THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top five teams in the country right now

MEN
1. Charlotte (Last week's ranking: 2)
The 49ers currently have the best winning percentage in the country (60-2, .968) and the lowest adjusted scoring average of any team (70.49). Plus, they hit 77.8 percent of their fairways as a team and 69.6 percent of greens in regulation.
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

2. Alabama (3)
Including play in junior varsity events, eight of the nine Crimson Tide players to compete in the fall posted top-10 finishes. Meanwhile, the squad has a final-round stroke average of 71.55 (286.2 team total).
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

3. Tennessee (NR)
After closing the fall with a victory at the Turtle Bay Classic, the Volunteers picked up where they left off with a three-stroke victory over UNLV at the Ping/Arizona Intercollegiate Tuesday. Best news of all for coach Jim Kelson: all five players finished in the top 21 individually.
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

4. Georgia (4)
The Bulldogs' average drop score through the fall was 75.03, best in the country. Only concern would be that the team started slow in the fall (sixth-place showing in the Carpet Capital Classic).
Next event: Puerto Rico Classic, Rio Mar CC, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, Feb. 29-March 2

5. UCLA (1)
The Bruins are perfect no more with a third-place finish at the Ping/Arizona event, 15 strokes off of Tennessee's winning pace. (Blame it on a poor first round.) Senior Kevin Chappell held up his end of the bargain, however, with a 15-under 198 showing that included a closing-round 64, good enough for his fourth college title.
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

WOMEN
1. Duke (1)
Give the Blue Devils their due: Their schedule is ranked third in the country, lowest of all but one school in the latest Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll. Moreover, just one other top-five team has a schedule ranked better than 10th.
Next event: Arizona Wildcat Invitational, Arizona National GC, Tucson, Feb. 25-27

2. Arizona State (2)
In the last two seasons, the Sun Devils have won or finished second in their first two tournaments of the spring. 
Next event: Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

3. UCLA (3)
The Bruins went 34-4 against top-25 opponents this fall, second only to Duke.
Next event: Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

4. USC (4)
Two Trojans--Belen Mozo and Lizette Sales--have hit more than 90 percent of their fairways in the fall, according to Golfstat.
Next event: Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

5. Auburn (5)
The Tigers have the benefit of a new practice facility that's just opened in the past few months to help them during the off-season.
Next event: Arizona Wildcat Invitational, Arizona National GC, Tucson, Feb. 25-27

STAT OF THE WEEK
2
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll that have a winning percentage worse than .500. No. 21 New Mexico is .493 (33-34-3) and No. 23 Stanford is .369 (24-41). (Luckily for them, there is not ".500 rule" being used by the NCAA women's golf committee to determine at-large teams eligible for regionals.

STAT OF THE WEEK, PART II
12
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll that had winning percentages worse than .500 against other top-25 ranked teams. The lowest of these 12 was No. 25 TCU at .083 (2-22).

STAT OF THE WEEK, PART III
0
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll that had an equal or better record against other top-25 ranked teams than against all opponents. (Two teams did on the men's side).

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* As if trying to replace the best player in school history--outgoing Dustin Johnson, who was the lone player straight out of college to earn a PGA Tour card last December at Q school--wasn't hard enough, Coastal Carolina men's coach Allen Terrell now must deal with the loss of senior Zack Byrd, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last month while playing ... racquet ball. Whether Byrd will be able to play at all this spring remains in doubt; he had surgery, according to a report in the Myrtle Beach Sun and has been told the rehab could take four to five months. While he only had one top-20 finish this past fall, he was a veteran of last year's Chanticleer squad that played in the final group at the NCAA Championship.

Just how Coastal, one of the notable mid-major schools that has become a top-25 program in recent years, moves forward will be interesting, seeing as the squad was inconsistent this past fall with just one top-five finish in four starts and a .354 winning percentage overall. Terrell will know soon enough how his team will respond as it begins the spring season at next week's Gator Invitational, followed with a spot in the field at the John Hayt Intercollegiate the following weekend.

* It's not a player injury but indifference that has Central Florida men's coach Nick Clinard scrambling. The Golden Knights coach learned earlier this week that heralded freshman Jhared Hack, the 2007 Western Amateur champion, was leaving school and turning professional after just one semester of college golf. Hack reportedly didn't think college was the best place to develop his game and has signed with Vantage Sports Management.

