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FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012
MEN'S GOLF
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Patience rewarded at course in Pasatiempo
Alex Gutesha lines up a put during the Sept. 19 Kansas Invitational at Alvamar Golf Club. Gutesha had three top-20 finishes while playing in 11 meets last season.
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
TREVOR GRAFF
tgraff@kansan.com
This weekend, the men's golf team will compete in one of the nation's most prestigious college tournaments.
They'll travel to the Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., where the 66th Western Intercollegiate's 14-team field features seven top-20 teams including No. 1 Texas, No. 3 California and No. 5 Southern California.
"If you look up and down that list of former winners, there are a lot of guys that went on to play on the PGA tour." coach Kit Grove said. "For us it's a great opportunity to go out there and play a great course, and it will be a great test for us going into the Big 12 Tournament."
The Alister MacKenzie designed course at Pasatiempo provides a tough test for players. Not unlike MacKenzie's Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., players must keep the ball below the hole on lightning-fast greens to play well over the course of the tournament's
54 holes.
"It truly is a great golf course." Grove said. "It's kind of like Prairie Dunes in the aspect that when you're 19 or 20 years old, you don't know what a treat it is to play."
Coach Grove said that, in some cases, the greens are a bit too severe thanks to modern greens-keeping methods. These methods create a small number of hole locations that can be nearly unplayable.
Patasiempo is known for being a shorter course with a feel like that of a longer course. With altitudes near sea level and several elevation changes on the course itself, Patasiempo must be managed well mentally.
"It's a golf course you just have to think," Grove said. "It's a course that you have to keep the ball below the hole almost at all costs, and accept the fact that you're going to hit some good shots and have some really difficult pitches and two putts."
The layhawks begin play at Pasatiempo four days after finishing play at the Cowboy Classic.
"That's the way it goes sometimes." Grove said. "It's such a special place, it's such a unique golf course and it's a great field. Do you like to go back-to-back? No, I'd rather be home for a few days, but the good thing is we played well last week so we're going in with momentum."
Pasatiempo favors a patient golfer that can grind out scores in tough conditions. Chris Gilbert, one of the more consistent ball strikers on the team, and Dylan McClure, who has hit 38 consecutive fairways, fit that mold.
"The aggressive game plans don't always get rewarded on this golf course, as much as the plotters and the guys that are patient," Grove said.
BASEBALL
The Jayhawks continue to focus on playing one hole at a time.
"You have to stay in the moment, and understand that you're going to get out of position on this golf course and you're going to make some bogies," Grove said. "As a player, you just have to accept that."
Edited by Max Rothman
Twins comeback over Angels capped by Morneau's homer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS—Justin Morneau hit a two-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and the Minnesota Twins rallied from six runs down to beat the Los Angeles Angels 10-9 on Thursday.
Joe Mauer went deep, too, hitting a three-run shot off Dan Haren in the fifth that cut into a 6-0 lead the Angels built against Francisco Liriano. Every Twins batter had at least one of the team's 20 hits, enough to make up for the 14 men left on base, including eight in scoring position.
Denard Span had four hits, including an infield single that tied it at 6 in the seventh inning. On the play, he reached first at the same time as Scott Downs, stomping down on top of the reliever's foot with his cleat. Downs right ankle rolled awkwardly and he left the game what the team called a bruise.
Peter Bourjos' RBI single off Brian Duensing, whose wild pitch let Vernon Wells take second, put the Angels in front again in the eighth — for a few minutes. Mauer singled off Rich Thompson (0-1), and Morneau followed with his first home run of the season. He had left seven runners on before
that. The Twins tacked on two more runs, and the drama didn't stop there.
Jeff Gray (2-0) picked up the victory, and Matt Capps notched his second save despite giving the Angels two runs back.
Albert Pujols, 5 for 23 with his new team, singled to start the ninth and reached third when Torii Hunter's possible double-play ball skipped off second base for a fluke single. Mark Trumbo cut the lead to two with an RBI single, Wells beat out another potential double-play ball and another run scored on a fielder's choice to first.
Chris Iannetta's slow roller to third ended the game with a runner on second.
Maicer Izturis had a two-run single in a five-run second inning and stole two of the Angels' five bases. Trumbo homered and scored a run in the fifth on Wells' two-out ground-rule double when he walked and stole a base.
Josh Willingham started a three-run seventh with his fourth of Minnesota's six home runs this year.
After hitting 28 home runs and winning the American League Most Valuable Player award in 2009, Mauer has only gone deep 13 times — and just twice at
Target Field, plus one in an exhibition game when the ballpark first opened in 2010. During that MVP season, he routinely pulled the ball to left, but most of the limited power he's shown in his career has been to the opposite field.
With all the problems he's had staying healthy, particularly last season while fighting weakness and soreness in his legs, Mauer has infrequently been behind the plate for matinees following night games. But Mauer hasn't been held back so far this spring, and manager Ron Gardenhire didn't hesitate to slot him in the lineup as Liriano's catcher for this one.
"I didn't ask," Gardenhire said,
grinning before the game.
Roughed up by the Kansas City Royals in his first start, Haren was remarkably hittable again, but he was tough when he needed to be against the two left-handed hitters. Mauer struck out and Morneau fled out to the warning track with Span on third in the first. Mauer's infield pop out and Morneau's lazy fly followed a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the third.
But Mauer, who was booed after his weak pop, got one back in a big way in his next at-bat.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minnesota Twins left fielder Josh Willingham, left, and center fielder Denard Span celebrate their victory in a baseball game on Thursday, April 12, 2012, in Minneapolis where the Twins defeated the Los Angeles Angels 10-9. Willingham had a solo home run in the game.
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