UW men rally for golf title
WALLA WALLA – Washington State University golf coach Walt Williams knew his 2005 men’s team wouldn’t be good enough to win a conference title. Instead, he was just hoping for a decent finish at the Pac-10 tournament.
Williams’ Cougars, hosts of the tourney, limped to the finish Wednesday and finished in ninth place, three shots ahead of Oregon State despite entering the tournament as the lowest-ranked team in the conference.
Washington stunned the field, in particular Arizona State, by moving up 17 strokes from fifth to first on the last day, winning the team title via a tiebreaker over the Sun Devils. The Huskies’ Erik Olson fired a third-straight sub-70 round to win the individual championship by a shot.
Sophomore Alex Prugh of Spokane had the Huskies’ lowest round of the day, firing a 3-under-par 68 to finish at even-par 284. He finished tied with teammate James Lepp for 10th place.
The championship marked the fourth time the Huskies have won the conference title, winning titles in 1961 and 1963 under different conference names. The Huskies were also Pac-10 Conference champs in 1988.
WSU was pleased with its finish.
“The kids held on, bogeyed a few holes coming in and made it closer than it had to be, but for the most part played pretty well and a finished a little bit above their seed,” Williams said. “We stuck fairly close to Cal and some teams that are ranked way ahead of us. I’m certainly not disappointed.”
The Cougars had an advantage in this year’s tournament as the host school at Walla Walla Country Club. WSU had played the course about 10 times this year and played like it had an edge in the early rounds, standing in fifth place after Monday’s first two rounds before slipping in the last 36 holes.
The Cougars said they were thrilled to play so close to home despite the plus-38 team total.
“This was the highlight of the year. It was so fun,” said junior David Fern, a Mead graduate. “We’re not close to campus, but it didn’t matter because so many faculty members, friends and family members came out here.
“More than anything, we learned the first two days that we can play with anybody. So we don’t lose anybody this year, and we can come back next year and hopefully finish in the top five of the Pac-10.”
Fern’s optimism was echoed by Williams because WSU was playing two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen in this tournament, so all six players should return.
“I looked at this whole season knowing that we weren’t going to be very good because we’re young and have a lot of inexperienced players, a lot of new players trying to blend together,” Williams said. “I didn’t think we’d be very good early, and certainly we weren’t. It took a little longer than I expected but we did start coming around in April. The guys starting getting along and playing better, shooting some better scores.”
But WSU didn’t have a single round in the 80s during the Pac-10 tournament, and freshman Jordan Mason’s 6-over 290 was his best tournament finish of the year. It was also the team’s second-best score behind junior Kevin Chen’s 289.
Scores shot up late Wednesday as the wind took center stage, hurting WSU and a number of other teams. Washington benefited as their early tee times meant finishing the round before a morning still turned into 35 mph gusts. Arizona State, on the other hand, was just halfway through its round when the winds kicked up, and its sizeable lead vanished.
“The wind was just howling down the stretch for the final groups,” said Olson, a diabetic who checked his blood sugar on the 16th tee to make sure his nerves weren’t getting the best of him as he shot a 69. “We got a lucky break with the tee times.”
The Cougars’ early tee times didn’t hurt them as much in the standings, as Oregon State’s players were paired with them. Moreover, it gave Williams yet another reason to start thinking about 2005-06.
“We played pretty well with the exception of today’s back nine because of the wind,” he said. “I think this is a good group and I’m glad to have them back.”