Sacramento State’s golf teams were in transitional periods at this time last semester, both getting used to a new coach in former PGA pro David Sutherland, who joined the Hornets just weeks before the semester was about to begin. The men’s team was also entering its first season as part of the newly-formed America Sky Conference.

The men’s team ended up finishing second at the America Sky Championship in September, although Junior Scott DeBorba said the outcome could have played out differently.

“I’m pretty sure we could have won,” DeBorba said. “The cold weather kind of got to everybody a little bit.”

The unfavorable weather was bad enough to cause the first round of the tournament to be canceled. Weber State took home the victory, coming from behind to beat Sac State by five strokes.

Even though the Hornets did not record any victories in the fall, Sutherland said that the team played “good golf.”

“Overall, I felt like it was a real solid season,” Sutherland said. “We were in the middle of the pack in every event we played in.”

A semester removed from then, DeBorba is clear on what the team’s goal is now.

“Just get a win this semester,” he said.

Sutherland shares in DeBorba’s optimism and he has a very specific outcome in mind for the men’s season.

“I’d like to see us finish in the top half in all the events we play in and win one of them,” Sutherland said. “I think it’s a reasonably achievable goal.”

The spring season begins with the Braveheart Classic on March 3. That starts a seven-week span in which the team will compete in all five of its spring tournaments, culminating with the Sacramento State Invitational April 14-15.

“We’re all coming in a little rusty just because it was a hard winter to practice golf because it was raining so much,” DeBorba said. “But you can just tell that everyone got a little bit better, everyone’s game’s a little bit sharper and it’s only going to get better throughout the semester.”

“The men’s team is a very, very close-knit group of guys that plays very hard,” Sutherland said. “The future is very bright for the men’s team. There’s a lot to be very excited about.”

The women’s team also did not record a victory in its fall season, finishing each of its four tournaments near the middle of the leaderboard. Injuries to seniors Heather LeMaster, Emily Longcrier and Kim Coppin, as well as sophomore Brooke Green, inhibited the team’s ability to do well. Sutherland said having that many injuries on a golf team is very rare.

“We had an unusually high amount of injuries,” Sutherland said. “I would say we were a little bit disappointed, we were a high-expectation team.”

“It probably had an effect on the way the fall (semester) turned out,” LeMaster said of the injuries. “Our fall season could have been better.”

This semester, the women’s team will play in five tournaments, beginning with the Fresno State Invitational on Monday. The season ends April 21-23 with the Big Sky Conference Championships in Phoenix, Ariz., which the team won last season.

“Most of our best events are in the spring,” Sutherland said. “Our expectation on the women’s side is to win the conference.”

Sutherland said he expects the three seniors on the team to play well since they helped lead the team to its conference title in 2007.

“Whether we win Conference will have to do with how they play,” Sutherland said. “We’d be looking for them to be in that senior leader role.”

LeMaster said that winning Conference is “doable.”

“Hopefully we can be organized and have fun and work as a team,” she said. “We won it last year, but for our senior year, to go out like that, that would be awesome.”

Regardless of how the teams finish their spring seasons, Sutherland said the golf program is headed in the right direction and that he hopes to turn Sac State into one of the top 20 golf schools in the nation.

“Anything less than a competitive national program would be a disappointment for me,” Sutherland said. “As we move forward, the program is in very good shape on both sides.”

Fernando Gallo can be reached at [email protected]