TOURNAMENTS TO WATCH
MEN
University of Hawaii-Hilo Invitational
Waikoloa Village GC, Waikoloa, Hawaii
Feb. 6-8
Host: Hawaii-Hilo
Field: Arizona State, CSU-Bakersfield, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii-Manoa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Oregon State, Pacific, Santa Clara, Southern California, Stanford, TCU, Texas Tech, UC Davis, Washington.
Defending champion: Stanford (37-under 803, won tiebreaker over Oklahoma State); Jonathan Moore, Oklahoma State (15-under 195)
Skinny: The name of the game in this tournament, known by most as the "Big Island Invite" and now in its 18th year, is to go low; the team champion has been 23 under or lower each of the past four years. In 2005 Oklahoma State won with a 63-under 801 score.

All this talk about changing the format of the men's NCAA Championship in 2008-09 to a 54-hole stroke-play event with the top eight teams advancing into some sort of bracketed head-to-head tournament to determine the eventual champion got me thinking ...

What if we had been doing this all along?

How many "Elite 8s" would schools have gone to? Part of the idea of moving to this new format is to create another way to distinguish the accomplishments of more college teams in a given year. How many Elite 8 banners can we hang in the practice facility? How about Final 4s?

With that, I've gone through the results of the last 20 NCAA Championships, stopping after 54 holes and figuring out what schools would have advanced to the head-to-head competition had the future format been used in the past. Because I don't have a way to retroactively break ties for the eighth spot, I gave all schools the benefit of the doubt.

Thus, here is a list of the top 10 programs (including the years they achieved the feat), followed by all others. All told, 45 different programs would have advanced to the Elite 8.

    1. Oklahoma State, 14 (1988-92, 1994-2000, 2003, 2006)
    2. Arizona State, 12 (1989-98, 2005-06)
        Georgia Tech, 12 (1988, 1991-94, 1998, 2000-02, 2004-05, 2007)
    4. Florida, 10 (1988, 1990, 1992-94, 2001, 2003-04, 2006-07)
    5. Clemson, 9 (1989-90, 1993, 1997-99, 2001, 2003, 2006)
    6. Arizona, 8 (1989-90, 1992, 1995-96, 2000-01, 2004)
        Texas, 8 (1989, 1991-95, 2000, 2002)
    8. UNLV, 7 (1992, 1996, 1998-2000, 2003, 2005)
    9. Georgia, 6 (1988-89, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007)
        North Carolina, 6 (1991, 1993-94, 1997, 1999, 2000)
        Southern California, 6 (1988, 1991, 1995-96, 2003, 2005)
        UCLA, 6 (1988-89, 1998, 2003-04, 2007)

    5: Stanford, Washington, Wake Forest
    4: Arkansas, Minnesota
    3: BYU, Houston, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Pepperdine
    2: Augusta State, California, East Tennessee State, Florida State, Kentucky, Northwestern,
        South Carolina
    1: Alabama, Auburn, Central Florida, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Duke, Kent State, Lamar,
        LSU, N.C. State, San Jose State, TCU, Toledo, Tulsa, UTEP, Virginia Tech

At the same time, I also looked at the effect of ending the individual tournament after 54 holes would have had in the last 20 years regarding who would have been crowned the NCAA medalist. Interestingly, 12 of the 20 times the eventual champion was also in the lead or shared the lead after 54 holes. In the other years, here's how things shook out:

YEAR        54-hole leader(s)                       Eventual Champ            Strokes overcame
1988        Bill McDonald, Ga. Tech          E.J. Pfister, Okla. St.                   2
1990        Andy Purnell, Fla. St.              Phil Mickelson, ASU                  1
                Roger Winchester, Fla. St.
1991        Franklin Langham, Georgia    Warren Schutte, UNLV                4
1997        Keith Nolan, ETSU                      Charles Warren, Clemson          7
2002        Graeme McDowell, UAB          Troy Matteson, Ga. Tech           4
2003        Lee Williams, Auburn              Alejandro Canizares, ASU          6
2005        Michael Putnam, Pepperdine  James Lepp, Washington           6
2007        Rob Grube, Stanford                 Jamie Lovemark, USC                  3
               Kyle Stanley, Clemson
               Cameron Tringale, Ga. Tech

Quick comment:
More often than not the 72-hole winner was also leading after 54 holes, but when somebody has come back from the pack, they've often come from way back. Six of the eight times the eventual champion was three or more shots behind with 18 holes to play.

