The Chaminade men’s golf team will send its seven underclassmen players to tee off in Las Vegas on Monday for the first round of the PacWest Championships. The tournament at Aliante Golf Club will feature all eight PacWest teams competing for a spot in the NCAA regionals. This is the youngest team Chaminade golf has ever had since becoming a program in 2007.
The young team of four freshmen and three sophomores is using every tournament to gain more experience. The one senior on the roster, Ethan Alexander, had surgery on his groin in the summer, which has kept him out of the entire season.
“When you’re a young player, you have to make that transition from high school or junior golf to college golf, and that’s a hurdle we’re facing,” said head coach Renee Yuen, who has been at the helm for 13 years. “Even though they’re predominantly freshmen, they have the technical ability, and they’ve all been playing golf for a long time.”
The Silverswords will be heading into the tournament coming off a last-place finish in the Dominican Spring Invitational at the Sonoma Golf Club on April 6-7. Despite a tough showing in an invitational that hosted four other PacWest teams, the Silverswords shot their best in round three with a team score of 297 and will look to bring that momentum to Vegas.
“We didn’t do well on day one at Dominican, but we did really well on day two, and our scores in day two show that we were competitive and in the mix,” said Yuen. “So we just have to try to do better on day one and go from there, that’s our target goal for PacWest.”
The best finish this season for the Silverswords came in March at the RCA Electric Spring Invitational at Coyote Creek Golf Club in California. The fifth-place finish was set up by the team finishing in third place on the first day, proving that the team can be competitive in a tournament with four other PacWest opponents.
In the team’s best finish, Chaminade was led by freshman Chance Wilson, who finished tied 4th with a score of 7-over-par 223. Wilson has been a leader for the young team, and Yuen expects him to be the co-captain for the team next year.
“This year, my best golf has come from being in a state of relaxed intensity, so I look to gain that early in the week,” Wilson said. “I rely on my mental state to set me apart from my competitors, and I look for that to come into full form this week.”
Unlike the other tournaments during the regular season, the PacWest Championships are played over three days, where each round gets its own day. This will be a change from the usual round one and round two being played on the same day. This will be another learning curve for the young team, which only has one player who has played in the PacWest Championships before.
Even though this is the last tournament in PacWest play, the Silverswords plan to attend the PGA Works Collegiate Championship at The Park in West Palm Beach, Florida, in May. This is a national tournament that is for historically underrepresented minority-serving institutions and hosts teams from all collegiate divisions. Two years ago, the Silverswords won it in their first-ever appearance at the tournament, which gave the school its first national title. Yuen emphasized that building experience from a big tournament like the PacWest Championships will help the young team be prepared for an even bigger stage.
Even without a top-three finish this season, the Silverswords have put up scores that show they can compete. Despite the lack of experience, the team will continue to search for its first win.
“I’ve got four freshmen, but I think they have the skill to do very well,” Yuen said. “So, obviously, when we go to a tournament like the PacWest Championships, our goal is to win.”