As most coaches would, Colorado’s Roy Edwards dived deep in reassessing his men’s golf program after a string of disappointing years.
After the Buffaloes failed to qualify for NCAA regionals in 2010, 2011 and 2012, Edwards grabbed a CU men’s golf media guide. He studied rosters, schedules and statistics to determine what had made the best Buffs teams successful.
The result of that research is reflected by the makeup of this year’s Colorado team, which begins play Thursday at the NCAA regional in Noblesville, Ind. CU’s five-man lineup is composed of three foreign players and two Coloradans.
Members of this year’s team also helped the Buffs reach NCAA regionals in 2013 and 2014.
“I looked back at our history, and the best players in our program usually have been from the state of Colorado or they have been from overseas,” Edwards said.
Colorado’s top two players in scoring average are identical twins from Germany: sophomores Jeremy Paul (71.72) and Yannik Paul (72.13). A junior from Denmark, Philip Juel-Berg (74.13), ranks fourth on the team in scoring.
The other two players on the Buffs’ travel squad were in-state recruits: senior David Oraee (74.13) from Greeley West High School and junior Drew Trujillo (75.44) from Montrose. Trujillo was a late addition to the lineup for the regional as a replacement for regular Ethan Freeman (74.63), who is ill. Freeman, a sophomore, played high school golf at Kent Denver.
The common denominator: None of the five is afraid of snow. During his nine years as CU’s coach, Edwards has discovered that trying to lure blue-chip golfers from warm-weather states to Colorado largely has become an effort in futility.
“I’m trying to attract players that come from similar or worse climates than Colorado,” Edwards said.
Of course, Oraee, Freeman and Trujillo knew all about the shortened golf season in their home state. CU’s international players, well, thought they did.
The Paul twins made their official visits to Colorado during early autumn in 2012.
“It was awesome, about 80 degrees and sunny,” said Jeremy Paul, who likes to call himself the “older brother” because he was born one minute before Yannik.
Jeremy chuckled when asked if Edwards had promised that those 80 degree days would last.
The answer is no. No promises.
“I expected the weather in Boulder in the winter to be a little better than it is,” Jeremy Paul said. “For golf, sometimes you’d like it better. But at least it’s sunny all the time.”
CU’s state-of-the-art indoor practice facility at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie allows the school’s men’s and women’s teams to hit balls during inclement weather and to also work on their putting stroke.
“It’s not too bad,” Yannik Paul said of Front Range weather.
“In Germany, it’s not always so great for golf. We get a lot of rain in Germany, and we also get some snow. So it wasn’t a big change.”
The Paul brothers played on German national teams and were considered to be top international recruits. Jeremy and Yannik insisted on playing college golf together, and that limited their options because few top U.S. programs had scholarships for both.
Colorado became their best offer.
Jeremy Paul said the twins began to think about playing college golf in the U.S. during their sophomore year of high school. In no surprise, they have the same major (operations management) at CU.
“The system here is totally different than what we have in Germany,” Jeremy said. “Here, you can study for a college degree and play golf at the same time. In Europe, you don’t have that possibility because universities there don’t have sports systems.”
Jeremy and Yannik started to hit golf balls at age 6. They began to learn the game from a personal coach shortly thereafter.
CU has another German national on its roster, freshman Ben Bradley, who is not on the travel squad for the NCAA regional but already has shown promising potential.
“Their mechanics are very refined from having started at such a young age,” Oraee said. “They learn under a more structured system for junior golf.”
The Paul twins immediately earned spots in Colorado’s tournament lineup as freshmen.
“Our international players are good guys, good students, and they love the University of Colorado,” Edwards said. “That’s what you want.”
The University of Denver men’s golf team has featured international players for years. This season, DU’s roster included two players from Switzerland and one each from Canada, Mexico and Norway. DU did not qualify as a team for an NCAA regional, but the Norwegian, Petter Mikalsen, was selected to play as an individual in the San Diego regional.
Colorado State’s men’s golf team had two international players: freshman Max Oelfke from Germany and senior Patrick Winther from Denmark. Oelfke is a friend of the Paul brothers.
“A lot of European players are interested in coming over to the U.S., and it helps if there are players from Europe already on a team,” Jeremy Paul said.
Tom Kensler: tkensler@denverpost.com or
NCAA men’s golf tournament
Five teams from each of six regionals will advance to the NCAA Championship final, May 29-June 3 in Bradenton, Fla. Colorado is seeded ninth in its regional. The Buffaloes are ranked No. 48 nationally by Golfweek magazine. Since regional play began in 1989, CU has advanced to the championship final four times, the last in 2002. This year marks the sixth regional appearance in nine years under coach Roy Edwards.