Back by popular demand ...

THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top five teams in the country right now

MEN
1. UCLA (Last Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches' Poll Rank: 4)
The Bruins' late fall start (first event wasn't until late October) didn't keep them from winning all three tournaments played. Now they're playing in the first tourney of the spring. The guess here is that the results will be the same.
Next event: Ping-Arizona Intercollegiate, Arizona National GC, Tucson, Jan. 28-29

2. Charlotte (2)
With three month for their fall accomplishments (four wins in five starts) to soak in, the 49ers set out to prove their no flash in the pan.
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

3. Alabama (3)
Senior Michael Thompson should be available after breaking his finger at the end of the fall, but the Crimson Tide (three wins, four top-fives) are plenty deep if his recovery goes slow.
Next event: John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, Sawgrass CC, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 17-19

4. Georgia (1)
A young squad (no seniors) got a lot of help from freshmen in the fall. If junior All-American candidate Brian Harman steps up and becomes the Bulldogs' leader on the course, watch out. Plus the team had the highest fall GPA of all the school's sports teams (3.39).
Next event: Puerto Rico Classic, Rio Mar CC, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, Feb. 29-March 2

5. Oklahoma State (6)
The Cowboys have plenty of fire-power at the top of the line-up (led by freshman Rickie Fowler). If they can get consistency in the Nos. 4 and 5 spot, they'll be a factor come nationals.
Next event: Puerto Rico Classic, Rio Mar CC, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, Feb. 29-March 2

WOMEN
1. Duke (Last Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll ranking: 1)
Just how hungry are the Blue Devils? That might be what it amounts to this spring as the team looks to make NCAA history with a fourth straight national championship.
Next event: Arizona Wildcat Invitational, Arizona National GC, Tucson, Feb. 25-27

2. Arizona State (2)
A nice finish to the fall--victory at the Stanford Intercollegiate, with Duke in the field--shows the Sun Devils have the talent to knock off the three-time NCAA champions.
Next event: Northrup Gruman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

3. UCLA (3)
Four players had 73.5 or lower stroke averages in the fall, making the Bruins a dangerous team.
Next event: Northrup Gruman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

4. USC (4)
Five different players had top-10 finishes in the fall for the Trojans, four of them with T-3s or better. Fighting not just for national bragging rights, but for the L.A. city title
Next event: Northrup Gruman Regional Challenge, Palos Verdes GC, Palos Verdes, Calif., Feb. 11-13

5. Auburn (6)
A pretty big step down from the Big Four in women's golf, but the Tigers have potential if Candace Shepperle and Margaret Shirley come to play this spring.
Next event: Arizona Wildcat Invitational, Arizona National GC, Tucson, Feb. 25-27

STAT OF THE WEEK
0
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll that have a winning percentage worse than .500. (See recent stories about the ".500 rule" in men's golf.) The lowest of all 25 teams in the ranking is No. 10 Florida at .590 (36-25).

STAT OF THE WEEK, PART II
12
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll that had winning percentages worse than .500 against other top-25 ranked teams. The lowest of these 12 is No. 21 Lamar at .133 (2-13).

STAT OF THE WEEK, PART III
2
Number of teams ranked in the final fall Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll that had an equal or better winning percentage against other top-25 ranked teams than against all opponents. No. 1 UCLA is 21-0 overall (1.000) and 7-0 against ranked teams (1.000). No. 20 Penn State is 58-5 overall (.921) and 4-0 against ranked teams (1.000).

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
USC's Jamie Lovemark, the defending NCAA champion who has made the cut in all three of his previous starts in PGA Tour events, has a decent shot at going four-for-four this week at the Buick Invitational. He stands tied for 71st after shooting an opening-round 73 on Torrey Pines' South Course (considered the more difficult). Lovemark, a native of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., received a sponsor's exemption into the event after finishing T-39 in the tournament a year ago after Monday qualifying.

The outlook is not quite as bright, however, for UC-Irvine senior Kenny Kim, the other collegian in the field. Kim's seven-over 79 on the South Course puts him tied for 151st, one stroke out of last place. Kim got into the field when he won the amateur qualifying tournament last October.

