Golf works to improve
Published Feb. 23, 2007
The MU men's golf team could be headed toward the same slippery slope as last fall. After placing 14th out of 18 teams at its first spring season tournament, the Rio Pinar Intercollegiate, it is looking as though the spring might be a repeat of the team's lackluster fall, despite its talent.
Team members are quick to admit their performance was poor, and they certainly aren't blaming anyone but themselves. They aren't even blaming the uncooperative Missouri weather, which severely hindered practice time before the tournament.
"It's been hard to practice efficiently with the weather, but I don't like to use that as an excuse," senior John Kelly said. "I just played poorly."
But the players aren't giving up yet. They are confident that with some hard work and a lucky break, MU can pull itself out of the hole it has dug.
"I think it sets us back a little bit, but it's not something that's going to kill us," sophomore Ryne Fisher said. "I think we're going to learn from it and get some good practicing with the better weather for the next two weeks until we go back down to Florida."
Senior Shawn Jasper agrees with his teammate and said each tournament is a new beginning.
"Golfers tend to have pretty short-term memories, so I don't think that will affect the way we approach the rest of the season," Jasper said. "Even if we played well in this tournament, we'd still have to play well again throughout the spring."
Coach Mark Leroux said he has faith in his team and doesn't think the problem was bad golf, just not great golf.
"Nobody was terrible," Leroux said. "It's just that nobody was good. It's the difference of a shot or two each. If each guy was one or two shots better each round, that would translate into 12 or 15 shots. Then we're right there at fifth place."
The team won't have any momentum coming off a loss going into the next tournament, but Leroux has a thing or two planned to turn things around.
"It's the mentality, or the psyche of golf," Leroux said. "Everybody feels like they have to break par to be any good. When in fact, if they just shot one or two over, we'd be awful good. So (it's) just understanding that it doesn't have to be great every time, just average."
Redshirt freshman Bud Reynolds led the Tigers with his three-round total of 222, garnering a tie for 33rd place. But Reynolds isn't celebrating his finish.
"I didn't think it was that difficult of a course, so I wasn't very pleased (with my play)," Reynolds said.
The next two weeks until the team's next tournament in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., will be spent concentrating on the short game, which was the biggest problem for all five who played in the Rio Pinar.
"(We have to) work on our short game as much as possible," Fisher said. "That's what goes away the most. We've really got to work on that — three or four hours at least a day."
