When the wind picked up to as much as 40 mph during the third and final round of the Southern Dunes Collegiate tournament this weekend in Maricopa, Arizona, Idaho men’s golf coach John Means was still at ease.
“I mean it was howling,” Means said of the wind. “You couldn’t see a mile away from the course because the sand was so thick in the air. When the wind picked up, I felt relieved and relaxed because we know how to play in the wind.”
Idaho would go on to blow away its competition, finishing in first place after the team fired a 4-under-par 860. Tournament-host Wyoming finished five strokes back with a 1-over-par 865 to take second place.
Leading the way for Idaho was Rylee Iacolucci. The senior from Cle Elum, Washington, finished in second place after he fired a 4-under-par 212.
While other teams in the field saw their ball sail 30 yards left of where they were aiming, Means said the Idaho players kept their cool and simply hit the ball straight.
“We know how to keep the ball low, we know to keep the ball below the pin,” Means said. “And because of the quality of the teams, you just assume that they’re not going to do that — and they didn’t. They didn’t know how to play in the wind very well.”
The lack of competition at this year’s Southern Dunes Collegiate caught Means off guard. He said he assumed there would be some quality teams in the field when he signed up for the tournament about a year ago.
“It didn’t happen,” Means said. “I was a little bit nervous because the guys want to play against the best players, like we did down in Iowa … It shouldn’t make a difference who we’re playing. We just gotta prepare ourselves and we go out there and play the game that we can play and let the chips fall where they may.”
With the weak field, Means said the team was a little discouraged heading into the tournament.
After the first round, Idaho was in fourth place, which didn’t sit well with the players, Means said.
“I think in the back of their heads they expected to go down there and just clean up,” Means said.
Means said the conditions were perfect during the first round of play, so the other teams played well.
“When the conditions are perfect, teams play well,” he said. “There was no wind and the pins weren’t extremely difficult. Everything was set up for teams who aren’t great to shoot good scores.”
Means said the wind picked up during round two and while other teams started to shoot higher scores, Idaho stayed at even par.
But the Idaho players were still upset with how they played.
“They were not excited, they were not happy with how they had played, which I thought would bode well for the next day,” Means said.
Sure enough, the Vandals came out and fired the lowest score of the third round to win the tournament.
Players will have a few weeks off before they play in their last two tournaments of the fall season — the Price’s Give ‘Em Five Intercollegiate Oct. 23-25 in El Paso, Texas, and the Warrior Invitational Nov. 2-4 in Kauai, Hawaii.
“The two tournaments that we have left have some really good fields,” Means said. “I want to get them ready to be able to compete in those last two tournaments … I’ll give them some time off to get to their school work, get their head(s) on straight and then we’ll go back to work again.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @KorbinMcD_VN