By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – The sprawling Bayonet Black Horse Golf Course in Seaside, Calif., is among the most scenic on the West Coast.
 
Featuring fescue-framed fairways, serrated-edge bunkers and slickly-contoured greens, it presents even high-level golfers with unique challenges and mental puzzles across its par-72, 6,802-yard layout. Add in cold and wet conditions that arrived last Monday and the course becomes downright daunting.
 
“Monterey is a special area for golf, and Bayonet is probably one of the best and toughest courses we are going to play all year,” said Western Washington head coach Luke Bennett, whose men’s team won last week’s Cal State Monterey Bay Otter Invitational. “It really shows you which teams are clicking, and it’s not an easy golf course – it’s the whole package. It can play longer than most of the courses we play, and when the greens are firm and have a bit of bounce or speed to them, they make you think a little bit. You start to second guess yourself. Rather than trying to be pin high all the time, you just try to be in a good location to make par. That changes your mindset and how you play golf.”
 
Bennett’s crew of five players managed its way not just to a win, but to a runaway victory among a field of 16 of the top teams in the NCAA Division II Western United States. The Vikings posted a three-round score of 9-over-par 873 (295-299-279), comfortably holding off second-place Colorado State-Pueblo by an 11-stroke margin. The team win – WWU’s second of the fall season – earned it Great Northwest Athletic Conference Team of the Week honors announced on Monday.
 
“The team itself has been playing really solid all fall,” said Bennett, whose team’s average of 284.4 strokes per round is the best in the conference after four events. “On the team right now I have some guys who are very consistent in their ball striking and their ability to make their stuff repeat. Even when they don’t have their best stuff, they are able to keep the ball in play which is huge. They all have very tidy short games too.”
 
Steady rain that commenced right around the turn during the second round on Monday made for a frustrating finish to the opening day of the event. Soppy conditions slowed the pace of play, and darkness ensued to the point where low visibility prevented the completion of the second round. Bennett’s players hurried in an attempt to complete as many holes as possible, as any carryover to the next day would disrupt the morning routine of beginning the third and final round. But in their haste WWU wound up counting a triple bogey and found itself 18-over-par by the time Round 2 was said and done.
 
Whether it’s bouncing back from a single bad shot or an entire afternoon of miserable weather, savvy golfers know it’s a sport that requires perhaps the shortest memory of them all. Bennett’s players showed mastery of that concept after awakening to near-perfect weather conditions on Tuesday, ripping the course apart with a 9-under-par 279 team score to seal the win. It was the fifth time this fall the Vikings broke 280 in a round. “The first day was tough with the rain, and we tried to hustle to finish it,” said Bennett. “Our goals are always to reset as much as possible throughout a round and especially after an official round. We try not to get too high or low. It was a frantic finish that everyone had to deal with, but it didn’t mean we weren’t playing well. The final round was a fresh start, and the maturity of the guys on the team is a huge asset.”
 
The star of the show was GNAC Player of the Week Conrad Brown, who carded a 2-under-par 214 (72-73-69) to win the event among a field of 95 players. Brown and Colorado State-Pueblo’s Marius Dosiere emerged in a tie for first, but due to the ThunderWolves’ travel arrangements there was no time for a playoff hole. So tournament officials applied a scorecard tiebreaker comparing the players’ scores hole-by-hole working backwards from the 18th of the final round. Brown’s birdie on the par-3, 200-yard 17th hole gave him the nod as individual medalist. “He is an exceptional ball striker, and you don’t see many weaknesses in Conrad’s game,” Bennett said on Brown, who tied for 80th nationally as a member of the Vikings’ 2023 NCAA Championships squad. “He is doing a better job of staying patient, compared to his younger years, and understanding the quality and value of a par. On a course like this, pars are going to do wonders. His experience and staying patient throughout the round helped him be a contender.”
 
Brown, who returned to the Vikings midway through last year after a short stint at the Division I ranks, matched his best-ever collegiate finish with the strong performance. His other tie for first came in his collegiate debut in the fall of 2021, when he posted a 7-under-par 209 (73-69-67) at the Saint Martin’s Invitational and came up short in a playoff hole. Having competed in all 12 of the Vikings’ rounds this season, Brown lowered his 2025-26 scoring average to 70.3 strokes per round which is the top mark in the GNAC.
 
