Swinging into School History
National championship hopes for CSUMB
Samuel Pereria, Staff Reporter
spereira@csumb.edu
The CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB) men’s golf team finished tied for fourth in the Central/ West Region 4 Golf Championships. This finish qualifies them for the Division two National Golf Championship tournament on May 17-21 at the Sagamore Golf Club in Noblesville, Indiana.
Coming into the region tournament, coach Jason Owens thought the team was “comfortable.” “We have been very focused on making it to nationals and then from there we will see what happens,” said Owens.
Junior, Kinesiology major Scott Yaekel held the same mindset through the three-day tournament. “My mindset was just to play well, you know, take care of myself and my business out there. The whole team would come together if we all did that,” said Yaekel.
Yaekel finished the tournament tied for ninth, shooting a four-over par 220 through the three rounds. Senior, Business Administration major John Jackson finished at six-over par, which tied him for 22 in the tournament. Freshman Dylan Jackson shot seven-over par to tie for 27 place.
These individual performances qualified the Otters to participate in the National Championship tournament. This is the first opportunity in school history for a CSUMB team to have a chance to compete for a National title.
Although coach Owens is looking at the tournament as a chance to compete with some of the best teams around the country, he believes the team is “poised to make a great run at a championship.”
“We want to win,” Yaekel said. The way to achieve this comes from their experience from their CCAA Championship win and from their success in the Regional tournament.
“I think [our chances] are pretty good if we could all go in there and just take care of ourselves, just like I said,” said Yaekel. “If we all go out there and just try to shoot and even par round we should have a good chance of winning.”
One of the main keys to success for the Otters is looking deeper into the physical part of the game and also looking into their minds for help. “As I told this group when I took over two years ago, we will be more mentally tough and it will push us over the edge,” said coach Owens.
This year, they began the season in the fall slowly, but he does not foresee that for a more experienced team next year. After some wins in the spring and an individual win for Yaekel, the team’s confidence boosted and that is where it remains. As for next year, Yaekel thinks that the team will be more confident
They hope that they can carry this confidence into next season and share it with incoming freshman and transfer students.