Gonzaga Men's Golf Opens Season Monday
9/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Gonzaga men's golf head coach, Robert Gray, begins his 17th year at the helm of the program at the Saint Mary's Invitational Monday.
Gray enters his ninth season as only the men's head coach, after coaching both the GU women and men for eight years. He is presented with plenty of experience in 2015-16. Four Zags return from last year's team, including a trio that played in the West Coast Conference Championships. Gonzaga also welcomes a talented duo to the lineup.
"We return three of our starters from last year and have added two more players to round out our squad," Gray said. "Having the opportunity to bring the entire team to our first two trips will get everyone tournament experience early and against strong opponents. As always, our goal is to go about our business and put 100 percent mentally into every shot, controlling emotions and dealing with adversity in the proper way, should it arise. We have a talented, driven group of guys and if we follow this model, we will be able to take away a lot of positives from our first event."
That first event is the 10th annual Saint Mary's Invitational in Pebble Beach, Calif. When the 2015-16 schedule was released, Gray noted the first two events as the strongest in the fall slate. The Bulldogs follow the Saint Mary's Invitational with the Husky Invitational in Bremerton, Wash., on Sept. 21-22. Gonzaga then makes its first ever appearance at the Bill Ross Intercollegiate, hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, on Oct. 12-13. The fall schedule wraps up with a return to the Ka'anapali Classic from Nov. 6-8.
"We're very excited for our first event leading into another competitive schedule," Gray said. "This is our first time at the renovated Poppy Hills Golf Course for most of the team. Will (Brueckner) has had the opportunity to play a number of competitive rounds there and we'll rely on him quite a bit for that local knowledge that can be so helpful in playing the course the proper way."
Last season, the Bulldogs posted the record team low through 36 holes, and were just two strokes short of tying the 18-hole and 54-hole records. They did set the lowest 18, 36, and 54-hole records for score in relation to par. GU's head-to-head record was also the best in program history and the Zags had seven top-10 finishes as a team in 2014-15.
Two of those top-10 finishes came from Sean Walsh. The Keller, Texas native returns with easily the most experience on the team. The lone senior on the squad has played in 90 rounds during his three-year Gonzaga career. Walsh enters his final season with the lowest career round average in program history at 73.72. He was named to the preseason All-WCC, after finishing 10th at the conference championships last year.
"On paper the team may look young, but we have a very experienced group of guys that are used to playing in big time tournaments," Walsh recently said in a release. "This upcoming season will be very big for the Gonzaga men's golf program; this is a year where we can make a name for ourselves in NCAA golf. We know we can compete with the best, we've proven it on multiple occasions. This is the year we will consistently get it done, and I'm really looking forward to getting started."
Walsh and the Zags will need help from last season's No. 3, Angus Montgomery, who moves into more of a leadership role this season. Montgomery, one of two juniors on the roster, carded the lowest round last season with a 67 twice.
David Ganz and Will Brueckner both advanced through stroke-play to match-play at their respective state amateur championships this summer. Just into his collegiate career last year, Ganz finished with a 68 in the first round of the Ka'anapali Collegiate Classic. Brueckner played in all 25 rounds last season. He had the third-lowest average on the team at 74.84 during his freshman campaign.
Ryan Gaske joins the Bulldogs after finishing a stellar career at Eastern Arizona College. At EAC, the incoming junior earned Ping NJCAA Div. I All-American honors. Tyler Munetake is the only freshman on this year's roster. He enjoyed a standout high school career in Wailuku, Hawaii.
As a team, the Zags were slated sixth in the conference's preseason poll. GU finished seventh at the WCC Championships last season. Gonzaga opened last year at eighth in the preseason poll. The West Coast Conference features plenty of talent once again this season. The Bulldogs will get an early look at some of the top teams in the WCC at the first tournament of the season.
"This is an unusual event for us, in that we'll see seven of the other nine schools in the WCC to start the season," Gray said. "This will give us a great idea of where we stand early in the season as we head through our schedule towards the WCC Championship next April."
The Bulldogs first golfer tees off Monday morning at 9:10. Live scoring will be available on GoZags.com.
