Anyone who doesn’t believe in superstitions did not witness the disintegration of the Wildcats on the 13th hole at the Arizona National Golf Club in Tucson in the third round of the PING-Intercollegiate yesterday. The Wildcats came into yesterday’s competition in second place at 12-under par, fighting for first place with top team Tennessee.
But what started as a two-team battle quickly turned into four, as the favorite to win, UCLA, and UNLV played solid rounds to keep the tournament close through the third round. In what looked to be another strong day for Arizona, it was presented with an obstacle and its success ended up being no more than a fluke as it crumpled on the 13th hole.
UA senior Creighton Honeck, who was tied for eighth place on the individual leader board coming into the third round, is one who knows exactly about unlucky hole No. 13. He hit a series of shots that just didn’t fall his way, leading to a 12-stroke hole on a par-4 that generally wasn’t viewed as difficult. The score dropped Honeck from even to an 8-over-par.
“”I hit a good drive and then just kind of fell apart,”” he said. “”Anyone would’ve hit what I did,but it hit a tree so I took an unplayable, hit it out, took another one, landed it into the sand, hit another shot that didn’t clear, an even worse shot, had to take another shot to get it on the green and put it in for a 12.””
The hole seemed to give other Wildcats trouble as well, including freshman Roberto Galleti, who had a solid tournament, finishing fifth on the individual scoreboard, as he shot a six on hole 13, his only double bogey of the afternoon. Tyler Neal, who shot a 10-over-par in round three and a 17-over-par overall, also struggled on hole 13 shooting a seven, 3-over-par.
“”It’s not that hard of a hole,”” Neal said. “”We play there day in and day out. We are told not to hit bad shots.””
Tennessee continued to dominate the course, finishing with a 20-under-par team score, therefore winning the tournament. UCLA, which severely struggled through the first two rounds, shot a roundleading 12-under-par to put it in third place at 5-under-par.
Where do the Wildcats go from here? A team that looked as if it was about to turn their season around through the first two rounds, after a shaky fall season, now has to deal with the hardships of losing their home tournament. Even more importantly might be the fact that it is the opening spring season tournament and now they must look ahead to the rest of the season.
“”We had a good team meeting,”” Honeck said. “”We pulled out some high points. Everyone has to find out what they did good and bad and build on it. I still think we have a very strong team. As far as moving forward, we have to think about the good and forget about the bad.
“”I don’t want to say that we have to have another fresh start, but we have to,”” he added.
