GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The 14th-ranked Pepperdine men’s golf team had a rough couple of days at the CordeValle Collegiate in San Martin, Calif. Not only did the Waves finish in the middle of the pack in a vaunted tournament field, the team’s van was stolen from a hotel parking lot the night before the tournament’s practice round.
Pepperdine finished in 10th place at 14-over-par, 29 shots behind tournament champion UCLA. The Waves struggled to find the stroke as a team on the first two days before locking in on the final day, according to redshirt sophomore Michael Baird.
“As a team, we didn’t play up to our potential,” Baird said. “The final round we played better, but it was too little too late.”
Pepperdine opened the tournament Monday with an eight-over-par 296 in the first round and followed it up with a six-over 294. In Tuesday’s final round, the team shot an even-par 288.
Baird said that even though the team didn’t play as well as it had hoped, the course set up was so much fun to play that it was still a good tournament.
“The course was in unbelievably great shape and it was a really fun tournament to play in,” Baird said. “It’s probably one of my favorite college events so far. The greens were perfect and really fast, some of the fastest I’ve ever putted on.”
Baird and senior teammate Alex Coe were the two top finishers for the Waves, tying for 23rd at two-over-par. Junior J.J. Wood finished in a tie for 47th, sophomore Colin Wilcox tied for 58th and freshman Adam Porzak, in his collegiate debut, finished tied for 72nd. Baird said he was only a few shots away from a much higher finish.
“I played consistently but I felt like I could have finished much higher if I had played a little better,” Baird said. “I was only six shots out of second place, and over 54 holes that is nothing.”
The story of the tournament, though, was the theft of the team’s van from the parking lot at the Hilton in Gilroy, Calif. According to Baird, team members were confused at first about what had happened, but broken glass in the parking lot tipped them off to what occurred.
“We went outside on the morning of the practice round and our van was not where we parked it,” Baird said. “We thought someone was playing a prank on us until we saw broken glass in the spot where it was.”
Baird said Coe’s dad, who was tagging along with the team, had to take all of the team members to the course for the tournament while Head Coach John Geiberger filled out a police report. The all-white van wouldn’t be easily spotted, according to Baird. The only personal items lost in the theft were a couple of pairs of shoes, he said.
The tournament was Pepperdine’s last of the fall season. The Waves begin their spring season Jan. 30 when the team travels to Tucson, Ariz., to play in the PING Arizona Intercollegiate.
11-03-2005