Cowboy golf to open season

by Wyoming Sports.org

The University of Wyoming men's golf team will open the 2008-2009 season Saturday at the 40th Annual Falcon Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo. The two-day invitational, hosted by the Air Force Academy, will take place at the Eisenhower Golf Club.

The Cowboys will play five tournaments during the fall semester and seven during the spring. The season will culminate with the 2009 Mountain West Conference Championship from Aug. 30-May 2.

“We are excited and optimistic about this season and are looking forward to this weekend,” said Cowboy head coach Joe Jensen. “We enjoy this tournament and especially like starting our season this way. It is a regional course, we don’t have to travel very far, the guys know the layout and there is a good field of teams. All of those things make this the perfect event to begin the season.”

The Cowboys, who have a relatively young team, will travel six sophomores to the first event of the season. Redshirt sophomore Max Curnow and sophomores Gabe Maier, Mike May, Aaron Johnson, Phil Henzlik and Zach Zaremba will all compete for Wyoming.

In all, Wyoming’s roster features seven sophomores and one freshman. However, all seven of those sophomores have played the majority of a full season during their careers at UW.

As a team last season, the Pokes showed their low round potential in two tournaments; the Turtle Bay Resort College Invite in Hawaii and the Purple and Red Invite in Layton, Utah. In those tournaments, the Pokes fired respective tournament scores of five-under par and even par.

Individually, Gabe Maier had the lowest stroke average on the Cowboy roster last season as a true freshman at 74.66. Mike May had the best tournament of last season, placing second in the Purple and Red Invite in Layton, Utah with a two-round total of seven-under par. Zach Zaremba also had a very good freshman season and finished with the second best stroke average on the team at 75.74.

“We want to get the season off on the right foot and have a nice, solid start,” added Jensen. “We have seven sophomores who all have a year of experience under their belt, so I anticipate a high comfort level. We are a much more mature team and the guys are coming off of a very good summer. We are looking to have three solid rounds this weekend and build on this tournament as we embark on the season.”

The 2008 Falcon Invitational field features 17 teams including UNLV, the 22nd ranked team in the nation in Golf World's preseason rankings. Two other participants received votes in Golf World's preseason poll including Colorado State and New Mexico. Other participants include Air Force, Air Force JV, Long Beach State, Northern Colorado, Northern Iowa, Sacramento State, Southern Utah, Colorado-Colorado Springs, Utah, Utah State, Washington State, Weber State and Wyoming.