If the men’s golf team want’s to qualify for the NCAA regional tournament, head coach George Means said they will need to win the WAC Championship. Before turning its attention to the WAC, the focus will be on the last regular season tournament.
The Vandals will be fine-tuning their game and getting ready for the WAC Championship April 17 through April 19 in Sacramento, Calif., at the Winchester Invitational.
“We want to compete to win,” Means said. “But the goal is to get all of the guys — all of them, feeling comfortable and confident about themselves heading into the conference championship.”
After struggling to play consistent golf during the fall season, Means said he’s been happier with the play in the spring. He thinks at times they have been as good as any team in the country, then at other times the quality has been poor.
Somewhat of a surprise this spring has been the play of Ryan Porch, Means said. The freshman from Kalispell, Mont., earned WAC golfer of the week honors, after he led Idaho to a third place finish at the Wyoming Desert Invitational. Porch finished at 7-under par and tied for third overall.
“Once we put Ryan Porch in the lineup, everything changed,” Means said. “Ryan was able to step up to the plate. That’s something I didn’t think he was going to be able to do, but he proved me wrong, which is great. I love to be proved wrong in that way.”
After playing in only one tournament during the fall, Porch has played in all four of the spring tournaments and will be making his fifth appearance this weekend.
“It’s fun,” Porch said of his freshman season. “It’s different for sure, but it’s really exciting every tournament. You have something to look forward to, new kids to play against and the competition has been really good.”
The course in Sacramento is similar to the one they struggled on earlier in the season, in Eugene, Ore., at the Oregon Duck Invitational. Means said he changed the practice schedule in preparation for the event to see if it would make a difference.
A win in this tournament won’t have a big effect in terms of rankings and qualifying for regionals — but the tournament is still important to the men’s golf team, Porch said.
“This being the last tournament before the WAC, you want to get everything feeling pretty good,” Porch said. “You got to play it one tournament at a time, but I think we’ve been pretty set on that we want to win the WAC regardless, because that’s been our goal since the beginning of the season.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]