UNM head coach Glen Millican said in a release that the pressure to win the event for the third straight year at the UNM Championship Golf Course issued more of a relaxing response than a rewarding one. Gavin Green and the New Mexico men’s golf team can breathe easy after both took home first place trophies for the third consecutive year.
“It’s probably more of a relief than excitement that we won it,” Millican said. “For Gavin, it’s just a great accomplishment. But again, just the pressure on him to win was intense. I know he was thinking about it, and then the way he started off — a double bogey on 3, a bogey on 6 and then 9 and 10 — that was tough. But he kept moving along and turned it around and had just a great finish.”
Despite Green’s tough start, the senior finished the day 9 under par, out-swinging Texas Tech teammates Clement Sordet and Guillermo Pereira. The Red Raider teammates tied for second in the tournament, swinging 6 under par.
Green said in a release that prior experiences helped him gather his composure despite the tough start.
“That was a big part of it,” he said. “You just learn how to stop and restart. It’s hard, but I was finally able to get it going. It feels great to be the only one to win three Tuckers and the first Lobo to win six tournaments. I just have to try to keep that going through the rest of the season.”
The team as a whole, gathering around Green, played well with four players finishing in the top ten.
Senior Sam Saunders, sophomore Andrej Bevins and junior Nelson da Silva Ramos along with Green were the four Lobos among the top ten finishers. Bevins, Saunders and Green all hit under par, which helped in taking the first-place trophy.
Shooting 849 as a team, UNM was the only squad that finished in under par, beating the even-shooting Red Raiders with a score of -15.
The 33rd-ranked Lobos have now won 10 titles in the past three years under Millican.
“Any time you have that exposure, it helps you,” Millican said. “I hope we learned how quickly scores can change between rounds (after shooting 18 strokes higher in round 3 than in round 2), and you just have to keep grinding.”
The Daily Lobo sports desk can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLoboSports.
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