Tomorrow morning, senior C.G. Mercatoris (Brookville, Pa. / Brookville) will be doing something no other Robert Morris University golfer has before - tee off at the NCAA Tournament. Mercatoris, courtesy of his Northeast Conference Men's Golf Championship, earned a spot in the NCAA Colorado Regional.
"I took a week off after the conference championship," said Mercatoris. "It was nice to go home, hang out with my family and friends and just get away from it for a while.
"I've been working really hard the last five days, though. Obviously, when you get to a certain point in your career, you don't have to go at it for two weeks straight and you can pick and choose when and what you need to work on. The week before the tournament is where you've got to go hard."
A whirlwind week saw Mercatoris bring home an NEC championship, then don a cap and gown as he marched through graduation ceremonies with the rest of his senior class. After taking that week to return home to Brookville, the recent graduate went back to work on his golf game.
Playing in an NCAA regional won't be the only new aspect Mercatoris will face. When he places his ball on the tee box of the par-four first hole at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, Colorado, his ball will travel 7,753 yards before he holes out on the 18th green of the par-72 layout. The nearly 4.5 mile long course is the longest that Mercatoris will have ever played and features a 696-yard par five, a 626-yard par five and a 496-yard par four. The shortest hole on the course is the par-three 16th at 198 yards. That's right - just one hole measures under 200 yards.
But it's another new experience that Mercatoris will face that he thinks will help him overcome that length. Erie, Colorado, sits 5,000 feet above sea level, just shy of a mile high. That means adjustments for club selection, ball flight - how much will a shot draw or fade - and simple physical endurance.
"I've never played a course that long," said Mercatoris. "However, the air is thinner and I'm told the ball flies a lot further than it does here in Pittsburgh. The course won't be playing 7,700 yards. It will be a good experience to play a course like this.
"The club differences are going to be the biggest adjustment. From 150 yards out, I would normally hit an eight iron. Will I have to hit a nine-iron instead? I'll just have to get out there and figure it out," said Mercatoris. "I'm going to play and practice quite a bit once we get out there and get acclimated to the air and how the ball flies out there. Maybe play nine holes Tuesday and then the practice round Wednesday."
A long two days at the practice range will see the senior dialing in his distances for each club. And rather than adjust his game for the length, he plans on using the strength of his game to overcome the challenges set forth by Colorado National Golf Club.
"I'm a really solid ball-striker and I think I have a good enough short game that I can get up and down from anywhere. There's going to be a lot of good players out there and I think I'm one of them. We'll see what happens," said Mercatoris.
The NCAA Colorado Regional features 13 teams and 10 individuals playing 54 holes of golf over three days. The top five teams, and the top player who is not a member of those five teams, will advance to the NCAA Championship.
Mercatoris has proved that he knows how to close out a tournament, collecting four victories this season. Now we'll get to see how he closes out a career.