TOURNAMENTS TO WATCH
MEN
Ping/Arizona Intercollegiate
    (For live scoring, click here to link to Golfstat)
Arizona National GC, Tucson (Par 71, 6,900 yards)
Jan. 28-29
Host: Arizona
Field: Arizona, Brigham Young, California, UC-Irvine, East Tennessee State, Georgia Southern, Long Beach State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, UNLV, Washington
Defending champion: UNLV (23-under 829); Brian Prouty, Arizona (14-under 199)

Aside from the ".500 rule" and all the ancillary questions it raises, there was another topic that received much debate at the GCAA convention: the structure of the men's NCAA Championship in 2008-09 and beyond.

As reported here since August, the NCAA men's golf committee already has gotten initial approval to change the structure of nationals to a 54-hole stroke-play event with the top eight teams advancing into a bracketed head-to-head tournament to determine the eventual champion (the individual winner would be crowned at the end of stroke play). The only obstacle that would keep this measure from becoming reality is if an NCAA budget committee ruled against the proposal when it's reviewed in April.

Just what the bracketed head-to-head tournament will look like, however, remains uncertain. A medal/match-play format was part of the original proposal to the NCAA, but golf committee chairman Mike Holder said that no specific format has been adopted officially and that the committee will entertain any and all suggestions as it prepares to discuss the matter at its own annual meeting in June.

As coaches weighed in on the matter, four options seemed to pick up some interest:

Medal/match play. School A and B rank their players 1 to 5 and have them play five 18-hole matches, the winner of each being player with the low medal score. Each match is worth a point, with the winning team being the one that claims at least three points.

Match play. Same as above, only each individual match follows the rules of match play. This was how the team championship was

Five count four scoring. All five players on School A and B play 18 holes, with the high score dropped to get an aggregate team score (similar to the way most current tournaments count individual day scores). The school with the low aggregate team score wins.

Five count five. All five players on School A and B play 18 holes, with all scores counting. The school with the low aggregate team score wins.

While the first plan has been the most talked about, it's the one I least prefer. No college team currently plays any tournament under this format, so to make it the way you decide the national championship seems to bit unusual. Certainly some tournaments might change their own format to somehow mimic this, but it's a case of the tail wagging the dog.

When you think brackets in golf, you think of match play, so I can see the second plan having some merit. On the plus side, everyone is familiar with how match play works and it has the potential for creating upsets (at November's Callaway Match Play Championship, run by the GCAA, four of the eight winners in the first round had the lower seed). Conversely, this is a team format that's hardly ever played ... the Callaway/GCAA event is the rare exception). Moreover is creating an environment for upsets really what you're trying to do when you’re playing for a national championship. Are you trying to identify the best team? In theory, if you have a very good No. 1, 2 and 3 player and your No. 4 and 5 man couldn't break 90, you could still be the national champion.

Plan C has been advanced in recent months by Charlotte men's coach Jamie Green, whose comments about how his local media covered the 49ers' T-3 finish at last year's NCAAs helped spur that change in format altogether. (Charlotte associate athletic director Darin Spease is also on the men's golf committee.) It makes a good deal of sense to me. Five count four scoring is how almost every tournament is run throughout the season so getting used to the style of scoring isn't difficult at all. If your team's score is better than your opponent's, you advance.

Opponents of the plan say it allows a player shooting a 65 to cleaning up after a teammate's 76, but I'm not sure I see a problem with that. If you're a good enough coach to have recruited a player who can shoot a 65 and help out his team like that--rather than only be able to earn 1 point for his team in a match play setting--more power to you.

Truth be told, I like Plan D best of all. Count all five players and lets really see who has the best "team." The problem with this is if you have a player that's DQd or must withdraw with an injury or illness, that team likely would have to forfeit ... not the best way to decide things, particularly if it happens in the final match.

With some time to digest the discussions from the Golf Coaches Association of America's annual convention--as well as work on a couple of stories for this week's issue of Golf World--I've got a few thoughts to ponder. Lets break them down into observations for the rest of this season (to look at today) and observations for the 2008-09 season and beyond (come back tomorrow).

In my opinion ("It's my blog and I can rant if I want to ...") the most pressing issue for the NCAA men's golf committee to address right now is a point several coaches raised at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort last week: the need to standardize what is a win in college golf.

