To the casual golf fan there probably isn’t anything different about Tonya Choate than what you would have noticed six months ago, regardless of how many consecutive wins the sophomore at Division II Drury University in Springfield, Mo., has compiled in the meantime. For the record, the number stands at six as she and her Panther teammates prepare for the Payne Stewart Invitational, a 54-hole event hosted by Division I Missouri State that begins Monday, April 3 and ends Tuesday, April 4. And yet there she is: Same outgoing personality. Same dedication to the game. Same old Tonya.

Only when you talk to the Mount Vernon, Mo., native herself, then—or better yet talk about her with Drury coach Lisa Tinkler—do you come to appreciate just how the 5-foot-5 wonder actually has changed since her one-shot victory at the last September’s Northeastern State Classic set the streak in motion. “She’s a much more confident player, a more mature player,” Tinkler says. “I’m not sure you couldn’t help but be more confident given [the roll she’s been on].”

“For the first time, I’m walking out there and I feel like I’m going to win,” Choate confides. “When you win, it just becomes easier every time and you don’t put as much pressure on yourself.”

If the 20-year-old does manage to make it seven straight victories come next week, the accomplishment would put her in rare company. At the very least she’ll match the NCAA Division I record Arizona’s Lorena Ochoa set in 2001-02, the absence of complete, accurate data making it tough to say for certain where the streak ranks at the D-II level.

To say Choate’s torrid play came from nowhere isn’t entirely accurate either, although her 79.4 stroke average as a freshman hardly foreshadowed her second year in college. With six weeks until nationals, Choate is the top-ranked D-II player in the Golfstat Cup and 17th for all divisions with a 73.29 average, finishing second in the only one of her seven starts that she hasn’t won.

So what gives? Choate claims it’s no coincidence that prior to her first win of the season, she and her teammates spent a day at the LPGA’s John Q. Hammonds Hotel Classic in Oklahoma. It was while following Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer among others that she had her “eureka” experience.

“Watching them play was fun because you saw they were people too,” says Choate. “You see them on TV and you think, ‘Wow. They’re idols. They’re awesome.’ Then when you actually see them in person, you realize they put their clothes on the same way I do. What can’t I be doing that? It was kind of a wake-up call for me.”

Such a revelation, however, overlooks the hard work she also has put in during that time too, diligently improving her short game and trying to make her swing more consistent.
Certainly victory has come with some close calls. It took six holes of sudden death before she claimed her second title in the streak, at the school’s own Drury Invitational. And it hasn’t made Choate adverse to shaking things up. Just last week she worked with her father, Rex, the man who has been her only swing coach since she first took up the game as an 7-year-old, to change the entire pre-shot routine over short putts.

Without the benefit of playing AJGA events as a high schooler—she notes that she didn’t get truly serious about the game until her junior year and played one lone national tournament in the 2003 Westfield PGA Junior, finishing T-37—Choate only now is getting the competitive opportunities many of her peers have already been exposed, and is doing her best to catch up. Suffice it to say, she’s begun to hone her creativity and imagination, says Tinkler, to where she plays “with more than 14 clubs in her bag, the way she uses them.”

There are some added benefits to seeing Choate dominate. With Drury’s program in just its third year of existence, the attention and notoriety have given Tinkler a platform to attract more players. “It’s sparked us a year ahead of what I had my goals set at,” she says. “I’m getting calls from great local players that are just sophomores. They want to come play. It’s helped me to create a program that is going to be here for a long time, not just a four-year stint with Tonya.”

The next step for Choate, meanwhile, is to begin playing a national amateur schedule this summer, a path she says will include a run at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and U.S. Women's Amateur, the Trans-National Amateur and a possible attempt at qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open.

But that is months away, and now is the time to concentrate on more immediate matters. “My dad keeps sending e-mails saying ‘You can’t get to eight until you reach seven,’ ” she notes. “And that’s what I’ve got to do, take them as they come and concentrate that way.”

