The Idaho men’s golf team was out in full force Tuesday afternoon, braving the elements to gear up for the tournament down in Boise Monday to Tuesday at the Dash Thomas Invitational. The Tuesday rain was good preparation for the Vandals as the forecast calls for rain in their opening round on Monday.
“Rain by itself actually makes the golf course a little easier, because your bad shots don’t run away from you.” Idaho coach John Means said. “The key of when it’s raining is staying dry.”
The team looks to build off the fourth-place finish it took in the opening tournament, in Pullman at the Itani Invitational last week. Coach Means, isn’t one bit satisfied with that, and is looking for better results, and of couple players to step up.
“We need to find a five guy, both Rylee (Iacolucci) and Jared (du Toit) played in their first tournament last week and they played very well,” Means said. “I am a little disappointed in Aaron (Cockerill), I thought he would shoot a little lower score than he did. But they are all in good shape mentally, and ready to go down there and compete.”
They will be playing at a much easier course than their previous tournament at Palouse Ridge. Banbury Golf Course in Boise has seen its fair share of low scores, and the Vandals will look to take advantage.
“It is a nice golf course, it’s very score-able,” Means said.
The majority of the Idaho team has never played at Banbury. One of the few that has firsthand knowledge of the course is sophomore Rylee Iacolucci.
“Banbury has water on almost every single hole,” Iacolucci said. “It’s not too long but it has trouble on either side of the fairway, so if you hit your tee shot off line you can get into a lot of trouble.”
The Vandals play rival Boise State in the tournament. This might be tough for the Broncos’ coach, seeing as he was a Vandal.
Kevin Burton spent his college days in Moscow attending UI and graduated in 1986. He went on to play professionally before settling in Boise. Burton has been the head coach of the Broncos since 2005.
“He’s a Vandal, he played on the tour, and his daughter goes to school here,” Means said. “Truth be known he wears black, gold and silver underwear.”
Don’t let the friendly face on the other team fool you — the players are not taking this rivalry lightly. Du Toit has even embraced the rivalry.
“We’ll let the playing do the talking,” He said. “Number one priority will always be to win the tournament, but beating Boise State will be a nice little cherry on top.”
The Vandals travel down to Boise early Saturday morning to get a couple of practice rounds in, before they start play on Monday.
As for expectations for the tournament, they are quite simple.
“Get a ‘W’, a ‘W’ for the Vandals,” Means said.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at arg-sports.uidaho.edu