Colorado University Athletics
GOLFERS SET FOR BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
April 23, 2004 | Men's Golf
BOULDER - The University of Colorado men's golf team brings a first, second and fourth place finishes in its last three tournaments into the 8th Annual Big 12 Conference Championships, which begin Monday in Hutchinson, Kan.
The last time the Buffaloes had a comparable run heading into a league meet? Try never. Thought the Buffs have their share of spring successes, when CU won the Western Intercollegiate last month, it marked just the third time it won a tournament in the spring since it last won a conference title, the 1968 Big Eight Championships. So that victory in Santa Cruz has sent CU in a positive direction heading into the Big 12 meet, or so hopes head coach Mark Simpson.
"I really believe we're starting to play our best golf, and our best results could very well be ahead of us," he said. "I would consider our best tournament at Purdue (where CU finished second), even though we won the Western, because I think we played better in Indiana and feel like we are peaking. Our focus is to play our best at the end of the year when your best is needed, at the conference and NCAA championships."
Colorado enters the meet ranked No. 29 (GCAA Coaches poll), No. 31 (Golfweek) and No. 32 (GolfStat) in the country in the most recent rankings, all as of late last week. There are nine consensus top 50 teams participating in this year's title meet (nine of Golfweek's top 39 are Big 12 schools), making the conference one of, if not the, premier golfing league in the nation at least at this point of the season. Four are consensus top 25 (GCAA rank): Oklahoma State (#7), Texas (#9), Oklahoma (#20) and Kansas (#24)
Senior captains Kane Webber, the conference stroke average leader (71.03), and Jeff Hanson along with sophomores Kenny Coakley, Edward McGlasson and Blake Moore make up the quintet that will represent the Buffaloes for the 54-hole meet at the always challenging 6,596-yard, par-70 Prairie Dunes Country Club course.
Last year, the Buffaloes were largely comprised of true freshmen, as Webber was redshirting and senior Stephen Carroll joined Hanson as the only upperclassmen on the team who were competing. There were growing pains with such a young lineup, but the Buffs held their own as Simpson knew he'd be looking toward the future with a solid, experienced team.
"One of the things is we have six solid guys competing for five spots," explained Simpson. "So the competition has been tremendous, no one gets complacent because everyone wants to keep their spot, and that's been a very key component to this team. Each of the sophomores has developed in different ways, and that's very gratifying from a coaching staff to see them get better. We have good chemistry, the guys support each other, and another important factor has been the leadership by our two seniors. That might very well be the biggest reason for our success, as Kane and Jeff have set quality examples both on and off the course.
"You can't underestimate what they've meant to the development of this team, both as freshmen last year and this season."
Only Webber has played Prairie Dunes before, and he's proven fairly adept at it as he tied for 11th in 2000 (218), for seventh in 2001 (227) and was 17th in 2002 (219). Thus in nine career rounds, he owns a 73.78 stroke average on the layout, one of the tougher tracks on the college circuit. However, Hanson, McGlasson and Moore all played in last year's Big 12 meet at Southern Hills in Tulsa, while Coakley, a transfer from Oregon State, played in the '03 Pacific 10 Conference championship.
CU tied for sixth last year, as only Oklahoma State and Texas have finished in the first division all seven times in Big 12 meet history; Colorado and Oklahoma are next with five top six efforts. CU's best efforts are a pair of third place finishes in 1998 and 2000.
What are CU's chances for that elusive first conference win in Simpson's 28 years as a head coach? "We've played pretty well all spring, but you never really know," he said. "We haven't seen some teams enough to really know what they're all about. It's hard to go strictly by results, but I would think we have a decent chance to finish in the top of the conference. Golf is fickle; our focus is to keep getting better and let the chips fall where they may. This isn't the most important tournament of the year, the NCAA Championships are. But it's the second most important one, though, and we need to use it as a stepping stone."
The format calls for 36 holes on Monday, as the two rounds begin with a shotgun start at 7:00 a.m. (MDT) off the 1st and 10th tees, with Tuesday's final round also set for a 7 a.m. MDT start. Colorado is paired with Kansas and Kansas State first day and starts on No. 10 at 7:50 a.m.; schools were paired based on where they were predicted in order of finish by the coaches.
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