Winston Churchill once said, “Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole.” It happens to be a game Willamette men’s golf dominates. The men have won four conference championships in the last five years, but the squad placed second last season after Whitman narrowly wedged first. Now, using a new championship scoring system, the Bearcats are just ahead of the Blues in a battle to claim the 2025 title.
Willamette returned this season by taking the NWC Fall Classic, finishing 14-under-par. Whitman finished second, scoring 9-under-par. While the ʼCats lead the race towards conference champions, they have a long road ahead of them. Formerly, NWC golf’s three-legged championship scoring system was point-based; first place won 8 points, second won 7, and so on, with the Championship itself worth twice as many points as the Fall or Spring Classics. Now, however, champions are crowned by the lowest stroke total across all three main events: the Fall Classic, the Spring Classic, and the NWC Championship.
Addressing last year’s second-place finish, golfer Lucas Paul (ʼ26) stated that the team’s ability to bounce back and their depth in the lineup gives them a new advantage over Whitman this year. He mentioned a key contributor to last year’s loss was the Bearcat’s youth: “Whitman probably has a little bit more experience than us with some older players.” Indeed, over 70% of Willamette’s team last year were underclassmen.
This year has shown Willamette growing as a conference leader. Dominant players such as Oliver Smith (ʼ26), who finished first individually in the Fall Classic, shooting 9-under-par, and AJ Papajohn (ʼ27), who placed No. 4 individually in the highly competitive Space City Classic on Feb. 25, indicate a strong future.
This year’s Fall Classic only vindicates that future. Not only did the team place first, but on the first day, all five players finished under par. This accomplishment has only happened once before in Daugherty’s 13 years as a coach, a testament to the team’s new ability as they enter the back nine of the season.
Their recent success doesn’t necessarily spell an easy return to No. 1, however. The week after the Fall Classic, Willamette played in the Confluence Classic, hosted by Whitman. Willamette struggled, finishing fifth having shot 16-over-par compared to No. 1 Whitman’s 2-over-par. The Confluence was partially played on Wine Valley Golf Course in Walla Walla, Washington, the site of the upcoming Spring Classic.
Luckily for the Bearcats, the Confluence result isn’t one of the three events that contribute to the new championship scoring — events where Willamette tends to step up. With the old scoring system, no team that scored outside the top three in the Fall Classic had won the conference. The new system, Paul observed, creates more excitement and allows for more comebacks.
An important note on scoring: only five of the nine players can contribute to a team's score. The other four must compete individually. Although this system could invite unfriendly competition, the Willamette team sees it as an advantage. Paul added, “It just helps us grow as a team because you can understand, ‘What can I do to help this guy be the best version of himself?’” Paul described the team as a family. Training around 20-25 hours per week, players spend a lot of their free time together, markedly seen in a team Buc-ee’s visit from their latest event, the Space City Classic, in Houston.
While teamwork is a driver for much team success, golf is infamously a mental game. Mistakes are inevitable and common, but the recovery from those mistakes will make or break one’s score. For Paul, this means “being able to trust yourself” and “[staying] in the moment, [as] the most important shot is the next one.”
There’s still a lot of golf left to play for Willamette. With Whitman right on their tail, the season is still up in the air. Either way, the Spring Classic and NWC Championship are bound to excite, though in what capacity remains to be seen.
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