University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Is Cazaubon Really The First?
4/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, April 28, 2010, 4:44 p.m.
You have to be kidding me right? Are you sure about that? Did you look up the days in the Missouri Valley? Are you on something? All of those questions had to be asked when digging up the golf records to see how many times North Texas has had a Freshman of the Year after Rodolfo Cazaubon picked up the award this year. The answer was shocking but until today zero was the answer.
Cazaubon capped off a pretty wild week for the golf team in Alabama by picking up the school's first ever Freshman of the Year honor. Yep, that encompasses All-Americans and some of the legends of golf that have played at North Texas, but Cazaubon is the first.
Part of it is that conference's such as the Missouri Valley, Gulf Coast, and even the Southland did not have the award. The other part is some of the greats at North Texas didn't become great until after their freshman year.
That just speaks to the consistency and type of year Cazaubon turned in. 10 starts this year and Cazaubon had the lowest stroke average at 72.75 for a North Texas golfer in seven years. It will probably be impossible to tell if he has the lowest stroke average by a freshman in school history, but it's safe to say it's in the ballpark.
10 starts this season also brought home three top-5 finishes and two second place finishes. His worst finish this year was 28th in the opening tournament in the spring. He was in the top-25 in eight of his 10 tournaments this season.
One of his partners was another freshman Carlos Ortiz. He turned in the round of the year with a 64 on Monday and in 11 starts this season he chalked up eight top-25 finishes.
Not bad building blocks for Brad Stracke. The Mean Green's demise at the SBC Tournament came from a lack consistency and depth. Senior's Dustin Thompson and Peter Fallon were good for North Texas this season, Fallon even captured the JL Lewis individual title, but to win a team championship the Mean Green needed more from them.
When Ortiz faltered badly in the second round with an 83, Fallon, Thompson, Marco Scarola, and to a certain extent Cazaubon was unable to pick up the slack. In the team scoring in golf, the margin of error is minimal. You can drop one bad score, but not two, or three. If you have a couple of bad scores go up, others have to pick up the pieces and that didn't happen in the second round for North Texas.
It will be a difficult pill to swallow for a few days knowing if the second round is better by just 8-10 strokes, things could have been different, but at the same time looking at the future is reason enough to be encouraged.
Stracke has to find two or three more players to have his championship team in place, but with a newly minted Freshman of the Year, that's something this new breed of golfers at North Texas can have you thinking about.
