The New Mexico State University men’s golf team finished in seventh place after a tense three-day tournament at the Conference USA Championship. The team teed off on April 22 at the Texarkana Country Club to wrap up their spring 2024 season.
The Aggies finished strong after three rounds of eighteen holes despite some shake ups in the team’s lineup between the first and second rounds of the game. After finishing the first round in fifth place as a team, senior River Smalley was subbed in by freshman Vari Mariscal.
“I had just been told stay ready all week, and that second day I was ready to go,” Mariscal said after the tournament. “Going in I was just grateful. I went into that day with a really good mindset, a really patient mindset.
The Aggies finished in fifth place after their first round, with the team finishing tied for fifth place with Sam Houston University with a score of 294 (+6).
One Aggie pulled off an eighth-place finish at the end of the first day, with sophomore Anthony Lara finishing with par. As first seed, he led the team through all three days of play, posting a three-over par final three-day score of 219.
Third seed, sophomore Javier Delgadillo, had a strong final round despite playing the first two rounds while ill, which he said affected his performance.
“I played my third round barely getting through the golf course, but I was so distracted by the sickness and trying to keep hydrated and it allowed me to play golf as if I didn’t really care about the results,” Delgadillo said.
Illness would have deterred any other player, but Delgadillo was able to power and post a 71 (-1) in the third round of play after a rough first two rounds.
This is Delgadillo’s second time playing in a championship tournament and his first round playing in Conference USA after playing in last year’s Western Athletic Conference division championship when the team placed second.
Delgadillo expressed how this championship differed from the previous year’s, citing a fresh team, less time to play in the spring and pressure from the coaches. He described these variables as impacting his play along with his fellow teammates.
“We had this mindset where we came to win, and we tried our best but there was a lot of pressure on us by ourselves and coaches, and this was our first year in Conference USA, so it was definitely a different atmosphere,” Delgadillo said.
Senior Alvaro Morales also had a strong turnaround in the latter parts of the tournament. Morales finished the first round tied for twenty-eighth place with a score of 75 (+3). Despite a weaker finish, he managed to turn his game around.
Morales finished tied for sixteenth place against Delgadillo after shaving down his score each round, finishing with a 21 (+5) after posting par in the final round.
The team dropped two places down to seventh place after the second round, where fifth seed senior River Smalley was subbed out for freshman Vari Mariscal. Mariscal brought up the back of the pack, finishing in fortieth place with a first-round score of 77, holding steady in his position as he wrapped up the tournament with a 75 in the third round, finishing with a final score of 152 (+8).
“I hit nine greens the first day, and the second day I hit thirteen,” Mariscal said. “I just kept one foot in front of the other and kept making really good shots and just staying in the process the whole time.”
After wrapping up a short but strong spring season, the Aggies are facing a summer away from collegiate play until the fall season begins. The team hopes to use their spring season and seventh place finish as an opportunity to hone their individual games until they can return as a team in the fall.
