Daniela Chapa-Reyes Daniela Chapa-Reyes | THE RIDER
PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV ATHLETICS
Rodolphe Cicala is one of the new faces on the UTRGV Men’s Golf Team for this fall season.
Coming from Birratz, France, and having transferred from Faulkner University, the finance junior said the change from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to a Division I school is going well.
“[UTRGV] is completely different from where I was,” Cicala said. “We have workouts two times a week every morning, practice every day, and it is way more professional and I really like that. It is a pleasure to be here.”
During the Trinity Forest Invitational, Cicala tied for 73 after finishing with a total of 226 out of three rounds. He said the tournament was “not very good.”
“I’m just going to practice harder, try to find key swings and key faults to come back to a better level,” Cicala said.
During the Bayou City Collegiate Classic, Cicala found himself tied for 10th on the first day of the tournament with a total of two rounds: first round being an even par 72 and second round 70, totaling 142.
He ended the tournament tied for 26th place with teammates junior Esteban Gonzales, a McAllen-native, and freshman Brock Porter. Cicala said it was a good performance as a team.
“We could’ve done better but the field was kind of good, so [we are] still not playing our best,” he said. “We made a good position. I really trust the team, and I think we can do big things with the team.”
When dealing with pressure during tournaments, he said he typically meditates to ease the nerves.
“I do some respiration drills that can … calm the pressure and, then, I just try to not think too much about what is going on, try to be a little off that and just think about my game,” Cicala said.
He said mental preparation is very important, more so now after the transition to D-1.
“I try to do as much as I can for the mental preparation because I think it’s very important, especially going into D-1,” Cicala said. “There is way more pressure and stuff.”
He said, for tournaments, he does long and short game preparations.
“I go on the course, try to see [if] what I work on is working on the course and, then, I am ready for the tournament,” Cicala said.
The next tournament and final fall tournament the team will face is the Monterrey International Invitational in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Cicala said the team can go for the win.
“That’s going to be the team objective, win the tournament because we want to have a win during the fall,” he said. “Individually, we will go for the win also to bounce back from the performance last week.”
PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV ATHLETICS
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