The RoundHouse | 10/18/2019 2:06:00 PM

 
The 1965 Final Four basketball team remains important to Wichita State for reasons ranging from its athletic performance to team members staying connected with each other and involved with the school.
 
Add an assist to the men's golf team to that list. 
 
Former Shocker Tommy Newman, a member of that 1965 team, sent Wichita State golf coaches an email recommending they recruit Dawson Lewis. They are family friends who golf at Oakmont Country Club in Corinth, Texas, near Dallas.
 
"I get an email from (Newman) saying he's got a young man at his golf course that can play," said Judd Easterling, then a Shocker assistant coach and now head coach. "I looked the kid up. We connect. We hit it off immediately. He came on a visit. He kind of fell in love with it from the get-go."
 
On Tuesday, that Shocker connection paid off with a win at the Herb Wimberley Intercollegiate in Las Cruces, N.M., the first medalist honors for Lewis and Easterling's first tournament victory as head coach. Lewis, a sophomore from Flower Mound, Texas, shot a 6-under-par 207 to share medalist honors with New Mexico State's Aidan Thomas. Wichita State won the nine-team tournament by three shots over host New Mexico State.
 
For Lewis, the putt on No. 18 that pulled him into a tie highlighted his progress from his freshman season. He learned how to better handle the mental challenges of college golf and beat back chipping problems to improve this fall.
 
His tournament started with a video assist from assistant coach Matt Walton, who shares motivational videos before tournaments. He texted Lewis a video by former Navy SEAL David Goggins before the Herb Wimberly. 
 
"He's just a beast of a guy," Lewis said. "It's about training your mind to not set limits. It came into my mind several times on the golf course. I gave myself talks, kind of in my head, just confidence-boosters that I can do anything I want to do out here in Division I golf."
 
Lewis, whose previous high finish was 14th as a freshman, led the tournament by three shots entering the final round. After slipping behind Thomas, he sank a 10-foot putt on No. 18 to tie. 
 
"I had a rough patch," Lewis said. "I was behind, but it kind of relieved pressure off to me in a sense, where I could go get it instead of defending myself. The last two holes, it was just a grind. I made two really good par putts from about 10 feet."
 
Easterling said the performance continued a trend of progress for Lewis, helped by competition with teammate Zac Owens. 
 
"I think he knew he was going to play well at some point," Easterling said. "He'd had some good scores in qualifying. He'd played well over 36 holes in some tournament. He was just lacking that one round of 18 holes to put it all together. It was just his time."
 
Dawson targeted his short game for improvement after his freshman season and that work showed up in Las Cruces. 
 
"I never felt comfortable over the ball if I was off the green," he said. "I've gotten extremely more comfortable around the greens. It goes back to the mental aspect. A lot of problems in the mechanical can come from a mental fear. Once you get the mental side of it, once you believe in yourself, it's a little bit easier."
 
Winning the Herb Wimberly comes with extra significance for the Shockers. Former coach Grier Jones won the NCAA title in 1968, for Oklahoma State, on the New Mexico State campus course. The Shockers play the tournament regularly and won titles three previous times. 
 
Easterling texted Jones immediately after the win. Then the Shockers stopped for victory shakes at a Whataburger near the Las Cruces airport.
 
"That was a good reward," Lewis said. "I'm from Texas, so we have Whataburgers. These guys don't have Whataburger in their hometowns, so every chance we get, they're all over it."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.