April 7, 2010
RUSTON - After defeating seven top 100 ranked teams this week at the BancorpSouth Intercollegiate hosted by Ole Miss, the Louisiana Tech golf team moved up four places to 96th in this week's Golfstat.com rankings.
The Bulldogs ranking is the program's best in the last 17 years since the inception of Golfstat.com, which is considered the official source for college golf teams across the country. It bests the previous high which was 98th place back during the 2006-07 season, and it is also 62 places higher than Tech began the fall season when it was 158th in the country.
"I don't look at (the ranking) as success yet," said Tech head coach Jeff Parks. "It's an outcome. I'm excited about it, but to me if we keep doing what we are doing, preparing, and getting better, I think we will continue to improve.
"I attribute a lot of (our success) to physical conditioning, the hard work the guys have put in off the course. I attribute a lot of it to improvement on the mental side, the confidence level we've reached by implementing some mental strategies. Bottom line is our guys have a lot of pride in their school and they want to represent the school just like any other team. It takes a mental toughness and fortitude to be successful."
In 10 tournaments this fall and spring, the Bulldogs recorded a mark of 74-72-3, including 22 wins over teams currently ranked in the Top 100 in the country. In the spring-only events, Tech is 45-30-1.
Finding just the right lineup has been a challenge for Parks as he has seen seven of the 10 players on his roster record at least one Top 12 finish each this year. And although finding the top five isn't easy, it's a good problem for Parks to have.
"It's been difficult," Parks said. "In the fall we had people playing well and excelling and going above and beyond what I expected. Then in the winter and spring, some of those guys didn't play quite as well and other guys stepped up."
Most of Tech's damage against the Top 100 teams has come recently as the Bulldogs have bested 14 ranked teams in its last three tournaments. Ironically, during that span of events, Parks has settled on a lineup that has consisted of senior Matthew Harvey, junior Clinton Shepard, sophomores Jonathan Bale and Cody Santone and freshman Hayden Stephens.
Those five-some have combined to record 12 Top 32 individual finishes during the past three events against fields that averaged 86 competitors per event.
"This has been a team effort all the way," Parks said. "I can't just single out one or two guys or even five guys. Its' been the entire team that helped us get this ranking and pushed the five guys that are playing right now. These five are a representation of the team."
LA Tech's top team finish this year was third place in its own Bulldog Classic hosted at Squire Creek Golf Course in mid-March as only 43rd ranked Southeastern and 40th ranked Ole Miss finished ahead of the Bulldogs. Tech defeated Oklahoma, UNO and Rice in the event which included a total of 16 teams.
However, Parks and Co.'s most impressive performance might have come this week when they placed in a tie for fifth at the BancorpSouth Intercollegiate hosted by Ole Miss at Reunion Golf and Country Club.
In that event, all five of the Bulldogs placed in the Top 40 out of 75 golfers as Tech defeated a total of seven Top 100 ranked teams, including knocking off Southeastern for the first time this year while also besting 51st ranked UCF.
Tech now has three weeks to prepare for the WAC Championships held at Rio Secco Golf Course May 3-5 in Henderson, Nevada.
Heading into the championships, Tech is the third highest ranked team in the league trailing 47th ranked Fresno State and 78th ranked Nevada while leading 122nd ranked New Mexico State, 146th ranked Idaho, 154th ranked San Jose State, 159th ranked Boise State, 187th ranked Utah State and 199th ranked Hawaii.
And although the Bulldogs don't boast anyone ranked in the Top 15 in the WAC scoring averages, Parks is confident his team has played tough enough competition that it will be ready for the challenge.
"I don't feel yet that we've reached our peak by any means," Parks said. "I think some guys are starting to play better and are learning how to get this done. I still think we have a lot of room for improvement and that we can go a lot further.
"It's a team effort. It's not one guy shooting a low round. I have five guys playing great golf right now and 10 guys playing well. That's what matters. If I have four guys play well then that's what matters. We have people who are playing sold consistent golf at same time. That's what is making a difference. One guy can't win the WAC by himself."
