RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of the Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's golf team built up momentum in the fall season that will give them a good start heading into the spring. 
 
"It was a good fall," UTRGV Head Coach Houston Moore said. "It started off a little slow but by the end we had a lot of young guys step up and play well and had the ball rolling towards the end of the semester for the last two events with two top-four finishes coming down the stretch. I think we built up a lot of momentum rolling into the spring, and we are excited to tee it up for the first one in Playa Del Carmen in February."
 
The Vaqueros opened the season with back-to-back 10^th place finishes but closed out the fall with back-to-back fourth place finishes at the Greir Jones Invitational and the Monterrey Collegiate Classic. 
 
The Vaqueros finished with a team score of 16-under par 848, which at the time was the fourth-lowest in program history. They then capped off the fall with a 23-under 841 in Monterrey, which was the second-lowest three-round score in program history. 
 
The fall season saw a good mix of returners in the lineup with some freshmen and that was the right formula for success down the stretch of the fall.
 
"The biggest takeaway from the fall, as a team, was just the consistency of our older players and then our younger players stepping up," Moore said. "I think that's huge for us moving forward and we are really excited about it."
 
The returners were paced by senior Javier Neira Garcia and juniors Juan Luis de Bethencourt Duque and Taj Sutherland. Garcia and Duque played in all four tournaments this fall with Garcia leading the team in scoring average with 70.8 and Duque posting a 72.2 scoring average. 
 
Both Garcia and Duque combined to lead the Vaqueros in each of the tournaments with Garcia posting a pair of top-10 finishes. Sutherland posted his best outing in Monterrey where he finished tied for ninth, just one shot behind Garcia. 
 
The trio set the pace for the Vaqueros this fall and help raise the bar for the newcomers as well. 
 
"I think Javier's game travels everywhere, he's really solid, and is a good ball striker," Moore said. "Juan Luis is a really smart player and has worked all semester balancing engineering with a 4.0 and trying to be the best he can be out there on the course too. We have a lot of trust in those two and then Taj came on strong in the last event. We are excited about that. His game is in the right place right now and is also a good ball striker. We are excited about all three of these guys."
 
The Vaqueros had three newcomers that were consistent for them in the fall in Emilio Gil Leyva, Esteban Gonzalez, and Eddie Lai. 
 
Gil Leyva played in all four tournaments while Gonzalez and Lai played in three of them. Gil Leyva posted a scoring average of 73.8 while Gonzalez posted an average of 74.4 and Lai posted an average of 75.7. 
 
There were definitely flashes of how good this group can be throughout the fall as seen with Gil Leyva's multiple rounds of 67 at the Graeme McDowell Invitational and at the Grier Jones Invitational. Gonzalez posted three rounds of under-par down the stretch of the season. 
 
While there were flashes of excellence, there was still plenty of room to grow.
 
"I don't think I was surprised," Moore said. "I would say they exceeded typical freshmen expectations. They shot some really low rounds, but they also had some freshmen moments where they were in a position to finish high on the leaderboard, but they had never been in that position as a Division I golfer. There were some learning curves but it's better for it to happen now instead than in April. We are excited about that. There were a lot of good flashes by those three freshmen that traveled this fall."
 
The success the Vaqueros saw this fall doesn't change their expectations moving forward. In fact, the fall helps them realize that what they are doing is working and that they need to trust in that plan. 
 
The spring will bring more tough competition and new golf courses and the more golf this group plays, the better they will all be. 
 
"I have had the same expectations from the beginning," Moore said. "I think the fall solidifies those expectations as a whole. I think we have a stronger spring that we did in the fall so we will play more high-end fields and the more reps these freshmen get, the better they'll be. The more reps they get with our upperclassmen, the more they will learn, which is really exciting. We are a lot deeper too. There are 11 guys that are ready to play and ready to fight for a spot. I think this group will push each other forward."
 
All in all, the fall was good for the Vaqueros. They finished the season ranked at 163 in the Spikemark rankings and that was an improvement from where they finished in the spring. 
 
Currently, the Vaqueros are ranked second in the WAC behind only Grand Canyon, who ranks 101.
 
"I think this was a successful fall season," Moore said. "We jumped up nearly 100 spots in the rankings finishing the fall at 163. That's a step in the right direction. The guys are pleased of where we are at, and we can keep moving forward if we play well."
 
The Vaqueros want to carry this momentum into the spring and have now turned their attentions to doing so. 
 
It will take the same mindset and hard work that they put in this past fall to make sure they repeat more of the same in the spring but they can't forget to have fun too.
 
"We need to keep improving on those things that we are deficient in and maintain the same mindset," Moore said. "We are going to work hard when we are out there and when we go out to an event, we are going to have fun and play our game. That has been my motto since I have been here, and I think these guys like that as well."
 
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