Men’s Golf Closes Book on Strong Fall Season

LARAMIE, Wyoming (11/20/24) – The University of Wyoming men’s golf team enjoyed a noteworthy fall season. The Pokes contended in a tournament they had never participated in prior, matched a program-best team score and had one golfer match a tournament scoring school record.

Let’s start, appropriately, at the beginning. The 2024-25 season commenced at the Palouse Collegiate in mid-September.

Head coach Joe Jensen elected to open his team’s season at a new competition for a couple different reasons. One was the fact that the “normal” start to Wyoming’s season, the Ram Masters Invitational, fell a little deeper in September than in years past. The second reason was that a couple Cowboys call the state of Washington home, so giving them a pseudo home tournament was an added bonus.    

And it was one of those Washington-born Cowboys that helped Wyoming contend. Kristof Panke fired a 199 (-14), which tied the program record for lowest score to par in a 54-hole format. It was good enough for a third-place finish in a tournament where Wyoming was the lone team with three individuals in the top 10, as Patrick Azevedo and Jaren Calkins also accomplished that feat.

Speaking of Calkins, he recorded the Pokes’ second top-five finish of the fall, doing so at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational. He placed fourth at 211 (-5), while Davis Seybert topped the leaderboard in the individual competition after carding a 207 (-9). 

Panke returned to the top five at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invite. He recorded a 205 (-11) to place fourth.

Panke spearheaded a strong effort from the Cowboys in Boulder. As a team they went 29-under par, which matched the school-record lowest team score in a 54-hole format.

Part of that effort was Calkins boasting his third top-10 finish of the young season. In all, it was Wyoming sixth top-10 finish of the fall.  

Many of those top-10 finishes are a byproduct of strong individual rounds. The Pokes registered 27 rounds in the 60s throughout September, October and November.

In addition to Panke and Calkins leading the Pokes at different points this season, Azevedo and Leid have also paced the team. Azevedo led the charge at the Ram Masters Invite and Leid did so at the Ka’anapali Classic Collegiate Invite en route to being named Mountain West Conference Men’s Freshman Golfer of the Month.

Needless to say, it has been an eventful first few tournaments for Wyoming in 2024-25. And the Cowboys will look for even more highlights this spring.