New Mexico men’s golf will tee off at home in the first and only regular season home tournament today.
The William H. Tucker Intercollegiate event will take place Friday and Saturday at the University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course.
The team has a different look after losing four seniors. While UNM might have lost a lot of leadership, the expectations remain high. The latest rankings had the lobos ranked 23rd in the country.
Glen Millican, himself a UNM alumnus, has been coaching the UNM men’s golf team for 14 seasons and enjoyed much success along the way. Millican said he believes the players have strengths that will allow them to compete against any field.
“The strength of our team is probably ball striking. I think we have a great team from tee to green,” Millican said. “I don’t think there’s going to be teams that will hit the ball further or better than we do.”
Millican said he thinks the team’s identity will reveal itself as the season unfolds. He said the team responded well to adversity in the first event after perhaps putting too much pressure on themselves the first day.
“As we go along, I think we’ll find out who we are. We do have some new guys that are trying to figure things out,” he said.
Junior Andrej Bevins said that although the team lost a lot of senior leadership, he is looking forward to this team establishing its own identity.
“We lost Gavin [Green], Victor [Perez], Shawn [Romero] and Sam [Saunders]. It’s quite different; it’s a young team now,” Bevins said. “There’s a lot of things to learn, but I’m pretty excited about that.”
Bevins said he believes the Lobos will benefit from playing at its home course this weekend, especially if adverse conditions present themselves.
“It’s a big advantage. We play this course every day and we know what to do and where to place shots. The tougher the conditions are, the better we’re gonna play,” he said.
Bevins said the leadership role will fall on the shoulders of everybody. He said the game of golf requires complete mental focus and worrying about things of that nature will just put added pressure where it isn’t needed.
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“I need to grow and become that. I think I can do that better through my golf game. If I can lead by example, that’s the best impact I can have,” Bevins said.
Junior Andre Garcia said that although the team lost a lot of players during the offseason, that turnover won’t be expected to happen again this year.
“We only have one senior who would be leaving after this year. We brought in four new guys, so it’s a whole new team. We’re a really close knit group and very hard working,” Garcia said.
Garcia said everything feels pretty new with so many different faces on the team, but he is enthusiastic about the team’s chances.
“I have very high hopes for this year. Even though we’re young and maybe a little inexperienced compared to other teams, I think it’s going to be a very good year,” he said.
William H. Tucker Intercollegiate field
- Arizona Wildcats
- Bowling Green Falcons
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Colorado State Rams
- Denver Pioneers
- Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
- New Mexico Lobos
- New Mexico State Aggies
- Nevada WolfPack
- TCU Horned Frogs
- UTEP Miners
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- UNLV Runnin' Rebels
- San Diego Toreros
- San Diego State Aztecs
- Wyoming Cowboys
Robert Maler is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
