Sporting what were supposed to be lucky mustaches, the Idaho men’s golf team traveled down to El Paso, Texas, to compete in the Price’s Give ‘Em Five Invitational Friday and Saturday. The team won the tournament last year while sporting mustaches. They went to El Paso with the same game plan this year but unfortunately, it didn’t work this time.
Idaho coach John Means said this was the Vandals toughest field of competition so far this season. The Vandals finished in eighth place out of 15 teams and finished with a score of 868. The Vandals had consistent rounds of 290, 289 and 289.
Idaho’s top finisher, freshman Rylee Iacolucci, was a large contributor to that consistency with his rounds of 71, 70 and 71. He continued his stellar play this season by finishing tied for 11th place with a 4-under-par 212. Iacolucci was also Idaho’s top finisher at the Dash Thomas Invitational on Sept. 24 where he finished fourth.
Junior Aaron Cockerill and freshman Jared du Toit were Idaho’s next highest scorers who tied for 27th with a 2-over-par 218. Junior Garrett Howard tied for 55th with an 8-over-par 224 and senior Alex Pounds tied for 64th with an 11-over-par 227 to round out the Idaho top five.
New Mexico State won the tournament with a 28-under-par 836. The individual winner was Martin Simonsen from Texas-El Paso with a
12-under-par 204.
The loss this brings the Vandals record with the mustaches to 1-1, and puts the mustache tradition
in jeopardy.
Idaho will be back in action next week when they travel down to Kauai, Hawaii to compete in the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational for its last tournament of the fall season.