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Greg Martin made his debut as Rice's new men's golf coach. Martin left Mississippi State University men's golf team, where he won Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year awards in 1996 and 1997, to coach at Rice after the retirement of former Coach James Castaneda,

Rice's top four golfers finished with a combined score of 883 over the three-round event, led by sophomore Frederik Dejaeghere and junior C.W. Mallon. The two completed the par-71 course with scores of 218 and 219, respectively.

Dejaeghere's combined five-over performance tied him for 28th place individually, while Mallon finished tied for 31st.

Also competing for Rice were freshman J.R. Zatarain, senior Andy Rapp and junior Drew Conrad. Zatarain shot a team best in the second round, completing the course in 69 strokes after a 78-stroke outing in the first day.

The Owls' combined 299-stroke performance on the third day proved to be just short of eclipsing eventual 12th- and 13th-place finishers Kent State University and Virginia Tech University, which finished three strokes ahead of Rice.

Martin felt the Owls performed well at times but did not quite meet his expectations. "We had a positive second round when the guys really came back after a poor first round, but overall it was a little disappointing."

On the second day of play, Rice rebounded from a 16-over-par performance in the first round to shoot even par. The third round, however, proved to be brutal for the Owls' team score as the players turned in a stroke total of 15 over par.

Dejaeghere echoed Martin's disappointment about the team's overall performance, attributing the second day's lower scores to cup placement on many of the holes.

"They set the course differently in the second round so it didn't play like it usually does," he said. "I think we should have shot better than we did that day. We were a lot better than a lot of the teams that beat us. I don't think any of us should be satisfied."

The team's next tournament is the Southern Methodist University Invitational Oct. 19-20, and positive attitudes prevail as the team seems confident in their coach's ability.

"I think everyone on the team is sure [Martin] is going to make us better," Dejaeghere said. "He knows a lot about golf, and he makes us work and practice hard. It's just a shame we couldn't play better for him in the last tournament. We'll definitely be better next time."

Martin saw some promising play by the relatively young team. "Fred and C.W. played well, and our freshman J.R. had a great second round," he said. "With a young team I'm quite hopeful that we'll get better as the season goes on."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the October 16, 1998 issue.