The Vikings’ staunch response to Monday’s adversity also had much to do with the leadership of senior Peter Dionne-Yahr. One of the conference’s top returning players – earning first-team all-league in each of the last two seasons – his tournament performance displayed the very essence of maturity and the forgetfulness that is so crucial to the game. In near-zero visibility in Monday’s waning hours, Dionne-Yahr’s tee shot on the par-4, 365-yard third hole (his 17th of the round) went unfound and ultimately led to his final score of 5-over-par 77.
 
He could have easily let that frustration carry over into his final round, but instead he turned it into a season-best 5-under-par 67 his final time through the course. Dionne-Yahr’s stellar final round included six birdies and an eagle on the par-5, 548-yard first hole. Dionne-Yahr annihilated the course’s four par-5 holes, playing them at a collective 10-under-par on the week with seven birdies, an eagle and four pars. He wound up tied for seventh place with a three-round total of 3-over-par 219 (75-77-67).
 
Dionne-Yahr lowered his season scoring average to 72.2 strokes per round, slotting him ninth in the conference thus far. His career scoring average of 72.81 strokes per round across 77 rounds since the fall of 2022 ranks as the fifth-lowest in GNAC history. “He’s not a vocal leader – he leads by example, and we have always talked about just be yourself and keep doing what you’re doing,” Bennett said on one of the most reliable players he has ever coached. “The younger guys take notice of his work ethic and patience. In the beginning of the fall he showed a little more frustration because he wants it so bad for his senior year, but this week he had a little bounce in his step and did a great job this week.”
 
The impact from upperclassmen like Brown and Dionne-Yahr has rubbed off on the entire WWU roster, as evidenced by the successful results this fall. Freshman Calvin Cakarnis posted a 2-over-par 218 (72-72-74) to finish sixth last week, and sophomore Rex Wilson has already earned a GNAC Player of the Week award this fall and ranks fourth in the conference at 71.3 strokes per round. Junior Nick Ennis is sixth in the league at 72.0 strokes per round and Christopher Zamani is tied with Dionne-Yahr for ninth with a scoring average of 72.2.
 
WWU finished third (of 14 teams) at the Chico State Wildcat Classic in its season opener, won the SMU Kevin Bishop Invitational (among 15 teams) on Sept. 26-27 and finished third (of 14 teams) at its own invitational Sept. 29-30. Perhaps most compelling among the consistency in triumph has been the flexibility within the lineup. WWU has used three different lineups without sacrificing results, with six players averaging par or better and all 10 players listed on the roster earning at least one tournament lineup spot this fall. “Those finishes are fantastic, and I have a pretty special group right now,” Bennett said. “All of these guys are from the state of Washington, and many of them grew up playing junior golf together. It shows the quality of golf in Washington as a whole. I have flexibility and complete trust in my guys to mix up the lineup.”
 
In the first Clippd national rankings, released Oct. 16, Western Washington checked in at No. 21 nationally and No. 1 within the NCAA Division II west region. Across their first four events of the year, WWU posted a cumulative record of 42-3-1 head-to-head against other teams.
 
Success is nothing new for Bennett’s program – in fact it follows him back to his All-American playing career at WWU from 2002-05. The Vikings have won 11 of the 17 GNAC Championships tournaments since the event was formed in 2008 and have made every single NCAA regional/super regional championship tournament as a team in that span as well. Since Bennett took over as head coach in 2013-14, WWU has had a consistent presence on the national stage including a regional championship title in the spring of 2023.
 
But in Bennett’s eyes, his 2025-26 group of hometown standouts may have more depth and cohesion than any unit in his 11-plus seasons at the helm in Bellingham. “Almost every guy on our roster has made the traveling five this fall, and I don’t think I have ever had that before,” Bennett said.
 
WWU’s spring season kicks off with the Cal State San Marcos Fujikura Invitational on Feb. 9-10, 2026 in Vista, Calif. The Vikings will see top tier competition all spring long, at the Cal State East Bay Pioneer Shootout (Mar. 9-10 in Alameda, Calif.), the RJGA Palm Valley Classic (Apr. 6-7 in Goodyear, Ariz.), and the Hanny Stanislaus Invitational (Apr. 13-14 in Turlock, Calif.).
 
By the time the 2026 GNAC Championships roll around at the Coeur d’Alene Resort (Apr. 20-22), the Vikings will once again undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with. And Bennett’s hardest job as a coach this year might just be deciding which five players to take to the postseason.