Texas State men’s golf is set to tee off for the Sun Belt Conference Championship in Madison, Mississippi, at the Annandale Golf Club Monday to Thursday.
Despite playing well in tournaments, the team has been unable to come home with a tournament win so far this season. The team’s best placings have been this past fall with fourth place finishes at the the Kapolei Invitational and Hal Williams Collegiate.
“We’ve been close this year to really putting together a good performance,” head coach Shane Howell said. “Two of our biggest fields through 27 holes we’ve been up near the top of the lead and then kind of fallen off a little bit.”
In order to put together a strong performance, the team has been practicing as they normally would. Jack Burke said the team has been practicing and keeping a good mentality to try and make it to the match play.
“As far as the team goes, we just really want to give our best efforts to play some really good golf,” Burke said. “We’ve proved ourselves in pieces this year that we could play some really good golf, but we haven’t put it together for three rounds just yet. I think as a team our goal at conference is put three really good rounds of golf together and hopefully make it to match play and see how the dominoes fall.”
The team has been practicing as they usually would and sticking to their usual routine. Each individual player has their own practice plan they follow and have been discussing course strategy.
“A lot of it is the same what we always do, we don’t try to make it any bigger than it is, obviously it is a big week,” Howell said. “Something we’ve been working for all year, but we want to stay consistent in our routine as well.”
Ben Loveard said that everything the team has done this season has been in preparation for the conference tournament.
“Every practice, every qualifying event, and it’s all learning experiences,” Loveard said. “It’s all chances to improve yourself and to get better. I almost think you can’t rely on just the week before conference. Every bit of work we’ve put in for the whole season is what matters and we’ve just got to trust that we’ve done our job correctly and trust the process. I think we have a good opportunity this week.”
The team strives to make it to the match play rounds, which determines who will be titled the Sun Belt Conference Champion and move onto NCAA Regionals.
Howell said he believes Burke can obtain an individual victory to cap off his senior season after the strong season he’s put up so far.
“He hasn’t got a college victory yet, he’s been close a few times and it’d be great for him to get that first college victory at the conference tournament this week,” Howell said.
The conference championship started round one early Monday morning.
Through the first 18 holes, Jack Burke shot the lowest among the Bobcats with an even 72. Ben Loveard fired 3-over 75 and Jaxson Donaldson carded 4-over 76. Joel Talusen shot 7-over 79.
Due to inclement weather, round one will continue Tuesday morning before the second round of 18 holes. Sakke Siltala tees off on hole 18 to finish round one before round two.
