MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Some 24 hours removed from West Virginia having secured a spot in the NCAA Championships for the second time in program history and first time in 77 years, the accomplishment had started to settle in for Mountaineer golf coach Sean Covich.
“I go back to coming here and not having a golf ball, player or office,” said Covich, WVU’s golf coach the last nine seasons since the program was reinstated before the 2015-16 campaign. “Just a sheet of paper that said you’re the golf coach and it was like, ‘cool, now what do I do?’ Having to go through all of that and finishing dead last in tournaments and not even being invited to tournaments because we’re just starting from scratch to advancing to a National Championship, it all kind of hit me when Max’s putt went in.”
Covich is referencing a par putt junior Max Green drained on the 18th hole Wednesday to wrap up his second straight round of 1-under par 69 that helped cement the Mountaineers’ top 5 finish. One of five teams to advance from the Rancho Santa Fe Regional held at The Farms Golf Club in Santa Fe, Calif., West Virginia finished 5-over par collectively with a team total of 845. That score factors in the team’s top four scores among five golfers for three consecutive days and was enough for the Mountaineers to tie Big 12 Conference member Oklahoma State for third, and most importantly, finish 10 shots ahead of Arizona State, which took sixth place in a regional won by Oklahoma at 3-under par.
“Hopefully it’s something the school, athletic department and maybe even the state takes pride in,” Covich said. “We just sent five golfers from Morgantown that beat a lot of good teams.”
Green carded rounds of 71-69-69 over the three-day regional event. Fellow junior Todd Duncan, a Daniels native and multi-sport standout at Shady Spring High School, contributed rounds of 73-70-70, while senior Jackson Davenport responded from an opening-round 75 to shoot 71 each of the last two rounds.
Factored in with contributions from sophomore Kaleb Wilson, who shot 71-70 the first two rounds, and Pierce Grove, a junior who fired a 70 on the first and last day, and a total team effort helped WVU advance through.
The steady play and consistent improvement late in the season has the Mountaineers as one of 30 teams that will join six individual qualifiers in competing at the NCAA Championships from May 24-29 at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California.
“I’m not going to say it came out of nowhere, because we won our first tournament of the year, so we knew we had talent,” Covich said. “There were things that we kept spinning our wheels with the whole year that had nothing to do with golf. Let’s show up on time, be good teammates and take care of golf courses. We kind of had to go back to square one a little bit, but something clicked this spring.
“It’s been a special run. There’s something special about this team. It’s hard to describe. The five that made it to regionals all have different strengths and weaknesses to their game, but all 12 of our guys played a role at some point. It’s been crazy this year — people just randomly stepping up. Everybody had at least one moment to help us get into regionals and even experience this opportunity. That part has been very unique that everybody contributed to get us to this point.”
QUALIFIERS FOR NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Over the last month, West Virginia won its only home match of the season — the Mountaineer Invitational at Pete Dye Golf Club — and then took fifth at Whispering Pines at the Big 12 Golf Championship in Trinity, Texas.
Suffice to say, the team has peaked at the perfect time, and without an abundance of separation throughout the roster, Covich let who would represent WVU in Santa Fe sort itself out through team qualifying at PDGC in advance of regional play.
“Qualifying played a huge part in it, because qualifying doesn’t lie. If you’re playing well, you’re going to rise to the top,” Covich said. “We might’ve been one of a few teams that qualified between selection day and getting on an airplane for regionals. That puts our guys in uncomfortable situations where they have to handle pressure and earn that spot. Sometimes putting them in difficult situations before you go to a tournament makes the tournament easier. That was more of the mindset there.
“We got some help from the Pete Dye Superintendent to set it up to prepare us for how where we were going. We did some things we hadn’t done with tee box placements and made it very difficult for driving the golf ball. When you step up to 18 tee at Pete Dye, it’s well over 500 yards and a par 4, and there’s Simpson Creek on the left and grass taller than [Covich’s son] Keenan to the right, and you’re going to lose your golf ball if it goes in it. You have to step up and hit a good drive and you have to do that in qualifying to get an airplane ticket.”
That was especially important at The Farms Golf Club, which Covich felt put a premium on accurate driving and in comparison to par, played as the toughest of the six NCAA Regionals.
“Those are some of the tightest fairways we’ve ever seen with trouble left and right, and there’s nowhere to bail out. A lot of golf courses give you room to have error off the tee on one side or the other where you can almost aim away from a fairway way right,” Covich said. “There was none of that at this golf course.
“There’s a reason Phil Mickelson, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa all play out at this golf club, because it demands the best for driving. We felt like we were going to live or die by driver and stay aggressive because we’re a really good driving team. That’s what happened. We drove it phenomenal. Other teams were less aggressive off the tee and would hit 3-wood and still miss a fairway and be in trouble. That was one of the keys to success.”