On A Roll

Kudos to the UCO men's golf team, which captured its second straight tournament of the fall season Tuesday at the NSU Golf Classic in Muskogee. Head coach Dax Johnston has long told me that the fall campaign is just as important as the spring season and his team is rapidly building momentum for a storybook year.

Check out some of these numbers from the first two tournaments.

The Bronchos are 13-under-par as a team, having won their opening tournament on Abilene Christian's home course at minus-9 and at NSU's home-away-from-home at minus-4. UCO's five starters have been under par in 10 of their 20 combined rounds, with five rounds in the 60s. Three players are under par through four rounds -- Colby Shrum (minus-7), Dillon Rust (minus-4) and Josh Creel (minus-1).

Colby, a two-time All-American from the golfing mecca of Perry, Oklahoma that we both call home, has shown no rust from a self-imposed redshirt year taken in 2009-10. In fact, the senior star may be better, which is downright scary.

Dillon has taken his game to a new level after a successful redshirt freshman year that gave him additional confidence. Josh is a sophomore transfer from the University of Colorado who has already made a huge impact, having won the OGA stroke play title this summer and then tying for medalist honors at the NSU tourney in his second outing with the Bronchos.

And that's not even talking about Andrew Green, the extremely tall (6-7 or 6-8, depending on who you ask) and gifted junior who has scuffed along at two-over-par through the first two tournaments. Or junior Baer Aneshansley, who also redshirted last year after starting in 2008-09.

And this team has depth. UCO took two teams to Muskogee, one winning it and the other - with just four players instead of the normal five - finishing ahead of nine other teams in the huge 23-team field.

Dax has had incredible success during his tenure at UCO. The Division II national champion in 1996 while playing for the Bronchos, Dax has now won 39 titles and finished in the top-five in 91 of 116 tournaments as head coach. Remarkable numbers.

This has the makings of a special team at UCO, so keep an eye on this group as they go through the rest of their five-tournament fall schedule and into next spring. They have a big goal - that of winning the national championship in May 2011 - and I for one am not gonna bet against them.