By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Following an underwhelming 2022 season for Baylor men’s golf, the team has become closer and believes it has the mojo it needs to make the 2023 spring season much better.
Head coach Mike McGraw said the down year will help make the current group much better.
“We didn’t play particularly well last year. Everyday that we play in practice and work together as a team, we put more distance between us and that very disappointing year that we had,” McGraw said. “We’re not going to revisit the misery of what that was. I mean, that’s what failure is all about anyway. It’s to get you pretty fired up to correct the things that aren’t good, but it’s all learning, and the crime would be if you didn’t learn something from it.”
The green and gold started its process of putting the past behind it by finishing the fall strong. The Bears stayed competitive in the Big 12 Match Play Championship amid an eighth place finish and then followed it up by dominating the Bear Brawl to conclude the 2022 fall slate.
“I don’t know if the term is mojo, synergy or just the feel [of the team], [but] I think our culture has improved a lot since last year and the kids have done that, I haven’t,” McGraw said.
In the offseason, Baylor focused on coming together as a team and continuing to grow as a group as well as individually. The Bears only have one new player on the roster that wasn’t on the team in the fall, so the continuity and experience within the team is expected to be a strong suit.
“This two-and-a-half to three month window you have every year on every campus does lend itself toward the anticipation and excitement being pretty high for your first event in the spring,” McGraw said.
Now that the calendar has hit February, the first tournament of the spring is almost here. The Bears will travel to Laredo to compete in the 68th annual Border Olympics University Golf tournament. The event is scheduled to begin on Monday and finish Tuesday.
The tournament was started in 1952 and is currently the longest-running NCAA Division I Men’s Golf tournament in the United States. Given its rich history and the fact that the Bears have experience playing the course, members of the team think it’s a good way to open the season.
“I know the course pretty well and know how the tournament is run and it’s a fun tournament. I definitely think it’s going to help us a lot,” senior Tyler Isenhart said. “I think we’re all feeling very confident for this event. We have been playing well, we had a good end of the fall season and now we’re confident to go down and win at Laredo.”
The Bears will be competing with 16 other teams as part of the two day event.
