“It was a tough call. Not a good day to be a rules official.”

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wind.jpgBoth reports out of the NCAA Women's Championship imply that the round called Wednesday due to high winds should not have been called. Beth Ann Baldry at Golfweek writes:

Play was suspended for the first time at 1:10 p.m. May 21, just as the morning wave began to finish. Southern California and UCLA managed to wrap things up and post an 8-over 584 total. Of the teams that finished, Denver posted the day’s lowest round, 6-over 294, and trails by three.

After an initial two-hour, 10-minute delay, teams were sent out to resume play. Officials hoped for a weather lull but instead found even stronger wind gusts.

“I thought it was calmer before they called it off the first time,” said Duke’s Amanda Blumenherst, who was 3 under through 14 holes. When she returned to finish her round, Blumenherst three-putted twice to post 1-under 71.

And...

Many coaches were stunned to hear the horn blow the first time. Rules officials saw “ball movement on four different greens,” though no penalties were assessed. Tina Krah, NCAA director of championships, said conditions weren’t dangerous but felt that players were in an “unfair situation.”

“Our intent is to not wait until there are penalties,” Krah said. “Our intent is to protect them from penalties.”

As coaches and players gathered around the UNM clubhouse, many said they never saw the wind blow one ball. Tulsa coach Randy Keck called the decision “one of the worst he’s ever seen.”

At the Conference USA Championship in El Paso, Keck said “the dirt was so thick in the air you couldn’t see the ball.” Tulsa not only finished, they won.

Purdue coach Devon Brouse also oversees the men’s program in West Lafayette, Ind. He counted at least three tournaments this year where the men played in tougher winds.

“I don’t see this as a dangerous situation,” Brouse said. “You have the Rules of Golf to cover balls moving on the greens.”

Ryan Herrington got the same reaction from coaches and also noted that the possibility of a Saturday finish now exists. 

A 61 At Bel-Air!

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tom_glissmeyer.jpegRyan Herrington reports that USC's Tom Glissmeyer fired a 28-33-61 at Bel-Air Country Club, needing only 20 putts. Having just been at Bel-Air recently, I can safely say the greens are running about 12. And these are not exactly flat greens.

The really good news is that unlike at some classic courses, the club can't go and destroy more of the original Thomas design in a knee jerk reaction to such a low round! It's already been done...in spades 

"I think you might see more and more guys with the financial resources take a run at it"

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Steve Elling wonders if UNLV junior Seung-su Han, who has made it through three stages of Q-School to reach the finals, is beginning a wave of college golfers entering and potentially leaving school early if they qualify.

"I think you might see more and more guys with the financial resources take a run at it," said [Dwayne] Knight, whose team is ranked No. 33 nationally by Golfweek. "But if you don't allow them to chase their dream, you'll never get the top players, like Adam Scott."

Scott, a fixture in the top 10 of the world rankings, played briefly at UNLV before turning pro. As with Duke and North Carolina basketball, college golf could increasingly become a sport in which programs sign blue-chip players in hopes of keeping them in school for a mere year or two. If college coaches balk, turning pro out of high school will continue to gain popularity. To wit, Kevin Na, Sean O'Hair and Ty Tryon all turned pro before they graduated from high school and eventually made the PGA Tour, skipping college altogether.

Bailing on college in mid-semester isn't an academic ideal, but without getting preachy, many top players look at college as a means to an end, anyway. So let's not wax nostalgic about motives. Golf was lucky to have lasted this long with only minimal professional temptation.

"Rarely does anybody in any walk of life have the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream," Knight said. "In the end, you have got to support the dream."


"Which is why they’re going to wear full rain gear to practice Thursday, regardless of the weather."

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chappell.jpgSean Martin's Golfweek.com excellent profile of the UCLA men's golf team and issues they are facing, starting with the fact they haven't played an event yet.

Then there's the team member who is playing round 1 of PGA Tour Qualifying school the day after UCLA finishes their first event (they call this amateur golf!?) and there's the incoming freshman who had a rough summer...after missing three PGA Tour cuts.

Oh and this reminder that college coaches have been known to overthink things from time to time.

Even the course that’s hosting the Bruins’ first tournament – Chambers Bay Golf Club in University Place, Wash. – is a mystery. The links-style layout opened just four months ago, but is already No. 2 on the recently-released Golfweek’s Best New Courses list. The late-October weather in Washington could throw another wrench in the Bruins’ debut, which is why they’re going to wear full rain gear to practice Thursday, regardless of the weather.

If they're playing Riviera, should be nice and warm in those suits. 

Digest College Golf Guide

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raar01_collegeguide.jpgGolf Digest has posted their annual college golf guide and man are they getting serious about this.  My alma mater did wonderfully, so I love the new tabulation system.

Remarkably, they didn't hold Ken Starr or Mel Gibson's Malibu shenanigans against us!

And I really love the west coast bias. Nice to see for a change.

You can go to the men's and women's lists compiled by Brett Avery here.

Best Route To The Tour...It's Not College?

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I heard from a college coach today who took great exception to Hank Haney's piece on college golf not necessarily being the best place to prep players for the PGA Tour. The coach said the sense of entitlement with today's kids is already out of whack and pieces like this will only make their life more difficult, but worse than that, create ridiculous expectations from kids.

So I read the piece more closely today and found some of Haney's points to be quite reasonable. However, this told me that Haney has forgotten his days as a college player or he wasn't much of a competitor, because even on the worst days, this just doesn't happen:
The scoring format and playing fields of college golf also impede progress. At most college tournaments, teams play with five players but count only the best four scores from each day. That can cause a player having a bad round to get in the habit of packing it in rather than battling (though that might mean he's not in the lineup for the next tournament).

Right. Like players always know which five are going to count. And let's say they do, even so, they want to stay in the line up and protect their scoring average. Players do not dog it because of the five-counting-four-scores system.

And in my experience, many college events were played on courses with little rough. Hitting it crooked without being punished is not good training for what players will face as pros.

Uh, haven't we just been hearing that there is no correlation between driving accuracy and financial success? 

"College golf eats its young"

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Gary Van Sickle looks at the best under-30 American golfers, and notes:

College golf eats its young in the U.S. Coaches aren't eager for their players to make big changes to improve -- they need a good finish at next week's tournament. And since the college season almost never ends -- September to mid-November, February to June -- there isn't time to worry about long-term goals. It's all about next week's or next month's tournament.

In Australia, regional sports institutes do just the opposite. They provide coaching -- mental and physical -- and nutrition and conditioning and competition. It's all about building better athletes. The result is, Australia is flooding golf with far more top-level players than a country of its size has any right to produce. American players need more resources and more down-time to focus on getting better for the long run.

Now, American collegiate golfers are playing quality events on decent courses, while also competing prior to those events through team qualifiers. They get free equipment. Most are following conditioning programs laid out by school trainers.

Meanwhile, international players are still populating the college ranks, with Paul Casey and to a lesser extent, Camillo Villegas having breakout years after U.S. college golf careers.

But does Van Sickle have a point about the long term approach issue? After all, this is a short term, instant gratification culture.

I still contend that the international players are more imaginative and talented all-around players because they've been exposed to a variety of designs and course setups.

Thoughts?