MEN’S GOLF ‘mdash; Walking out of the coaches’ meeting the day before the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship, men’s golf head coach Mike Wydra was shocked and dismayed.
His team, which arrived at Paso Robles, Calif., thinking it had already qualified for next month’s NCAA Division-II Super Regionals, was thrown a curve ball yesterday afternoon: The Tritons lost their automatic berth.
The top 10 teams in the region qualify for the NCAA Division-II Super Regionals. Rankings had originally been determined by a team’s head-to-head play against other teams in the region. At the meeting, Wydra was informed that the selection committee is now considering how a team performs against other ranked teams in its region.
‘We were on a conference call and the gentleman informed us of the changes,’ Wydra said. ‘He ran down the list of teams that had qualified and we weren’t on it anymore. We should’ve known about these changes beforehand.’
The change in qualification moved the Tritons from a guaranteed spot in the Super Regionals to a win-or-go-home situation. UCSD must now win the conference tournament to qualify as a team for the Super Regionals, although two individuals have already done so. Wydra believes junior Raj Samra and sophomore Keith Okasaki’s scores should earn them a spot in the Super Regionals with senior Billy Olsen on the outside looking in. However, nothing is set in stone.
‘We won’t know anything for sure until the conference call on Thursday,’ he said.
Despite the new developments, Wydra and the Tritons are not increasing practice time, though their mindset has changed.
A shaky spring season may be one reason these changes affected the Tritons so greatly. UCSD has finished middle-of-the-pack in each tournament with its top finish, a sixth place, coming in Texas at the St. Edwards Invitational.
But seemingly mediocre finishes are skewed by the fact that UCSD plays in arguably the best conference in the nation, Wydra said.
‘So many of the teams in our conference and region are highly ranked,’ he said. ‘If we were somewhere else, we would be kicking butt right now. But the tougher conference works to our advantage as it raises our level of play. We’ve made a lot of progress [this spring] and we expect to play well this week.’
The tough conference is now the Tritons’ Achilles heel. This week’s CCAA Championship will include the No. 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 ranked teams in the Western Region, all of which the Tritons must beat to avoid missing postseason as a team for the second straight year.
‘The top teams have five players to count on while we’re still looking for a fourth and fifth,’ he said. ‘But we’re every bit as good as those top teams.’
The Tritons have experience on their side in the CCAA Championships, returning to the same Hunter Ranch Golf Course that many players have seen before. Seniors Olsen and Ryan Bailey will be making their third trip to the course; Okasaki will be making his second.
‘This course doesn’t require a lot of length off the tee,’ Bailey said. ‘It’s about course management: knowing where to place the ball off the tee and on the green to avoid big numbers. Being here before is a big help.’
But the loss of senior Nathan Phan, who could not devote the time needed to compete on the team this year, has created a big hole in the Triton lineup. Phan was the low scorer for UCSD the past two seasons at this event, finishing ninth last year and 13th the year before.
‘[Nathan] would’ve been our fifth man,’ Wydra said, referring to this season’s lineup. ‘Playing golf at a high level requires a large time commitment and he just didn’t have time. There’s no way to replace his kind of skill and character.’
Despite Phan’s exit, the Tritons still have a solid trio at the top to lead the way. Samra has played quality golf all season and is expected to play well on the Hunter Ranch course. Okasaki and Olsen will round out the top three for the Tritons.
Wydra expects freshman Justin Gabbert, who played his way into the lineup, to surprise some people this week. Team captain Bailey will round out the roster for the championships, and is helping Gabbert acclimate to the overwhelming championship atmosphere.
‘I talked to Justin last night and told him to not put any additional pressure on himself trying to justify why he is here and not other, more experienced players,’ Bailey said. ‘I told him that he is here for a reason and we already trust him. I expect Justin to be a dark horse in this tournament.’
Bailey added that the law of averages says that both he and Samra should play well this week since they have both been off their game the past few tournaments.
The Hunter Ranch Golf Course will play close to 7,000 yards, considered a medium-length course for college players today. The course features four par fives, three of which are reachable in two and one of the keys to playing well, according to Wydra.
UCSD tees off this morning at 7:30 a.m. in the first of two Monday rounds. They will play the final round on April 21.’
Readers can contact Matt Croskey at [email protected].