After a promising 2023-24 season, finishing inside the top five in each of their eight regular season tournaments, the Chico State men’s golf team was a force to be reckoned with.
The Wildcats accumulated four top-two finishes including one win at their home tournament, the Wildcat Invitational.
Heading into this year’s campaign, the Wildcats are going to be without two of their programs’ top veterans, Tyler Ashman and Dakota Ochoa. The pair had played the last half decade together for the Wildcats, dating back to the 2019-20 season.
Head coach Nick Green, who is entering his ninth year of his tenure, is confident in the depth of this year’s team, emphasizing that the door is open for someone to step up and fill those shoes.
“Yes, you lose two important members of the team, but you also have another seven or eight guys that can all have an opportunity of filling in for a couple of roster spots,” Green said.
The Wildcats ended last year’s run with an objectively disappointing performance in the National Collegiate Athletics Association Super Regionals, finishing in 11th place out of 20, but the team felt they had the opportunity to do more.
“It’s definitely motivation for this year; we expected to do better than that last year at regionals, and that’s led to a lot of preparation over the summer,” senior Travis Miller said. “Everything that we are doing right now is to get us back into that position to succeed when given the opportunity.”
Sophomore Alexander LemMon and junior Naoki Easterday are two key returners from last year’s super regionals team, who are looking to capitalize off the previous season’s end.
Junior Ben Mouser is another name to keep an eye out for this year. Mouser traveled with the team to the Super Regionals as a substitute, but didn’t get a chance to play.
“He [Mouser] is playing very well right now, and as long as we can find more consistency from him, I think this could be a big year for him to really get those opportunities,” Green said.
Off the course, the team is looking to keep up their high academic standards and earn consecutive NCAA Division II Cobalt Golf All-America Scholars honors. Last season, the Wildcats had two individual honorees in Ashman and Easterday.
“We want to have stronger academics this year and compete for that grade point average belt next year, and it’d be great to be an All-Scholastic team again,” Miller said.
The Wildcats road to Nationals begins Thursday at their season opening tournament, the Bishop Invitational. It is hosted by the Saint Martin Saints, at The Home Course in DuPont, Washington.
“I don’t think we have any kind of opportunity to shake off the rust. I think we need to get going right away,” Green said. “I’m expecting that we have a great practice round and learn the course in Dupont, and we’re going to have a good game plan and strategy. Then we’re going to have to execute.”
Chico State will be teeing off around 8 a.m Thursday morning. You can keep up with the round and scores at this link.
For information about all Chico State athletics, visit the Wildcat home page.
Lukas Mann can be reached at [email protected].
