Three-round consistency goal of Nicholls golf team at Gulf Coast Collegiate

For a team like Nicholls in a sport like golf, getting a chance to compete in the Gulf Coast Collegiate tournament at English Turn Country Club and hosted by the University of New Orleans is almost like playing a home event.

“It’s always nice to play close to home. For us to be able to not have to travel too far and playing over at English Turn will be nice for us,” Nicholls coach James Schilling said. “We did play a couple of weeks ago. It looks like the conditions will be very different than what we had over in at Rice after we played there. It should be a bit warmer, and forecast looks pretty dry going through Tuesday.”

The Rice event, the Bentwater Intercollegiate, saw the Colonels finish last among 13 teams, but did come away with valuable experience.

“We’ve already have one tournament under our belt. We went back to qualifying to see if we had any other players at home to see if we would change the lineup. We made one change. Peyton Canter will not play; Diego Prat Cruza will play. The other four, Tommy Danielson, Jack Moro, Chase Pochylko, and Dylan Weber, who all played at Rice, will play this week,” said Schilling.

The UNO-hosted event has switched venues. For the first time, the tournament will be held at English Turn instead of Diamondhead Country Club, as had been the case in recent years.

“It’s a really good golf course,” Schilling said of English Turn. “It’s a Jack Nicklaus design. It was where they had the PGA Tour event for many, many years prior to moving to TPC. It’ll be a big field. You’ll see different teams in schools in the Northeast, you’ll see some SWAC schools. You’ll see a lot of Southland schools. It will be a really good mix.

“You will have a bigger mix than what you had at Rice. At Rice, you had just a total top-end field with only two Southland schools. You’ll see a good mix this week.”

Along with Nicholls and host UNO, other schools taking part in the event include: Alabama A&M, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Stephen F. Austin, Tennessee-Martin, Incarnate Word, Houston Christian, Texas A&M-Commerce, Southeastern Louisiana, Memphis, Murray State, St. John’s, Morehead State, Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M, and Southern University.

Although it’s nearby, the Nicholls golfers have had limited exposure to England Turn. The team the Colonels will field in the event features four freshman. Prat Cruza is a junior but is in his first year at Nicholls.

“With such a young team, even Diego, it’s his first year. It’s another week on the road with five first-year guys playing Division I,” said Schilling.

Although Nicholls finished last in its first event, the Colonels showed glimpses of good play, but not on a consistent basis, according to Schilling.

“It shows that they can do it and we’ve kind of been talking about this, the players are tired of it (the inconsistent play), too,” the Nicholls coach said. “They’re tired of it because they’re the ones that are out there doing it. We saw some good things last week, but it’s going to be a quick turnaround. We have this tournament 54 holes, then a few days off, and then we’re going straight over to Houston. It’ll be interesting to see how it all turns out.”