How close was the Kansas men’s golf team to attaining its goal of making it to the NCAA tournament last year”

One stroke. Yep, a little putt that didn’t fall, an errant chip or maybe a drive that lost in the woods.

Just one stroke kept Ross Randall’s squad from swinging the sticks at the NCAA finals last June in Columbus, Ohio.

“It was kind of a frustrating season,” Randall said. “We were good enough, but we couldn’t get it done. A bunch of them played well at different times, but we never could get it all going at the same time.”

Not even at the NCAA Central Regionals in Little Rock, Ark., where the Jayhawks posted first- and second-round totals of 289 and 290. But on a third and final day, buffeted by a cold win, KU golfers shot a 308 that pushed them behind Colorado for the final NCAA berth.

“We couldn’t get it done at the very end,” Randall said with a sigh. “Just not being able to be consistent at the right time, we make a bunch of bogeys and finish one shot out of top 10.”

Despite losing two standout seniors in Travis Hurst and Casey Harbour, Randall’s cupboard is hardly bare.

Chris Marshall, an honorable mention All-American, will be the top player, according to Randall. But where the lineup goes from there, no one knows, not even Randall.

Juniors Tyler Hall and Andrew Price, along with sophomore Kevin Ward and red-shirt freshman Pete Krsnich, will be in the mix for the top five spots.

Freshmen Jason Sigler and Luke Trammell and former Free State High standout Charlie Santaularia, who transferred from Texas where he red-shirted last season, should also be in the thick of the competition.

“There’s going to be a big battle for those spots,” said Ward, who hails from Leawood. “But that’s exciting because that shows how truly talented we are.”

Almost all of the Jayhawks competed with and against one another at the KGA Fourball Championship at Alvamar in June.

While Krsnich and a former high school teammate, Jason Novascone, at Wichita Kapaun-Mt. Carmel won the tourney, Sigler says it was really just friendly competition.

“It was really good for us to have that time playing together and joking around,” said Sigler, a Leavenworth Immaculata product. “I think we all played pretty well.”

Most of the KU golfers have been swinging sticks every day this summer.

“I think we can win the Big 12,” said Krsnich, who won the Class 5A state title in 1999. “I think a lot of us are right at our best.”

But Krsnich said in order to do that the Jayhawks have to be more focused and, of course, consistent.

“We can’t just show up to tournaments and think we’re going to win just because we have Kansas on our shirts,” he said. “We have the talent, but we had the talent last year, too. We need to be consistent all the time.”