For the Idaho men’s golf team, spring break opened with a calamity.
The Vandals finished in last place, 15 strokes back of 13th place Seattle University with an overall 49-over par 901 at the Bandon Dunes Championship March 11 through 13 in Bandon, Ore.
Junior Enrique Marin fired even 71’s on days one and two, propelling himself to a tie for 37th out of 84 participants, but the rest of the Vandals blundered — none shot under or even in any rounds.
Coach David Nuhn said in a news release that his team’s downfalls came on and near the green. Chipping was an issue, especially in the first round, and three-putts were eerily commonplace.
However, Nuhn said he could see strides forward in his Vandal team which has thus far been tormented by low-seed disharmony in the still-young spring season
“There is improvement that has been made incrementally and we’re starting to see those strides,” Nuhn said. “When we play well, we can compete with anyone out here. We certainly have the ability and the talent.”
Marin birdied two of the longer par-4s in round one, but his three bogeys — one on the second longest hole, the 539-yard par-5 15th — prohibited the native of Spain from cutting under even.
Junior Klaus Ganter and freshman Adam Veenstra both sat at 4-over early on the back nine, but both used notable back resurgences to finish the first round with adequate 3-over 74s.
The second round was when any hope at a revival began to crumble.
Marin again led the Vandals, but a 5-over start on the front nine culminated in a 4-over finish. After a 12th place first round finish, Idaho was now tied with Seattle U for last, 14 strokes behind where they once were perched.
The third showed improvement, but not enough to lift Idaho out of the cellar.
Marin returned to regularity, firing an even-71 on three birdies and an equal amount of bogies. Veenstra, who finished the tournament with Idaho’s second best aggregate and tied for 64th overall, carded a 3-over 74 on day three after a second-day 76 substantially curtailed him.
In a field which featured six of Golfstat’s top 100 teams, Idaho was powerless in contending. Arizona State, the nation’s No. 8 team, won the tournament with an aggregate 28-under par. Three Sun Devils carded under-par scores and sophomore Chun an Yu took home medalist honors with a 13-under 200 overall.
The Vandals will return home for about half a month of practice before returning to the links April 2 and 3 at the Chambers Bay Invitational in University Place, Wash.
Colton Clark can be reached at arg-sports@uidaho.edu or on Twitter @coltonclark95
