honorable mention.
All five Idaho starters earned recognition from the Big Sky coaches. Not only did du Toit take first in the Big Sky Championship, but two of his teammates finished right behind him with Cockerill taking second and Sutton finishing tied for third.
To top it all off, the leader of this group, coach John Means, was named the Big Sky Men’s Golf Coach of the Year.
Means said Idaho plays with a chip on its shoulder because other schools don’t respect Idaho’s golf program.
“I mean nobody, except for these guys and myself, think that they’re any good,” Means said. “We’re Idaho. We show up at tournaments and people look at us.”
Means said when the Vandals played at the Cleveland Golf Palmetto Invite in March in Aiken, South Carolina, he overheard a coach asking one of his players how a team like Idaho got into this invitational.
“We play with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder because no one thinks a team like Idaho can compete,” Means said. “And that’s not true, and our guys know it, and so when they get an opportunity to play against one of those teams like that, they want to play their best.”
The Vandals are now headed to The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, to compete as the No. 10 seed at the NCAA San Diego Regional May 14-16.
Out of the 13 teams playing in the field, the top five will advance to the NCAA Championship May 29 through June 3 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. The top three seeds in Idaho’s regional are No. 6 Arizona State (No. 1 seed), No. 10 Georgia Tech (No. 2 seed) and No. 15 Oklahoma (No. 3 seed). Idaho is ranked 57th according to Golfweek.
The Vandals aren’t strangers to finishing in the top five though.
Out of the 11 competitions Idaho has competed in this year, including the five invitationals in the fall season, five in the spring and the Big Sky Championship, the team has finished in the top five seven times. The Vandals also had at least one player finish in the top five in six out of those 11 competitions.
Some of Idaho’s top finishes include the Big Sky Championship win and a first-place finish at the Wyoming Southern Invitational Oct. 5 in Maricopa, Arizona, in which the Vandals won by 17 strokes and du Toit took first individually.
“That was the tournament that showed them they had the ability to win,” Means said of the Wyoming Southern.
Idaho finished second in its last two regular-season invitationals of the spring — the Wyoming Cowboy Classic in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 7, in which du Toit tied for first and the Hawkeye Great River Entertainment Invitational April 19 in Iowa City, Iowa.
At the Hawkeye Invitational, Iowa State took first, Idaho took second and Iowa finished third. The Vandals beat Iowa on it’s home golf course. The Hawkeyes went on to finish second at the Big 10 Championship.
Means said the Cleveland Golf Palmetto and the Hawkeye Invitational were important competitions for Idaho this year.
He said Idaho was beating four teams ranked in the top 20 with five holes to play at the Cleveland Golf Palmetto.
“They got a chance to see that,” Means said. “They got a chance to be in the hunt against some of the best teams in the country and finish it.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]