Van der Wath looks to cap college career with National Championship
Two years ago, Joshua Van der Wath was an alternate for the University of Houston-Victoria men's golf team at the 2023 NAIA Men's Golf National Championships.
He watched on from outside the ropes as the Jaguars missed the cut at Las Sendas Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona. The native of Johannesburg, South Africa, used that as motivation to eventually finish in a share of eighth place at the 2024 National Championships at Dalton Golf and Country Club in Dalton, Georgia, and help UHV to a fifth-place finish as a team.
Because of his Top 10 finish and All-Tournament selection last year, Van der Wath returns to the National Championships this year, held at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, as an individual and is seeking the first-ever National Championships in UHV's history.
The senior tees it up for his final collegiate golf tournament at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the tournament's first round.
"Feeling it for the first time last year and being able to get a Top 10 finish, that's obviously really good," Van der Wath said. "But now that I've experienced it, it's not anything new. Now it's time to take what I've learned from that experience and use it to compete for a win. I wasn't far off last year, but I've learned from my mistakes and now it's time to improve on them with the goal of winning it. That's the only reason you go to a golf tournament."
Van der Wath enters this week's tournament as the No. 44-ranked golfer in the NAIA, according to Scoreboard Powered by Clippd. He was named a PING All-West region selection last week, as well.
He carries a 72.5 adjusted scoring average in 25 rounds with four Top 10 finishes and two individual wins, bringing his career total to five. His high-water mark came during the UHV Fall Classic in October when he shot a record-breaking 12-under-par through two rounds to win the tournament.
Van der Wath closed the Fall Classic with five consecutive birdies. That aggressiveness is something interim head coach Taylor Dedmen wants to see again as the South African looks to bounce back from a 12th-place finish at the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament earlier this month.
"I definitely think his mental game has been his strongest asset this year," Dedmen said. "We're working on staying aggressive and staying locked in during the middle of the round. I think that's helped him perform well under pressure, remembering to play his own game and not trying to force anything out there."
This year will also be different than in the past.
While it's the fifth consecutive year the Jaguars are represented at the National Championships, it's the first time during the five-year stretch where the whole team won't be represented.
Van der Wath, who graduated Saturday with a Bachelors of Business Administration, acknowledges he wishes he were with the whole team but being able to utilize Dedmen's expertise for the duration of the four-round, 72-hole tournament, similar to a caddie, is something he feels will work to his advantage.
"Nationals is obviously different than our regular tournaments, being four rounds. It's a very mentally draining week," Van der Wath said. "It's a lot of hours on the golf course since you're pretty much there the entire day.
"That's a huge advantage over the field, who maybe won't have their coach with them and might have small lapses in concentration because of that. Coach Taylor has been an exceptional coach since she's taken over. She's been very good for the program. I'm very excited to have her help me and I think it will be very good for me to have someone like her with me."
Van der Wath is one of seven Red River Athletic Conference golfers represented at this year's National Championships with University of the Southwest competing as a team and Texas A&M-San Antonio's Jacob Pena, a Victoria native, competing as an individual.