California will begin the NCAA men’s golf championships as the favorite to win at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course. With a title, the Bears could leave as the best team in college golf history.
California has set the NCAA’s modern-era record with 11 victories in 13 tournaments this season. Their worst finish this year? Third. Their record? The team is 177-3-1 against individual teams.
Five of California’s players have won a tournament this year, a school record, as part of nine medalist honors.
“It’s pretty astounding stuff,” Bears coach Steve Desimone said.
Are the Bears as good as the Wake Forest teams in 1974 and ’75 that featured that featured Curtis Strange and Jay Haas and won back-to-back NCAA championships, with that duo swapping the NCAA’s individual title? Or any of the Oklahoma State squads that finished first or second in the NCAA championship from 1982-88, including the 1985-86 team whose record of 10 victories the Bears broke?
Desimone said if his team can win the title, he’d put them alongside those Goliaths.
“The numbers we’ve put out there are so doggone compelling, it’s pretty hard to argue,” he said.
So there’s no pressure.
Really.
The players say they are nervous only to win the title, not for any made-up crown that may come with it.
“All that best-team-ever stuff is up to the media,” Cal player Max Homa said. Homa, a senior, won the Pac-12 championship.
The Bears aren’t just a one-year wonder. They have been victorious in 17 of their past 27 events. Using a word made famous by Nick Saban at Alabama, Desimone said the Bears have followed a process.
After his team finished second in last year’s national championships to Texas, which is in this year’s field, Desimone set up this year’s schedule to play the best teams on the best courses all over the country.
They took over No. 1 after tying Georgia Tech atop the leaderboard at the PING/Golfweek Preview at the Crabapple Course in September. They followed with three consecutive victories, capped by a win at the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational, for a perfect five-for-five start. Desimone said any pressure the team may have felt was gone by then.
“These guys have been through a lot of golf, won a lot,” he said. “I feel confident that that’s (pressure) not going to be a significant issue.”
The team is balanced 1-5 in experience with a senior, three juniors and a sophomore.
Michael Kim, the No. 1 with three victories this year, is a sophomore and has a scoring average of 70.1. Brandon Hagy, the No. 5, has a scoring average of 71. Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are decimal spots in between.
In explaining their success, Desimone said the players worked to improve their short games during the offseason and make great decisions on the course during tournaments.
“We have five guys that have been tested in all sorts of competition,” he said. “They’ve been able to execute, and that’s why we are where we are.”
They also like the Crabapple course.
“We feel the golf course sets up very well for us,” Desimone said.
So the ingredients seem to be in place for a title run. The Bears have the players, they have the proven results, they have the experience and they have the course knowledge.
But if they win could they become known as the best?
Illinois coach Mike Small agrees with Desimone.
“If they’ve win this thing, they’ve got to be considered one of the best because of what they’ve done and how they are beating people,” he said.
Strange and Haas were gracious in comparing the stature of the two teams, but neither seemed ready to lose their unofficial title.
Haas said California is having a great year, but it’s difficult to compare the accomplishments of the two programs. He referenced the Deacons’ 33-stroke victory in 1975 championship, and the fact that they featured the first-, third- and fourth-place finishers.
Strange said comparing the two programs is for others to do, but added this analysis, as flat as a putter face.
“I know Cal is playing really well, but call me in three to four years, we will discuss it again,” he said.
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