BYU Sends Golf Coach Out a Winner : Golf: Tucker, retiring after this season, watches Cougars win WAC title. SDSU is third.

EL CAJON — Whatever else happens in the Western Athletic Conference golf tournament next year, the eight underdogs at least know they won’t lose to a Karl Tucker-coached Brigham Young again.

That’s for the simple reason that Tucker, one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history, is retiring.

Tucker, 65, the LaVell Edwards of WAC golf, more than matches his football counterpart in conference domination. His Cougars on Saturday won their third consecutive WAC tournament title at Singing Hills Country Club and Tucker’s 19th in 31 seasons.

In his career Tucker’s teams have won an NCAA title, finished second twice and placed in the top five 14 times.

“There wasn’t any doubt we had to beat them (to win the title),” San Diego State Coach Denny Stolz said. “Going in, we know, one, that they’re one of the top four or five teams in the nation, plus they have tremendous depth. We played them last week and their No. 6 kid won the tournament.”

For the better part of three decades Tucker has owned this tournament. “We probably put more emphasis on this tournament than anything else on the year,” he said. “The WAC has always been our tournament. We want to win that, qualify for regionals, then hopefully go on to the NCAAs.”

Tucker, a full-time professor in BYU’s physical education department, said he still enjoys coaching but that at 65, he’s ready to change his routine. “I’m not burned out or anything like that, but there are some other directions I want to take,” he said.

BYU had a three-day, 54-hole total of 857 to win the title by eight strokes over New Mexico. San Diego State placed third at 870, followed by Utah (877), Wyoming (883), Texas-El Paso (887), Colorado State and Air Force tied at 902 and Hawaii (909).

The Aztecs had hoped to give BYU a run on their home course, then had hoped to finish second, but faltered on the back nine Saturday after playing well early.

Likewise, Aztec sophomore Kevin Riley, in the running for individual medalist honors, fell off in the backstretch and steady New Mexico junior Brian Kortan played even par to take the individual title with a five-under 210.

Riley, who shot 75 Saturday, finished at 214 and was passed by two others, BYU’s Ryan Rhees at 212 and New Mexico’s Tim Herron at 213. Each shot 70 Saturday, the best rounds of the day on Singing Hills’ Willow Glen course.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Stolz said. “We definitely wanted to stay in second. We knew it would be difficult to dislodge BYU. We had our chances, we just didn’t get it quite done.”

Riley, looking forward to next week’s NCAA Regionals in Tucson, said, “We thought we could win this, I think we were too excited because we don’t play in too many big tournaments. On our own course we thought we had a great chance to win. But BYU wore us down. They’re obviously a great team.”

Kortan, a junior who shot a 65 Friday, didn’t match his brilliance Saturday, but he played well while others struggled. “I had a lot of chances for birdies and didn’t cash in, but I played solid golf,” he said.

“I had 13 straight pars and only missed two greens. Kevin never got it going; I played a real smart round. It was tough out there with the wind swirling. Nobody was making many putts.”

Said Riley: “I don’t have my confidence right now.”

The same can’t be said of BYU, which expects to win. “We try not to think of it (as Tucker’s swan song),” said Cougar Mike Weir, who tied Riley at 214. “We try not to be sentimental but in the back of our mind we wanted to win it for him.”