(Special from the Stockton Record)

Patrick Kucich experienced a breakthrough last month, when all the hard work seemed to finally pay off.

The St. Mary's High graduate and redshirt sophomore on the Pacific golf team is coming off a strong performance and enters the Pacific Invitational today through Wednesday at Brookside Country Club with newfound confidence.

"I'm so proud of him," Tigers coach Brandon Goethals said. "He believes in his game now."

Kucich, 20, played only two years of high school golf and felt a bit overwhelmed his freshman year at Pacific. He sat out the 2007-08 season to focus on improving his skills. He and Goethals came up with a plan, and Kucich outworked it, spending hundreds of hours on the golf course and driving range, hitting every kind of shot he would need within 100 yards of the hole.

Kucich had good days when everything made sense and he could see improvement and bad days when nothing worked.

Last month at the Del Walker Intercollegiate at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, a confident Kucich finished ninth overall at 4-under 209, helping Pacific finish fourth as a team.

"I was really relaxed at Long Beach," he said. "I just felt really comfortable and confident."

Kucich will be joined in the Tigers' lineup this week by senior Charlie Van Sicklen out of Tokay High; sophomore T.J. Bordeaux, who played this summer in the U.S. Amateur; sophomore Alex Johnson of Tucson, Ariz.; and Robert Perrott III of Rio Rico, Ariz. The 12-team field includes Kansas State, Oregon, UC Davis and BYU.

The Tigers have not performed well in this event, finishing 11th out of 12 teams in its first two years. Goethals doesn't expect his young team to win this week, but he expects a good showing at home.

"I'm looking for our best showing to date," Goethals said. "We have to defend our home court and the last two years we have not done that."