UA golf coach Jim Anderson stood at the No. 18 tee box at the Tucson Country Club, nervously looking into a pair of binoculars. His cell phone buzzed with text updates from his players on the other side of the par-5 hole.
On the 18th green, Christian Banke lined up a putt that would clinch the Arizona Collegiate tournament’s individual title.
“It’s never easy,” Anderson thought to himself.
Except this time, it was.
Banke sunk the putt, winning his first college individual title at 14-under par and propelling the Wildcats to their fifth consecutive team crown at their home tournament.
“We were excited, and that’s honestly why we do it,” Anderson said of the late-January tournament. “We love the opportunity to compete. We love to feel the feelings that come with that kind of dramatic finish and to come out on the good side was very, very gratifying and I was happy for our team.”
The Wildcats will return to the course Thursday, when they tee off a the John Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii. Banke will again be a key to their success.
“I think his best attribute is his emotional control and his mental intelligence, his intellect as a golfer and his ability to control how he’s feeling in any moment,” Anderson said.
Arizona’s trip to Hawaii will be its first since 2020, when the Wildcats finished sixth as a team. This year’s event will be held at the Wailua Course; two years ago, it was held at a different course.
“Hawaii, without stating the obvious, is a trip that our team is very excited to prepare for,” Anderson said. “It’ll definitely be about the golf when we’re competing but we’ll try to carve out some time where the guys can hang out at the beach and do a little bit of sightseeing just because it is a long ways away and it is a really cool place to visit.”
Anderson said the new course could create issues for his team, but noted that other teams are in the same situation.
“I feel like we do a really good job of preparing for golf courses,” Anderson said. “We play so many different styles of courses here in Tucson that it lends itself to being prepared for different styles of courses. We’re excited for the challenge and know that it’s going to be a little bit different conditions that we’re seeing this week but we’ll be ready for it.”
UA women tee off in California
The Arizona women’s team, meanwhile, will return the links on Monday for the Lamkin Invitational in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
The UA is coming off a sixth-place finish at last month’s Superstition Challenge in Gold Canyon. The Wildcats shot 6-over par for the tournament.
Coach Laura Ianello had hoped for a better result, but said the tournament offered some positive takeaways.
“It’s early in the season and it gave us a really good understanding of where we need to work,” Ianello said.
Carolina Melgrati
It wasn’t all bad: Senior Ya Chun Chang finished the tournament with a score of 1-under par, and freshman Carolina Melgrati finished 1-over.
Melgrati has been one of Arizona’s booming stars so far this season. The Italian star ranks 40th in the country; she recently received an invitation to Augusta National Women’s event.
“It’s a big honor for her,” Ianello said. “She’s definitely one of the best amateurs in the world and I think, as a freshman, she’s just learning to gain confidence and believe that she can win on the collegiate level. She’s been quite the asset to our team this entire year.”
Ianello is expecting a “very hilly” course in California, one with fast and pristine greens.
“We looked over our stats from the weekend’s Superstition Challenge and we know the areas that we need to improve,” Ianello said. “We’re just going to take it one day at a time and prepare the absolute best way that we can with making sure that our weaknesses from this last week don’t come out.”