By a 75 to 30 margin in a straw-poll vote, coaches still favor requiring Division I teams have at least a .500 winning percentage for at-large selection to NCAA men’s regionals--the infamous ".500 rule" that was adopted this past summer. The problem, however, is there is too much latitude within the current rules for teams to manipulate their schedules so as not to fall below .500.

Consider this scenario: if Team A plays in a one-day, 18-hole tournament with 18 teams and finishes fifth, it receives 13 wins and 4 losses (.764 winning percentage). Now, if Team B plays in a three-day, 54-hole event with 12 teams and finishes fourth, it receives 8 wins and 3 losses (.727 winning percentage). Of course, Team B's victories have come through much more work, but ultimately Team A has done more to improve its chances of not being hurt by the .500 rule.

"If I'm going to play Duke in basketball," noted Georgia Tech men's coach Bruce Heppler, his usual sarcasm dialed up to 10, "I'd like to beat them for a half and not a whole game [and get a win]."

Of course that's not the way men's hoops works, but it is the way golf now does. If the Yellow Jackets beat rival Georgia in an 18-hole tournament, guess what? It counts just the same as if they did it in a 54-hole event, despite the latter accomplishment being much more difficult.

Heppler went on to propose that wins should be earned only by beating teams in 54-hole events. Given that many northern schools need to play 36-hole tournaments to work around weather and course availability issues, I think 36 is more realistic baseline for the NCAA men's golf committee to consider. Both are much more preferable to counting wins in an 18-hole event, where a school can round up 20 teams in its area, play a shotgun and suddenly have some easy Ws added to their record.

What about bad weather shortening tournaments? No problem ... have the rule state that wins are acquired when playing a event that's "scheduled" for a minimum of 36 holes. If rain forces the tournament to just 18, those wins count; the intent was to play more holes both Mother Nature got in the way.

This standardization rule should be done in conjunction with another pitch made by several coaches at the convention: Requiring schools "lock in" their schedules in advance, either at the start of the entire season or at the beginning of the fall and the spring segments, respectively. There are teams out there (and you know who you are, UNLV) that have pulled out of events midseason to avoid suffering possible losses against stronger competition, replacing the tournaments with other events against weaker opponents. (Or maybe dropping a 54-event tournament and getting into a 18-hole event and a 36-hole event where they can offset earlier bad performances.)

No other sport allows for changes to a schedule in midseason. Can you see a college football coach drop his first two games of the season, then go to his athletic director and ask to re-schedule his next two non-conference games to play weaker opponents in hopes of going 6-6 and getting into a bowl game? (When retired Oklahoma State golf coach Mike Holder, chair of the NCAA men's golf committee and currently the Cowboys' athletic director, joked about this, I swear I thought I saw smoke come out of his ears.)

So here's my thought: Schools should finalize their fall schedules by a date in early September (lets make it Sept. 10) and their spring schedules by at date in early February (how about Feb. 10). The only way a school can add a tournament midseason is if another tournament on its set schedule is canceled or shortened because of weather.

Bottom line: To honestly allow the .500 rule to have its full effect, the NCAA men's golf committee needs to define what a win actually is and make schools commit to a firm, fixed schedule.

It didn't take long for South Carolina to find a new women's coach--all of 10 days actually. Kalen Anderson, a former Duke player who has served as an assistant to Blue Devil women's coach Dan Brooks since spring 2006, will take over the position after last week's resignation by Kristi Coggins. The 29-year-old native of Edina, Minn., is scheduled to begin her duties March 1.

"We are ecstatic to have someone with Kalen's credentials become our golf coach," said South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman in a release today. "She has been part of a championship program as both a player and coach, and we believe our women's golf program will really take off under her direction."

Couple quick thoughts:
* It will be interesting to see what kind of immediate impact Anderson can make on the Lady Gamecocks, who have four seniors on their roster but struggled this fall, posting just two top-10 finishes in five tournaments. Anderson's worked closely with the players on the Duke squad, often competing with them during practices. Duke junior Amanda Blumenherst told me last summer how Anderson would hold contests where players on the team had to practice out of difficult lies and strange circumstances, helping build their all-around games as well as a little team chemistry. Creating that close interaction with her new squad could provide a missing spark.

* Similarly, it will be interesting to see what impact Anderson's departure has on the top-ranked Blue Devils. Will players feel a void? Given the competition powers Arizona State, UCLA and USC are likely to apply this spring as the Blue Devils go for a historic fourth straight NCAA title, could this be a negative for Duke?

