The Matadors teed off with the season opener on Sept. 10, finishing last at the Palouse Collegiate. This was their first visit to the Palouse Ridge Golf Club, where they all struggled to hit under par.
After two days, the Matadors would finish with a 35-over par, compared to the University of Nevada, who finished with a team overall of 2-over par.
”We’re an extremely young team. It’s a whole new squad, and I think it was a little jitters,” said Coach Jim Bracken. “To be honest, we did not play well, so the course was not extremely difficult. I mean, you could tell that by the scores of the whole field, except for we were just kind of a distant part of the field.”
With the new season, Felix Schrott, Brandon McDonough, and Eirik Thomassen are notable departures. Their talent will be sorely missed, as their averages for last season were 71.24 strokes, 73.12 strokes, and 73.19 strokes, respectively.
The newest additions to the m Matadors are Nick Fry, Tavin Bowman, and Bryson Barnes, all freshmen to replace their output. Two new transfers, Yuo Torii and Domenic De Luca from the College of the Desert and College of the Canyons, round out the latest reinforcements.
De Luca was the shining lead for the m Matadors. He began the first round with 3-under 71 but faltered to a 5 and 3 over par to finish the last two rounds. He placed 59th out of the 90 players. The rest of the team would waver and not come close to De Luca’s efforts.
”Being a student-athlete has its ups and downs,” said De Luca. “This was a down for us, and I think I speak for the whole team when I say we need to get on our horses and grind in preparation for our next event at Air Force Academy.”
First-year player Barnes would place 78th and finish as the second-best m Matador after the three rounds. He did begin the first round well, striking the ball for four birdies but ending the round on one under par. He ended his tournament on par and overall finished with 9-over par.
Freshman Nick Fry and sophomore Liam Judkins had middling performances that ended with them placing 84th and 85th. Fry struck the ball well in certain holes for two birdies but ended his second day with an 11-over par. Judkins experienced the same struggles as he would prod the ball for four birdies in the first round, but it was not enough as it would place him 12-over par.
Making his debut for the Matadors for the individual competition, Torii would have a cold game with all rounds over par, with his best being a 2-over par and placing 87th. The second longest-tenured matador, sophomore Dillon Jonke, endured a second-to-last place finish, placing 89th with a 23-over par.
“Stay positive, just work hard and improve every tournament,” said Coach Bracken. “Hopefully, by the time we get into the spring and get towards the end of the season that we’re ready to hopefully be competitive at the conference championship.”
The Matadors will head out to Colorado for the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational from Sept. 21-23.
