Tulsa Men Eye Title at WAC Golf Championships
4/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
April 23, 2002
Kahuku, Hawaii - The Tulsa men's golf team will attempt to be one stroke better at this year's Western Athletic Conference Championship. The Hurricane lost the league title by one shot a year ago, 896-897, and looks to win its first WAC crown at the George Fazio Turtle Bay Resort Golf Club, in Kahuku, Hawaii, Wednesday-Friday, April 24-26.
Tulsa is led by a trio of sophomores and one senior. The sophomore group is led by last year's WAC Champion David Inglis. As a freshman a year ago, Inglis won medallist honors and was selected as the WAC Newcomer of the Year. This year he has a team-leading 72.9 stroke average and has posted three performances among the top-6.
Fellow sophomores Chris Noel and Neil Trimm, both Oklahoma High School products, have 73.1 and 73.4 stroke averages, respectively. Noel has had five top-20 finishes this year, while Trimm has placed among the top-15 three times. The lone senior on this year's squad is Kevin Henry, who has placed among the top-20 four times.
At last year's WAC Championship in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Noel had Tulsa's second-best performance behind Inglis as he placed ninth overall. Henry finished in 116th place, while Billy Lowry, who will be Tulsa's fifth golfer at his year's WAC Championship, placed 24th overall a year ago.
The favorite to win its third WAC title is the nation's 14th-ranked Fresno State Bulldogs. Nevada is ranked 28th nationally, while SMU ranks 35th and Tulsa 46th according to the Golf Stat rankings.
Ben Hogan finalist Nick Watney will lead Fresno State. He has been ranked in the top-10 nationally all season, finishing in the top-10 in every event this spring, and winning his last outing, taking first at the BYU Cougar Classic.
SMU was one of five schools to win an invitational this season, when Jerome Theunis, first place and Brock Mulder's eighth place finishes led the Mustangs to the Louisiana Classics title. UTEP is the only other school in the field (Fresno State) to own a WAC Championship. The Miners won in a playoff against New Mexico in 1985. Miner Chris Baryla won the Herb Wimberly in March, becoming only the 11th player in school history to win a tournament.
Nevada has three top-five finishes this spring. The Wolf Pack have had four different individual leaders. Mike Haack has the best finish, tying for third at the BYU Cougar Classic this past weekend. Hawaii's best finish came at the John A. Burns Invitational, where Matt Kodoma grabbed a second place, helping the Rainbows to a second-place finish. Kodama and Norman-Ganin Asao have finished 1-2 for the Rainbows in all but one event this spring.
San Jose State is led by Issac Weintraub who became the first Spartan in six years to post consecutive sub-70 rounds in a tournament, when he shot 66-67 in the Western Intercollegiate. Rice's Ryan Morgan has been their most consistent player this season, as he either led the Owls or was their second-best finisher in each event. Freshman Matt Toohney finished eighth at the USD invite, helping the Owls to their best finish at fourth.