Stay tuned.

Among the four collegians (and six amateurs overall) invited this week to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship: Kentucky's Mallory Blackwelder. The 20-year-old junior, winner of the Women's Western Amateur and runner-up at the Women's Trans-National last summer, has some connection to the LPGA's first major, thanks to her family.

Her mother, current Lady Wildcat coach Myra, played in the event 11 times during her career on the LPGA Tour, recording two top-10 finishes (T-7 in 1985; T-10 in 1986). Myra led the then Colgate Dinah Shore in 1981 after an opening-round 66 but was done in by a third-round 77 that included a two-stroke penalty for catching a lift in an NBC cart to use a restroom.

Meanwhile, Blackwelder's father, Worth, a veteran caddie on the LPGA Tour, has had even more success in Palm Springs. He was on the bag of Juli Inkster when she won the tournament by five strokes over JoAnne Carner in 1989.

Of course, the question begs to be asked: Will Worth be caddieing for Mallory come March? Dad says no, with Mallory already has hired Rob Hart (husband of LPGA player Marcy Hart) as her loop. Worth will again be on Inkster's bag.

In addition to Blackwelder, U.S. Women's Amateur champion Maria Jose Uribe of UCLA, two-time college player of the year Amanda Blumenherst of Duke and Arizona senior Alison Walshe are the collegians named to the field with Mina Harigae, who plans to enroll at Duke in the fall, and Kimberly Kim, the 2006 Women's Amateur champion, rounding out the amateur selections. Blumenherst, Walshe, Harigae and Kim also were named to the U.S. Curtis Cup team earlier this week.

Absent from the invite list was NCAA champion Stacy Lewis of Arkansas, who finished T-5 at the Kraft Nabisco a year ago and thus had automatically qualified for the event. Lewis declined her spot, according to a source, in order not to use up one of her six exemptions before turning pro sometime this summer.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA.--I'm often shaking my head at some of the decisions the NCAA makes, unable to follow just how some of its bylaws actually work in the best interest of the student-athlete. It's rather frustrating when you can call the Indianapolis headquarters five straight days, ask for an interpretation on the same bylaw all five days and get five different answers. Unfortunately, it's also rather common.

That said, I commend the NCAA after learning at the Golf Coaches Association of America's annual convention that the Board of Directors and Management Council today approved Proposal 2007-93, which grants a special exemption for the 34-year-old College All-American Golf Classic. Most in the college golf world predicted/feared the vote actually would go the other way, considering the NCAA Championships Cabinet opposed the proposal. In typical NCAA-think, giving a exemption to a single event was too much to ask for. Thankfully, typical NCAA-think didn't prevail.

The College All-American Golf Classic has been run by the Sun Bowl Association in El Paso, Texas since 1974 and long has been an enjoyable reward for those who have earned All-American status the previous college season. Unique to college golf, the tournament is not a team event but a limited-field individual stroke-play competition with a prestigious list of past champions (Jerry Pate, Scott Simpson, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods to name a few) joined by Wake Forest senior Webb Simpson this past November). Tournament organizers go out of their way to treat participants as if they were major championship winners. Meanwhile, the Sun Bowl donates $1,000 scholarships to the schools of all the competitors, having given more than $600,000 overall.

Without the exemption, the event's November date would have forced schools with players in the event to consider the tournament an official date of competition, counting against the 24 maximum days a college golfer can play in a year. (The event previous exemption had been eliminated by NCAA Proposal 2006-107). "If we did not have the exemption, then it is most likely that the tournament would not be played," said tournament director Bob Kimble. "No coach is going to send his best player to the All-American if it would count against his team's playing dates."

Unless significant objections are raised in the next 60 days, when individuals can request an override vote, the exemption will stay in place and the event will continue this November.

In addition to applauding the NCAA, give credit to the Sun Bowl Association for lobbying Conference USA to write the exemption Proposal and the GCAA for having its member coaches help make the College All-American Golf Classic's plight better known to their school administrators. It's an example of where hard work can pay off.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA.--The more than 100 individuals attending the Golf Coaches Association of America's annual convention who participated in this afternoon's Division I break-out session at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort were the first to learn that the NCAA men's golf committee's plan to crown an individual champion after 54 holes will not go info effect during this May's NCAA Championship at Purdue's Kampen Course as previously hoped. Instead, the individual medalist again will be determined after 72 holes.

