College golf: Utah schools relying on local talent

The BYU men's golf team is having another good season, with three talented home-grown players among its regulars.

However, as well as the Cougar golf team is playing, the days of the Cougars being a national power on an annual basis are over.

The Cougars haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2006 and haven't made the NCAA Regionals the past two years. They aren't likely to make it again this year, either, being ranked 55th in the country, with five teams from the Mountain West Conference ranked higher.

BYU coach Bruce Brockbank says the competition gets fiercer every year with smaller schools able to compete with the traditional powers. For instance, Augusta State from Georgia, one of the teams in this weekend's Ping Cougar Classic, is ranked No. 3 in the country.

"It doesn't matter where you go, there are a lot of good teams out there," said Brockbank, who believes his team can still play with the top programs in the country. He said the key is having a couple of players who can go low and having solid depth throughout the top five.

Brockbank said his team has been very good at times, such as when it won the Fresno Classic last month, and not so good as earlier this month at the Thunderbird tournament in Arizona, when it finished 14th.

"We've been hit and miss — we won at Fresno, but played poorly at ASU," he said.

Robbie Fillmore, a senior from East High School, is having a strong senior season with the No. 2 stroke average in the MWC at 71.20 and a first-place individual finish at Fresno to his credit.

The other top players for the Cougars include Brady Johnson, a senior from British Columbia; Jordan Rodgers, a sophomore from Salt Lake; Zac Blair, a freshman from Ogden; and Esteban Calisto, a junior from Ecuador.

The other five schools in Utah with golf programs have fewer scholarships than BYU and mostly rely on local talent for their teams.

While Utah usually has a bunch of local golfers, its top performers this year are a couple of out-of-staters. Chase Hite of Tucson, Ariz., has the lowest stroke average at 74.0, followed by Kaleb Mahanes of Colorado at 74.69. Other regulars for the Utes are Mike Branca, a junior from Brighton High School; Derek Adams, a junior from Arizona; and Joe Webber, a sophomore from Sandy.

USU had the best finish of five local teams (other than BYU) in the recent Wyoming Cowboy Classic, finishing 13th in a 24-team field.