Cougar Golf Strives for a Strong 2018-19 Campaign

It's another sunny day out on the Palouse and the Washington State Men's Golf Team can be found out on the driving range preparing for the fast approaching season ahead of it.

Last season the Cougars were able to start strong, securing a victory on their home course in the first tournament of their 2017-18 campaign. Now, with a team that has a lot of returners, the hopes are high to start strong again this season.

"I think it's a matter of we only have one new guy added to the mix," said head coach Dustin White. "Everyone else knows what we're going to get and what to expect. We just [need to] go out there and continue what we've been doing from the Pac-12 Championship, through their summer schedules, and now."

Although the team had a hot start, they hit a mid-season slump as student-athletes were coming back to campus in the spring. White is hoping that his team of veterans will learn from their mistakes last year and be able to push through the season.

"It seems like in the middle of the round, if they made a couple of bogeys, they would get down and upset," said White. "If we can avoid how long those spans last and make them shorter, that'll help a lot."

The game plan varies from player-to-player, but as a team the improvement that needs to be focused on is moving past a bad hole, said White. Instead of having four or five holes that result in four or five bogeys, the team needs to take a step back and reset after a bogey and string together some good shots.

White believes his players can avoid such a string of bad holes by holding a certain mindset.

"They say the most important shot in golf is the next one," said White. "You can't think about the one you just hit, and you can't think about eight holes ahead."

With 11 tournaments this season, the Cougars have a lot to look forward to, but even though a trip to Hawaii sounds fun, it's the other courses that the team has its sights on.

"Oregon hosts the Pac-12 Championship next year," said White. "So, going down there and playing their tournament in the spring ahead of time, that's something that we look forward to as we're getting closer to the Pac-12 Championship."

Last year, the team ended the season with a seventh-place finish at the Pac-12 Championship, something it hopes to change this year. Getting an opportunity to see the course that it will be played on just one month ahead of the championship itself should help them.

Although they're excited to play in Hawaii, and they are locked in on the Duck Invitational in Eugene, White still wants to stress to his players that their focus needs to be on the task in front of them at any given time.

"You have to be in the present and focused on your routine, and what it is you need to do to hit the best shot possible," said White. "When you have no more holes left to play, you see what it adds up to."

The Cougars tee off the golf season Monday, Sept. 17 at the Ram Masters Invitational at Fort Collins, Colo.

"I don't know much about the course," said White. "We'll just show up, do our homework as best we can, and play."

Washington State University Athletics

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