UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Despite Low Budget, Anteater Golf Team Stays Under Par With the Best

Coach Steve Ainslie returned from the NCAA championships three years ago feeling pretty good about the state of Anteater golf . . . until then-Athletic Director Tom Ford welcomed him home with news that the program’s funding had been cut 40%.

That pretty much dashed Ainslie’s plans to ask for a raise.

The NCAA limit for golf scholarships these days is 4 1/2, which works out to about five times as many scholarships as Ainslie has. Understandably, there are certain athletes he can’t get.

“Yeah, Tiger Woods was all ready to come to UCI, but he wanted a red Camaro and I only had pink ones,” he said.

But Ainslie is quick to point out that the new administration has been very supportive and who knows, maybe another half-scholarship is in the works. In the meantime, the Anteaters are making do with what they’ve got and that translates to a 122-7 record against tournament competition.

The Anteaters have won four of seven tournaments this season--Irvine is competing in the Western Intercollegiate Tournament at Pasatiempo Golf Course in Santa Cruz today--and have finished second, third and fourth in the other three. They’re ranked No. 25 in the country.

“We’ve got eight really good players who are pushing each other,” Ainslie said. “In the past, we’ve had one or two top players, but our depth this year is the difference.”

Just ask Australian Shawn Morley, who was the school’s athlete of the month in October after finishing second in a tournament in Arizona. Now, he can’t seem to wedge a spot in the lineup.

Seniors Steve Holmes and Tim Hart are Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, followed by junior Jesse Lanham, sophomore Darren Humphrey and junior Kevin Yamauchi. Most college tournaments employ a format for five golfers, with the worst round of the day discarded.

When they won the Anteater Invitational at Coto de Caza Tuesday, the Anteaters threw out a 74, which would have been the best round for some of the teams competing. Humphrey won the individual medalist honors with a 69-73-68 for a three-under-par 210 and a 10-stroke victory.

“The lineup is basically set by season stroke average, but the guys don’t care about who’s No. 1 and who’s five,” Ainslie said. “They just want to be one of the five in the van when we leave for a tournament.

“It may sound silly because we don’t have to pass each other the ball or anything, but the chemistry on this team is special. The guys really get along.

“Four of them, Holmes, Humphrey, Hart and Morley, live together down on 36th Street (in Newport Beach), a block from the ocean and their place is sort of party central. They hang out together, practice together and help each other get better.”

The NCAA regionals will be May 18-20 at New Mexico’s University Golf Course in Albuquerque and the Anteaters figure to be there shooting for a spot in the championships May 31-June 3 on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.

“When we sat down and had our first team meeting last year, our goal was to make the regionals,” Ainslie said. “And unless we die, we’re going.”

*

Staying for the courses: Ainslie has been coaching golf at Irvine for 16 years, so he knows all about budgetary shoestrings and has refined his recruiting style accordingly.

“The first thing I try to sell at Irvine is academics,” he said. “I’ve had more than 100 players in the program here and only two haven’t graduated. That’s what the parents want to hear, of course, but I’m looking for kids that want to hear that too.

“That’s why my dentist, my doctor and my accountant are all former players.”

So there are some perks for a golf coach at Irvine after all.

“I have to look for diamonds in the rough to some extent, but I haven’t lost that many kids to schools where they could get a better scholarship deal,” he said. “After I walk them around this campus and then take them to a few of the courses we play, it’s not such a hard sell.”

The Anteaters play eight golf courses on a regular basis and Ainslie believes Irvine’s “home” layouts are as good or better than any team’s.

Irvine’s elite eight: Coto de Caza, Big Canyon, Dove Canyon, Tijeras Creek, Tustin Ranch, Yorba Linda, Santa Ana Country Club and Newport Beach Country Club.

*

Are we having fun? Irvine’s men’s volleyball team, winner of two conference games in two seasons, is 8-11, 6-10 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

This is a program that also suffers from a serious scholarship disadvantage, but part of the team’s success this season can be attributed to a new attitude.

“Let’s be honest,” said senior opposite hitter Leland Quinn, who is sixth in the nation with 6.95 kills per game. “We have half of a scholarship and other teams have a full load. Some of us are here because we didn’t get offers from other places. Two of our starters didn’t even play in high school.

“We’re the grunts, but we’ve got guts and over the last couple of years, we’ve grown. We’ve seen how the good teams execute and we’ve come to really love the sport.

“There’s always this huge fear of losing, but we decided we were going to have fun regardless. Really, it’s about athletes not taking themselves so gosh darn seriously and just enjoying the experience.”

Anteater notes

Senior David Mayeda from University High normally concentrates on the 400 intermediate hurdles, but he added the flat 400 to his repertoire Saturday at the Big West Challenge Cup at Cal State Fullerton, and the experiment was a success. After winning the hurdles in 52.56 seconds, Mayeda finished second in the 400 in 47.99, the fastest by an Irvine man in four years. . . . Irvine’s men’s tennis team is 34th in the latest national rankings. Senior Chris Tontz is 35th in the singles ratings, and sophomore Marc Tardif is 70th; Tontz and Fred Bach are No. 40 in doubles . . . The annual UCI Athletic Foundation Golf Tournament will be played Monday, June 26, at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach. For information, call (714) 824-5550.