With all of its players returning, the Sacramento State men’s golf team has high expectations for the upcoming spring season.

“We have the talent, honestly, to compete with those in our region and potentially win every tournament,” said junior Jake Johnson. “Coach expects much higher play from us after last season.”

Johnson finished with the highest individual score at the Purple and Red Invitational in fall 2010. He believes they can achieve their ultimate goal, which is to finish in the Top 100 so they can hopefully get a bid to play in the NCAA Regional Tournament.

Right now the men’s team stands somewhere in the 130 range. Though the team’s main goal is to reach the Top 100, the men would love to reach the Top 75, which would guarantee a spot in the NCAA Regional Tournament.

The team’s high expectations come not only from the players, but from the coach as well.

Christopher Hall, head coach of the men’s golf team, is expecting higher play from his players because of the potential they showed toward the end of last season.

In the fall 2010, the team was able to win the Purple and Red Invitational in Layton, Utah, and finish seventh at the Bill Cullum Invitational in Simi Valley, Calif.

In the Bill Cullum Invitational, the last tournament of the season, the men had a forgettable first round. But in the last two rounds, they ended with the best scores in the entire tournament when compared with the other schools that competed, Hall said.

Hall has a master’s degree in sports psychology from the University of Fresno and is putting it to good use in order to develop the players’ mental game. Hall also has his players participating in other drills to help them expand on their all-around game.

“We’re working on stuff all the time,” Hall said. “We’re doing a lot of new stuff like short game practice and mental skills training.”

The players agree.

“The mental game is so critical in golf,” Johnson said. “It’s something we all need to work on.

One of the biggest challenges the men face when competing in tournaments is having all of the players compete at their full potential, something Hall believes can be achievable in their upcoming tournaments.

“The biggest obstacle we have to deal with is trying to get everyone to play at their peak at the same time,” Hall said.

The team travels to tournaments with five players, but is only allowed to keep the four highest scores.

Improving from last season is something that is not going to come without hard work and dedication. These student-athletes not only face pressures on the golf course, but off it as well.

In the past season, the team had three out of four tournaments with just about a week in between them to prepare.

“When we get tournaments back to back, it’s hard because we have to stay up on our school work so our teachers sometimes get mad at us,” said Grant Rappleye, last season’s Conference Player of the Year. “Other times we spend more time doing homework than practicing so it affects our play.”

This season, however, the tournaments they will be playing in are more spaced out, which gives them more time to prepare as well as keep up with their school work.

The team will be playing in five tournaments this season with about three weeks between each.

The men keep a chart in Hall’s office to remind themselves of all the things they need to work on, and their goals for the season. The players have about three things listed under each of their names they hope to work on before the season starts.

Some examples are: having a more versatile short game, having a higher ball flight, and one even hoped to develop the “nastiest short game ever.”

The simplest item on the list was to “stay positive.”

“The key is believing in ourselves and playing to our potential,” Johnson said.

AnthonyHonrade can be reached at [email protected]