Korbin McDonald | Vandal Nation Manager
The Idaho men’s golf team is ranked higher than defending national champion Louisiana State.
Let that sink in for a bit.
Golfweek’s latest rankings have Idaho as the No. 39-ranked team in the country, which is five spots ahead of LSU — who the Vandals whooped up on in the Golfweek Conference Challenge last week, finishing 23 strokes ahead of the former champs.
In that same tournament, the Vandals went toe-to-toe with Southern Methodist’s Bryson DeChambeau, who is the No. 2-ranked amateur in the world and has won back-to-back NCAA individual national championships.
Surely DeChambeau won the tournament as an individual and no Vandal golfers came close to competing with him, right?
Nope.
DeChambeau finished the tournament tied for 13th at 4-under-par – two strokes back of Idaho freshman Jake Scarrow, who finished the tournament tied for seventh at 6-under-par.
Tied with DeChambeau was sophomore Daniel Sutton, and not far behind was senior Rylee Iacolucci and sophomore Ian Kim, who both fired a 2-under-par 214 and tied for 18th.
The high ranking is also remarkable just from a geography standpoint.
Idaho is just one of seven teams in the top 40 to be located in the northern part of the United States. That goes to show there is something about year-round sunshine in the South that gives those schools an advantage.
Recruiting players to Idaho is hard for any sport, let alone golf, which is dependent on good weather. Somehow, though, Idaho coach John Means has made it work.
The men’s golf program has improved each year under Means and shows no signs of letting up.
The stellar start has been without Jared du Toit (arguably Idaho’s best golfer last year), who transferred to Arizona State during the summer.
With the loss of du Toit and Aaron Cockerill, who graduated at the end of last season, it looked as if the golf program was going to take a step back from last year’s success and enter a rebuilding phase.
However, that hasn’t appeared to be the case through two tournaments.
The first two tournaments were loaded with top-tier teams and players. Now the Vandals turn their attention toward the Southern Dunes Collegiate tournament Saturday and Sunday in Maricopa, Arizona.
The tournament won’t have the level of competition Idaho faced in the previous tournaments, and will give the team a good opportunity to bring home some hardware.
A win will surely catapult the Vandals even higher in the rankings and with a young team continuing to get better with each round, it begs the question: How good can this team be?
The answer remains to be seen and won’t be answered until the end of spring with the Big Sky Conference tournament, and hopefully the NCAA tournament.
Regardless, it’s time to start paying attention to the men’s golf program. After all, it is currently the best team Idaho athletics has to offer.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @KorbinMcD_VN