Golf: Cajuns start off season with win at USM event

Daily Advertiser, Dan McDonald, making the turn, September 10, 2013
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What a difference a year, or maybe an off-season of hard work, can make.

How else to explain UL’s Ragin’ Cajun golf team, which struggled for much of the 2012-13 season. Now, only one week into its fall campaign, the Cajuns already have their first team win in almost four years, and the prospects are for much more.

After all, the squad that coach Theo Sliman put on the course Monday and Tuesday at the Sam Hall Intercollegiate Tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss., included four sophomores and one freshman, with one of the sophomores making his collegiate debut.

“I never really come in with expectations,” Sliman said, “especially for a first tournament of the season. But last week the competition at home was pretty promising. We went through a four-round qualifier and I was really pleased that we were competitive through six guys. That gave me some confidence as a coach.”

His players justified that confidence. The Cajuns set a tournament record on Monday’s opening 36-hole day with scores of 281-272, their 15-under 553 total the lowest in the event’s long history. That was good enough for a four-stroke lead over the field.

On Tuesday, UL held off a charge from both Mississippi State and South Alabama, finishing with a final 15-under 837 score and a narrow one-stroke win over the Bulldogs (838) and a six-stroke win over USA (843) – a team they were virtually tied with early in Tuesday’s final round.

“I’d be lying if I said I thought we’d shoot what we did and win the tournament,” Sliman said, “but I wasn’t shocked that we played well. To go through four years of drought and not coming home with the hardware, and now to see it come with such a young group, it’s pretty special.”

The team victory was the Cajuns’ first since the 2009 fall season when UL, in its second season under Sliman, captured the Carter Plantation Invitational in Springfield. It also came after a 2012-13 season in which UL had only one finish above eighth place as a team.

Just as stunning as the win was the scoring. UL didn’t have to use a score above 73 in any of the three rounds, and in Monday’s sterling second round the “throw-out” score (the best four scores from a five-man team are used in college golf) was even par.

“To throw the numbers we threw … that eraser score was right there with the scores we were counting in every round,” Sliman said.

Freshman Fernando Cruz Valle of The Woodlands, Texas, led the way in the event with a 69-66-71–206 score, finishing tied for fifth in the individual chase. Sophomore first-time player Haraldur Magnus of Iceland was close behind at 68-68-73–209 and sophomore Ross Davis of Baton Rouge was one more stroke back at 71-71-68–210.

That threesome finished in the top 16 individually, but the key to the win was consistent scores throughout the lineup. Sophomore Christian Verrougstraete of Reunion Island was at 73-70-72–215, turning in two counting scores, while sophomore Thomas Strandemo of the golf hotbed of Fargo, N.D., had a middle-round 68 in his three-day 217 score.

Even redshirt freshman Jason Noto of Luling, who was UL’s sixth man and playing as an individual, rallied from an opening 76 to finish at 71-72 over the final two rounds and played Tuesday’s final seven hole in three-under.

“I told them Monday night that I didn’t care about win, lose or draw,” Sliman said. “We weren’t worried about results, we needed to worry about the process, stick to the game plan and not get caught up in results. And they did a wonderful job.”

Sliman always preaches for teams to finish strong, and to make their final six holes of each round their best holes, and late heroics definitely came into play Tuesday. Davis, who had four birdies and a lone bogey in a final-round 68, made a huge par on the 18th to keep the Cajuns in front. Then, two groups later, Cruz Valle was in the final threesome on the course, and his playing partners from MSU and USA had already holed out while he looked at a downhill 10-foot right-to-left birdie putt.

Nobody knew at the time that the Cajuns and the Bulldogs were virtually tied, but Cruz Valle holed what turned out to be the winning birdie with the tournament’s final stroke.

“To have it come down to one shot,” Sliman said. “We didn’t know the standings, but I knew it was big.”

In fact, two of the Cajuns birdied and four parred on the final hole.

“Our two new additions (Cruz Valle and Magnus) I was really pleased with,” Sliman said. “And Christian, Ross, Thomas and Jason, this shows what they’ve done over the summer between their freshman and sophomore years.”

The Cajuns can’t rest on their laurels very long, turning back around next Monday-Tuesday in the Regional Preview tourney hosted by Missouri.

“We’ll take Wednesday off,” Sliman said, “but when Thursday 6 a.m. workouts come back around, we’re going to get back in the mindset of getting ready. Champions enjoy it for 24 hours, and then it’s back to business.”