Men's golf team welcomes new recruits, returning vets

Coach hopes new faces will bring consistency

By: Dennis English

Posted: 8/20/08

Coach Jim Bob Jackson characterizes this year's UNT men's golf team with two words: young and talented.

Returning from last year's squad are seniors Harris Graham and Nathan Sheen, junior Dustin Thompson and sophomores Michel Lee and Lance Byars.

New faces include transfer Clark Kinkade from SMU, and freshmen Ben Fargis from Amarillo High School and Ashley Crawford from Brisbane, Australia.

Jackson said he has a good crop of new players and thinks Kinkade is someone to watch.

"Clark will have an immediate impact on our team in a good way," Jackson said.

Jackson said last year's team, while probably his most talented since the 2003 team that won the Sun Belt Conference Championship, never quite reached its potential.

"We would have two rounds that were good, then one that would knock us out of the tournament," Jackson said. "We were just an inconsistent team."

He said with youth comes challenges, but he plans to instill practice habits early on and is optimistic that the team will become disciplined, play the percentages and make few mistakes.

The team returns to practice Aug. 26, and Thompson said the golfers are ready to get back to work. He said he spent the summer working on improving parts of his game.

"I'm pretty sure it goes around the team that everyone is ready to get back into competition," Thompson said.

This year's team will get its first taste of competition at the Mean Green Classic tournament at Lantana Country Club on Sept. 8.

Last year the NT men's golf team had its best finish, second place, at the Mean Green Classic.

"We're going to be young, we're going to have some growing pains, but I'm excited about it and I'm ready for the year to get going," Jackson said.