Pepperdine men’s golf team receives impressive performances from all five players en route to a third-place finish at New Mexico tournament.
SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Sports Editor
Despite losing six players from last season, the Pepperdine men’s golf team got off to a solid start of the 2006-07 campaign when the brand-new team captured third place at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate in Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday.
For their season-opening event, the Waves traveled across three states and performed skillfully to post a 54-hole score of 13-over 877,
Shooting merely three shots better than Pepperdine, host New Mexico claimed a victory with a 10-over 874, followed by Brigham Young’s 875.
New Mexico’s Charlie Beljan won individual medalist honors with an impressive 6-under 210 and edged UNLV’s Jarred Texter, who finished one shot behind Beljan.
Pepperdine junior Jesse Barnsley began the tournament slowly but ended with a remarkable 4-under 68, the only sub-par round by a Wave during the tournament. Barnsley led the Waves by posting a 1-over 217, which gave him a finish in the Top 10.
Pepperdine also received solid performances from freshmen Shane Mason and Carl Smith, who posted a 3-over 219 to tie for 11th and a 5-over 221 to tie for the 20th, respectively.
Even though last week’s event was the first college tournament for Mason, he was able to keep his scores low by playing smart golf, he said.
“It was definitely nerve-racking because you want to play well for your teammates,” Mason said. “And there is definitely a lot more pressure in college golf than high school golf.”
Before he came to Pepperdine in August, Mason won a number of junior golf tournaments, mostly in his hometown, San Diego. Even with those accomplishments and the fact that he was able to compete and play well at his first college golf event, he remained humble.
“We are a young team, and qualifying for my first event was a thrill and something I didn’t really even expect,” he said. “So right now, I just feel really excited. It’s just so much fun to be playing college golf, especially here at Pepperdine, which has history of a great program.”
Asked about the biggest difference between high school and college golf, Mason did not hesitate.
“The quality of the competition,” he said. “Every guy on the team who’s playing college golf is the best guy in his high school team, and there is so much talent that you can’t relax out there because the qualities of the tournaments are so good.”
He also said the difficulty of the set-up is just head-and-shoulders above of junior or high school golf, at least for the one tournament that he played in.
Recognizing the differences between the old and the new, Mason said his main individual goal for the season is to focus on the teamwork, rather than individual results or accomplishments.
“My goal coming into this year is to improve every single day and just to focus on getting better because I know if I do that, I’ll help the team,” he said. “That’s what’s college golf is about.”
As a team goal, Mason named the national championships to be the final destination of this season.
“Main goal for the team is to compete in the national championships and to be in contention going into the last day,” he said. “If we are in contention going in to the last day in the national championships, it’s all been worthwhile.”
The Waves are next in action Oct. 14, when they travel and compete at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate in Jonesborough, Tenn.
09-28-2006
