Feb. 17, 2009
Houston, Texas - When something's six years in coming it generally doesn't matter how it happens as long as it happens. It doesn't have to be on a tough golf course, or in tough conditions. Come to think of it, when it's been the better part of a decade since the last time the program hosted a trophy it doesn't matter how pretty the golf is either. But when the Pacific Golf team fought their way back from 11-strokes down in the final round it just so happened... that it was.
It was a tough Westwood Country Club in west Houston that saw the Tigers open the first round of their 2009 season with every player under 75. It was a long and windy golf course that saw the Tigers maintain their spot on the leaderboard through the second round and give themselves a position to accomplish what they did Tuesday. And if not completely perfect it was at least textbook execution for the Tigers to claw their way back from a deep deficit to area favorites Rice and University of Houston.
The Tigers used a combination of safe shot making and course calculation to topple the 12-team field. A familiar rant of head coach Goethals is that of hitting "knockdown", off-speed shots. It was that addition of his game that saw Bordeaux take home his first collegiate victory last spring in Oregon. Once again, in wet and windy conditions it was that approach that helped the Tigers turn "rant" into sound advice.
The victory at the 2009 Rice Intercollegiate wasn't just a product of Coach Brandon Goethals' urgent advice of playing "smart golf" all week. It was culmination of his preaching the little things since his hire at Pacific more than four years ago. When Goethals inherited the Tigers in 2005 they had little if any respect throughout collegiate golf and were ranked upwards of 250th in the country. While the road has been long for the Tigers since his vision was put into the works he knew it would be no easy road.
"This is just a huge win for the program," said Goethals. "I'm more impressed with how these young men bought in and believed in the game plan than the victory itself."
That initial ranking for the Tigers seems like a distant memory when one charts the programs ascension to the rare fraternity of collegiate victors each year. The initial recruiting class of Patrick Kucich and Bayhaan Lakdawala in 2006 was joined a year later by Alex Johnson and TJ Bordeaux. It was the combination of those four players and fifth-year senior Charlie Van Sicklen that led the Tigers to the four-shot victory.
It was three of those players, Kucich, Bordeaux and Van Sicklen that carried the team victory and at the same time claimed personal victories for themselves.
"I'm very impressed with Pat's play all week," said Goethals. "To raise his game the way he did proved to me that he can be successful on the next level."
For Kucich, it was another step forward in a career that has seen numerous leaps both forward and backward. After struggling as a freshman in 2006 he redshirted in 2007 and retooled to come back a more complete player in 2008. His success on the course began to come full circle as well as he slowly became a staple of the Tiger rotation and led Pacific for the first time at the Del Walker Intercollegiate this past fall in Long Beach. His 9th place finish helped the Tigers to a fourth overall and was his highest finish of his career. He did it better this past week in Texas as he was just two-over after the first day and concluded with a two-under 70 for an even par 216 and a third place individual finish.
"We had such a good team mentality coming into this week that I honestly didn't give a lot of thought to where I was individually until I saw the final scores posted," said Kucich. "The guys all contributed in this tournament and that's a great sign in going forward this spring."
While Van Sicklen may have enjoyed yet another step in his collegiate journey, he knows he doesn't have many chances left to make his mark. A five-year career at Pacific started before Goethals was even being considered for the head coaching job and will end this spring. Fighting his way to a 3-over 75 in the first round Van Sicklen gained momentum in the second round. Attacking the windy course with surgical shots from an array of distances Van Sicklen threw up the biggest round of the tournament for the Tigers, a bogey-free 69 that moved him up the leaderboard to fifth place after two rounds. Having honed his knockdown, a choked-down, abbreviated version of the standard full iron shot, at the almost identical Spanos Park range in Stockton it was simply transferring those shots to tournament conditions.
"I'd say it's about damn time but that wouldn't do the whole process justice," Van Sicklen said with a smile. "Having been here five years I know that my first few years we weren't ready to win and didn't deserve to win a tournament. We've put in some serious work to grow in the past three years and this is a great prize for that hard work."
Finally it was the play of the man that had just missed out an opportunity last year to claim his first collegiate victory that would keep the Tigers in it until the very end. Heading into the tournament as one of the individual favorites, Bordeaux knew what he would have to do to take his second collegiate victory midway through just his sophomore season. His game having matured and expanded in numerous ways since his victory last March at the Oregon Duck Classic, Bordeaux came into the spring season with a renewed sense of leadership and attitude. But as the British Amateur participant learned early on sometimes the best-laid plans don't always worked out that way.
When it back clear that he couldn't trust himself off the tee, instead of pounding balls all over the course Bordeaux abandoned the driver and relied upon his stellar iron game to simply put the ball in safe spots and his imagination to navigate the tricky Texas greens. The result. 18 straight pars and a top ten finish.
"My mentality going in was very positive but some things happened (my driver) that forced me to retool a little bit and go at the course with a different game plan," said Bordeaux. "I'm really happy with how we all played down the stretch. They are some tough holes (14 & 15) coming in and as a team we conquered those. I think that was a big key for us."
The Rice Intercollegiate has always presented itself as a favorable tournament for the Tigers in previous years, having finished fifth, fourth and third place in the past three trips to Texas. It was then-freshman TJ Bordeaux's third place finish and final round 68 last season that pushed the Tigers to within strokes of the lead.
This time around it was getting over that elusive hump that the Tigers finally conquered. Their opening round of 296 had them in third place and a second 18 kept them in that spot after the first day. In a late-night meeting at the team's hotel Monday, Goethals urged the team to "keep grinding and let's see what happens".
While already spotting a 11-shot lead to native area Houston and with host team Rice close at their heels the Tigers knew that crazier things had happened and anything was possible. Possible, but just how likely for a team that it had never happened to before? A team that in the past had only experienced a runner-up finish and a collection of shoulda's and coulda's.
Chalk it up to destiny or it "just being their time" but a look at the Pacific program reveals that it wasn't a matter of if it would happen, but rather when. It didn't have to be this collection of players or by this margin of victory. Six years since the program's last victory would think to reveal that their hungry for their first. Now that that's been accomplished only one question remains. Does that first taste of victory fill their desire... or simply increase it?
