THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: NIC golfers ready to go out in style before program comes to an end

The players have put in the work. 

They've pushed each other and grown as the competition has toughened. 

All this, while many of those members of the North Idaho College golf program try to figure out what’s next. 

What they can control is just how things end at the NJCAA Tournament next week in Kansas. 

“For three of our five guys, this is probably going to be their last college event,” North Idaho College freshman Eli McNelly said. “If it is, we feel like we’ve got to put it all out there and give ourselves a chance at taking home the title.” 

NIC QUALIFIED both its men’s and women’s golf programs for the NJCAA Tournament, with the men’s tournament Tuesday through Friday at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kan. The women’s team will compete Monday through Thursday at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Finney County, Kan. 

“It’s a very exciting time,” NIC men's and women's coach Brittany Pounds said. “I feel like both of our teams are peaking at the right moment. It’s what we’ve been working for all season, so here we are.” 

In December, NIC announced it was cutting the golf program at the end of the school year due to financial reasons. All other NIC athletic programs had their budgets reduced 33%, limiting the number of scholarships they can offer. 

NIC returned to the NJCAA from the regional-friendly Northwest Athletic Conference this year. In the NWAC, the Cardinals men won six conference titles in an eight-year span under coach Russell Grove. The women won the conference title in 2024, as well as 2015 and 2016. 

Grove stepped down as coach in December and was later named the head men’s golf coach at Eastern Washington University in January. 

Some players, like McNelly, started weighing their options during the semester break. 

“Before the decision to cut the team, I was trying to decide if I wanted to stay or go to the University of Idaho,” said McNelly, who is from Olympia, Wash. “It didn’t change my plan too much, but it did some of the guys that were planning to come back.” 

McNelly intends to study PGA management at Idaho, with the goal of someday becoming a club pro.

“It’s a possibility to golf in college, but my main focus is on getting my degree,” McNelly said. “I want to learn a lot about the game and think that will help in my growth to someday become a PGA professional.” 

Freshman Harrison Hashimoto from Sparks, Nev., intends to return to Nevada to figure out what’s next. 

“I’m going back home to Reno,” Hashimoto said. “I’m going to see what happens and kind of go with the flow. As of right now, the dream is to play on the (PGA) Tour.” 

Hashimoto was second in the West District Championships in Loveland, Colo., helping the Cardinals to a runner-up finish. 

“I didn’t really qualify for any of the tournaments in the fall, so to be able to do it this semester has been a huge achievement for me,” Hashimoto said. “To be able to put up the scores that I have been recently has been a big motivator. Overall, everyone in the second semester has shown a lot of improvement.” 

NIC's men are ranked 12th in the NJCAA poll, released on Thursday. 

THE CARDINAL women are ranked 15th in the NJCAA. 

“It was kind of a slow start for us at the beginning of the spring season at least,” said Pounds, who was the head women's coach last year. “We played in some tournaments that had some pretty strong winds, which also prepared us for our regional tournament. And it’s going to prepare us for when we go to Kansas.” 

NIC was second in the women’s Plains Regional tournament in Gering, Neb. 

“We’ve really been grinding in practice and focusing on our short game and our other areas of our game that need improvement,” Pounds said. “At regionals, in our final round, we were 29 over (par) on the front nine, but finished 3-over on the back nine as a team.” 

NIC’s men have played at Sand Creek Station twice already this season, playing in October during the National Preview tournament, then again during an invitational in April. 

“We went there in the preview and got four rounds and another four last month,” McNelly said. “All of our guys have played the course many times, so we’ve got some confidence going there. It’s just going to be about managing the wind.” 

“I think it’s a positive thing,” Pounds said of having already seen the course. “It’s going to be a big advantage to have. Teams within our region have seen it and we played at the National Preview in the spring and we’re going to get two practice rounds, so it’s going to give us an extra advantage going into the tournament.”

How much so, we’ll find out soon enough. 

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.  

    Brittany Pounds
  

    Eli McNelly
  

    Harrison Hashimoto