Golf column: Idaho’s Fab Five will stop at nothing

There’s the hockey player turned golfer, Mr. Consistency, the shortest golfer in NCAA Division I, Mr. Calm and the overlooked recruit. And there’s the coach with an NCAA title on his resume and a deep belief that his team can play with the bluebloods of college golf. Meet the Idaho Vandals, who cruised to a Big Sky Conference championship by 21 strokes to secure their first trip to the NCAA regionals since 2000. Coach John Means wasn’t surprised. He’s preached to his players that the Sky isn’t the limit and somewhere along the line they began to believe him. “They had to experience some success and they finally started to see it in a different light,” Means said. “At a tournament in South Carolina they said, ‘Coach, you’re right. We can play with anybody.’” The Vandals have held their own teeing it up against many of the nation’s top 50 programs. Means thought Idaho carried a high enough ranking to qualify for regionals but the team left nothing to chance at the Big Sky tournament. The Vandals shot 8 under in the 54-hole event, breaking the tournament record by four shots. Big Sky MVP Jared du Toit, who benched his hockey stick for golf clubs at age 14, finished 8 under. He was followed on the leaderboard by teammates Aaron Cockerill at 3 under and Daniel Sutton at even par. It’s an interesting collection of players. “When I first came here I tried to do it the way they’ve done it in the past, recruiting the Northwest, but you can’t get the best players,” said Means, who won the 2002 national title at Minnesota and frequently stocked his Golden Gopher teams with international players. “They grow up with Oregon and Washington in their heads and when they go on a recruiting trip to a football game at Husky Stadium and 80,000 people are going nuts, that’s a tough thing to recruit against.” Cockerill, the lone senior, and du Toit are Canadians. Sutton is from Birmingham, England. Rylee Iacolucci is from Cle Elum, Washington, and Ryan Porch hails from Kalispell. “I don’t think you could find a better group of guys to be around,” du Toit said. “We all live in the same house except for a couple guys. It’s a really fun kind of vibe to be around.” Upon hearing Means’ take on his top five, they sound like guys you’d want to join with your weekend playing partners. On du Toit: “I’ve been coaching for 35 years and I’ve had a ton of All-Americans and players who have played professionally and he’s in the top three I’ve ever had. … He can make that golf ball dance, go high or low, left to right or right to left. When he gets around the green he has the touch of a surgeon.” Cockerill: “Mr. Consistency, he hits it down the middle, hits it on the green.” (Unfamiliar with that style of play, I pointed out that’s a tad boring. Cracked Means, “Exactly the kind of boring I’m looking for.”) Iacolucci: “He’s 5-2, the shortest player in Division I golf and all I can say is he’s a keg of dynamite. He hits the ball as long as everyone on the team except for Jared. He played in a big juniors tournament in Boise and filled out the forms and they asked for a statement about himself. He wrote, ‘Pound for pound, I hit the ball farther than Tiger Woods.’” Sutton: “Mr. Calm. He gets excited about nothing. He’s the fastest player in college golf. He tees it up, looks down the fairway and swings. He makes a double bogey, it doesn’t bother him. He makes an eagle and three birdies, it doesn’t bother him.” Porch: “I watched him play at the Rosauers (Open Invitational) and said, ‘This guy has some talent.’ He wasn’t recruited by any other program. He qualified about the third tournament of last year and he’s been in the lineup ever since.” Idaho, ranked 59th by Golfstat.com, is seeded 10th in the 13-team regional next week at The Farms near San Diego. The top five teams advance to the NCAA championships. The school considered holding a send-off event for the team but Means politely declined, feeling “this is just part of the journey.” Means thinks the Vandals have a chance in a regional that includes three teams in the top 14, including No. 3 Arizona State. He’s not alone. Top five “would be the goal,” du Toit said. “We really are starting to realize if we have our A-game we have a shot to win.”