MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas; well, not this time!
West Virginia’s 11-stroke team victory yesterday at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada, was noteworthy for a couple of different reasons.
For starters, WVU’s team score of 271 tied the lowest 54-hole score in school history. And, it gave the Mountaineers their first tournament victory since winning the Mountaineer Invitational last April.
“The scores were record-setting,” coach Sean Covich said. “It was like video game golf with some of the best scores I’ve ever seen.”
Senior Mark Goetz shot 15-under par for the tournament to record the third tournament victory of his career and his first away from his home course, Pete Dye Golf Club. He was able to win the event against a solid field that included 35th-ranked Anton Albers from Arkansas Little Rock.
“I think this one meant a lot to him to show that he could win at a totally different golf course,” Covich said.
More importantly for the team, West Virginia picked up 13 sorely needed wins to boost its overall record to 40-26-2. The Mountaineers were only 27-26-2 and sitting at 75th in the latest Golfstat team rankings heading into the tournament, which was probably on the outside looking in in terms of postseason play.
Now, with victories over five top 70 teams, including 36th-ranked Alabama-Birmingham, 43rd-ranked Utah and 54th-ranked Arkansas Little Rock, that’s bound to give the Mountaineers a big boost in the rankings.
Will it mean five spots? Ten? Fifteen? We’ll find out early next week.
“Some of these programs we beat will be in the postseason,” Covich noted.
West Virginia has four big events left this spring beginning with Georgia Southern’s Schenkel Invitational on March 18-20 at Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, Georgia.
Then comes The Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate in Charleston, South Carolina, followed by the Mason Rudolph Championship in Nashville, Tennessee.
The spring season concludes with the Big 12 Championships at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas. The Big 12 is once again the No. 1 golf conference in the country with five programs in this week’s top 15, including No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 9 Kansas.
Annual power Texas checks in at No. 14 this week with Baylor at No. 46, TCU at No. 60, Kansas State at No. 79 and Iowa State at No. 85.
“We still have a lot of golf left and a lot can happen, but we’re heading in the right direction,” Covich concluded.
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