According to NCAA assistant director for championships Donnie Wagner, who helped lead the break-out session, an administrative committee within the NCAA denied the change for the 2008 national championship. Wagner said the committee's preference was to implemented it at the same time as proposed changes for determining a team champion that are scheduled to take effect in the 2008-09 season. The NCAA Championships Cabinet has approved use of a medal/match-play format to crown the NCAA team winner as well as completing the individual competition after 54 holes.

"They just wanted everything to be put in place in 2009 rather than rolling things out," Wagner said.

The announcement proceeded another lengthy conversation regarding new rules that have been implemented in the past year or are set for implementation in the coming months. Most notable was discussion of the ".500 rule," which requires a team to have at least a 50-percent winning percentage for the entire season, including their conference championship, to be eligible for selection as an at-large team into NCAA regionals. Several coaches made arguments for and against, but a straw-poll vote of those in attendance showed a majority (75 to 30)want to keep the rule, approved only last year, in place at least to let it play out in its first season of existence.

NEW ORLEANS--They talked business at this past weekend's National Golf Coaches Association annual convention, a departure of sorts from years past for this jovial group, but a welcome one. With so many changes in women's golf at all levels, a more proactive coaches' association becomes increasingly important to maintain and improve the college game.

So it was then that attendees cleared their throats at the Royal Sonesta Hotel--some just after walking in from Bourbon Street--to engage in debate on a variety of topics. Among the more prominent issues discussed was the use of rangefinders and electronic yardage devices at the NCAA Championship, the new USGA rule that allows two coaches to coach simultaneous during tournaments, allowing coaches on to greens and in bunkers during competitions and recruiting. After each discussion, a straw-poll vote was taken to gage coaches preferences.

Attendees were split dead even regarding rangefinders, while a large majority favored having two coaches be allowed to coach (a measure the NCAA women's golf committee already had approved for 2008). Coaches were unanimous in their support of changing the rules to allow coaches to walk on greens and in bunkers.

Where the most interesting discussion played out, not surprisingly, was recruiting. The majority of coaches were upset with a new NCAA rule that allows two coaches to recruit at the same time, a departure from the "baton rule" where a coach out recruiting had to return to campus before another coach at the school could hit the road. The common fear is that the measure will increase the number of days coaches are on the road recruiting at an even greater pace than is currently happening.

"I'd like to see my daughter grow up," joked NGCA president and Georgia women's coach Kelley Hester, who traveled more than 200 days with her team and recruiting in 2007, the same year she gave birth to her first child. (In the straw poll on whether they wanted to keep the provision to allow two coaches to recruit at the same time, only two coaches of the nearly 100 in attendance voted yes.)

As has been discussed within the last year by the Golf Coaches Association of America, the NGCA's counterpart for men's college golf (and no doubt will be debated again starting today when the GCAA begins its annual convention outside Orlando), the idea of a recruiting calendar was broached as an possible compromise. Such a proposal could come in the form of prohibiting recruiting during certain times of the year or set a mandatory number of days a school can travel to recruit. (In a straw poll vote on this, the majority favored some form of recruiting calendar if the two coaches recruiting ruled stayed in place.)

Of course, there's talk and then there's action. That the NGCA was willing to discuss in such detail these pressing issues was great, but the coaches must hold Hester and NGCA executive director Roger Yaffe to their word that the NGCA board will send recommendations to the NCAA golf committee based on the discussion, and will begin to explore making a proposal through the NCAA legislative process to address recruiting.

Equally exciting for some was news that the NGCA has four events in development it hopes someday can help showcase college golf. All are still very much in the planning stages, according to Yaffe, but he is optimistic that with member support, sponsors can be found and the events can become reality. They include:

⿢ A 54-hole All-American Championship with players from Divisions I, II and III participating, likely played in late June or mid-August

⿢ A U.S. versus Europe team competition, a la the Palmer Cup, held bi-annually in the year opposite the Curtis Cup.

⿢ A U.S. versus Asia team competition, held each summer.

⿢ A 54-hole, mixed team event, where a school's team consists of one women's player and one men's player, likely played in early January.

Give credit to Yaffe and Hester for encouraging discussion, fostering dialogue and thinking pro-actively. It’s something the GCAA has done in the last few years and something the NGCA should be doing more.