Ewu Golfers Shoot For The Sky Eagles’ Men, Women Play Host To Conference Tournaments

For the first time since joining the league in 1983, Eastern Washington University is serving as the host school for the Big Sky Conference Golf Championships, which open their three-day run today.

The men will stage their 54-hole event at the 6,866-yard, par-72 MeadowWood Golf Course, while the women play their championship at the 6,164-yard, par-72 Liberty Lake Golf Course.

Six men’s teams and eight women’s teams are entered, and Eastern expects to figure prominently in both championships.

The Eagle men, led by junior transfer Darin Vaughan, are expected to battle Weber State for the team title. Weber should also be among the top finishers in the women’s team competition, with Northern Arizona and EWU among other schools most likely to contend.

Vaughan, a Mead graduate who played on three Class AAA state title teams in high school, is coming off a runner-up finish in last week’s Wolf Pack Invitational in Reno, Nev.

The transfer from Nevada is one of three Spokane players who will compete for the Eagles, who have finished no lower than 10th in each of the five tournaments they have played this fall. The others are Kyle Kelly and Scott Carroll, who are both capable of challenging Vaughan for medalist honors.

“But Darin is the big favorite going in,” said Jamie Hanna, the third-year coach of both the Eagles’ men’s and women’s teams and an assistant pro at Indian Canyon Golf Course.

“We’re really confident right now,” said Vaughan, who originally enrolled at Oregon State and spent two seasons playing for the Beavers before transferring to Nevada in 1994. “We have the opportunity to do really well. If we play to our potential, we should win.”

Vaughn, who works at Liberty Lake during the off-season, played in the Oregon Open earlier this summer and finished third in a field comprised of the top professionals in the Pacific Northwest.

“I played with some really good players,” he said of his low-amateur finish, “and I played well against them. It did wonders for my confidence.”

Vaughan, a scratch golfer, said he’s not sure what it will take to win the Big Sky individual title.

“But my expectations for myself are pretty high right now,” he added, “so if I was even par, I wouldn’t be happy.”

Hanna said her men’s team has started well in nearly every tourney, but has had a tendency to throw in one poor round per outing.

“I need three acceptable rounds out of everybody this time,” she said. “And I have an advantage in that my people know these golf courses, because they play out here all the time.”

Liberty Lake presents a different challenge for the women, who will play from the middle tees to a distance more than 700 yards shorter than the men’s.

The course features fairways that are more narrow than MeadowWood, along with much smaller greens. But the rough is not nearly as treacherous.

Hanna said she expects her top two players, Yakima’s Beth Carter and local standout Brenda Hall, to be among the top competitors in the women’s medalist race.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Tee times The men start today at 10 a.m. and will resume at 9 a.m. Monday and Tuesday. The women tee off at 9 a.m. each day.