The Fresno City College men’s golf team finished third with a combined team score of 398, behind Reedley and Modesto in its first conference meeting on their own golf course at Fig Garden Country Club on March 2.

Before the the first day of the meeting, the Rams went into the meeting confident. They had just won their annual alumni match as well as finish in the top five of in the Stanford Invitational at Stanford University.

As this is the Rams’ home course, they did have the advantage of knowing the layout of each hole and best avenues of getting the best score.

On the first day of the meeting, the Rams played well, getting the swings that they wanted, placing balls in the middle of the fairway and finishing holes in one or two strokes once on the green. Second year player, Conner Chuhlantseff, had the best individual score of anyone on the roster, scoring 76.

His score was good enough to earn the fifth top score of the two day event.

“I did pretty well during this meeting; playing off the tee was the best part of my game,” Chuhlantseff said.  “Being able to place each ball in the center of the green.”

On the second, day the Rams started to show signs of slowing down and struggled in their game. They were unable to get some of the golf swings to go the way they wanted and had a hard time finishing holes. Not being able to finish holes in a quicker pace allowed like Reedley and Modesto to shorten the gap and eventually take the lead.

“During this match, I try to have an empty mind clearing through the process, picture what I am going to do and try to execute to the best of my ability,” Gilbert Rodriguez, a Rams golfer, said.

Although the result is not what the Rams would prefer, head coach Jennie Paniccan-Klein still had high praises for her team and how they played.

She said she still has confidence in the team moving forward as they have more matches to improve their game.

“I will build our team to see where we are; I am confident as we have 14 players on our active roster and only six can play in matches,” said Paniccan-Klein. “So the competitive drive for each player is pretty high for them to do well.”

The Rams next golf match is a Central Valley Conference meeting in the Lemoore Country Club on Mar 9.