As with her game, there is a confidence in Choate’s voice and an accompanying lack of nerves as to the fate of the streak. Sure she’d like it to continue, but it has already served it’s purpose, invigorating a player while not really changing her at all.

MEN
James Love, Denver
Propelled by a 63 in the second round on the Palm Valley GC in Goodyear, Ariz., the senior from Calgary shot a school-record 17-under 199 to win the Ron Moore Invitational by four shots over Nebraska’s Brady Schnell. It was the third career victory for Love (his ’05 Barona Cup win included a 62), who has broken par in each of his last eight rounds. (Photo courtesy of the Denver University.)

Honorable Mentions:
Blaine Peffley, Maryland—medalist at the Furman Intercollegiate (10-under 206)
Colt Knost, SMU—repeated as medalist at Pinehurst Intercollegiate (1-under 143)

WOMEN
Marci Turner, Tennessee
The sophomore led the Lady Vols to a dominating 38-shot win over New Mexico at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Hawaii, with Tennessee shooting a four-over 856, 10 shots better than the school’s previous 54-hole best. Individually, Turner’s final-round 64 at the Kaneohe Klipper course gave her a three-under 210, to beat teammate Golda Johansson by four. (Photo courtesy of the University of Tennessee.)

Honorable Mentions:
Caroline Westrup, Maryland—medalist at Liz Murphey Collegiate (5-over 221)
Adriana Zwanck, Arizona—medalist at the Mountain View Intercollegiate (3-under 213)

FEATURED TOURNAMENTS for the week of March 27

MEN
Administaff Augusta State Invitational
   (Click for Live Scoring from Golfstat)
Champions Retreat GC (Par 72, 7,265 yards)
Evans, Ga.
April 1-2

Call it the prelude to the Masters. Contested on the weekend prior to the “other” tournament in Augusta, the ASU Invitational has a few connections with the year’s first men’s major. Although the team and individual champions don’t get green jackets, they do received tickets to Monday’s practice round at Augusta National, as do all teams in the field for that matter. The perk was a great one except in 2003 when the day was washed-out entirely, the first time this had happened since 1983. One future Masters champions, meanwhile, also earned medalist honors at the event—Phil Mickelson winning here in 1989—while three other former ASU medalists will be playing in the Masters, Justin Leonard (1992, Texas), Tim Herron (1993, New Mexico) and Vaughn Taylor (1998, Augusta State).

After 27 years of holding the tournament at Forest Hills GC, the ASU Invitational moves to Champions Retreat, a 27-hole facility with three nine-hole layouts built by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player (the Nicklaus and Player nines will be in play this weekend). The upgraded venue is expected to help continue to grow the event in prestige.

Host Augusta State took the 2005 title here with a one-shot win over Georgia and will look to win the team championship for the 12th time. Likely to give the Jaguars their toughest competition is fifth-ranked UCLA, coming in after winning the National Invitational Tournament in Tucson Tuesday. The Bruins will warm up in Georgia with a one-day match-play event against Augusta State at Forest Hills. Meanwhile, the sleeper in the field may well be the two-time defending Division II champs in USC-Aiken. The Pacers have won six of their eight events this season, and in senior Scott Brown (a first-team All-American from North Augusta, S.C.) and senior Dane Burkhart (2005 NCAA DII player of the year) they can argue about having the best one-two combination in the country, regardless of division.

FIELD: Augusta State, No. 15 Clemson, Coastal Carolina, No. 14 East Tennessee State, Georgia Southern, LSU, Minnesota, Mississippi, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, No. 5 UCLA, USC-Aiken, Virginia Tech, No. 25 Washington.

Other events to watch:
March 26-28—National Invitational Tournament,
    Omni Tuscon (Ariz.) National
March 27-28—Oregon Duck Invitational, Shadow Hills CC,
    Junction City, Ore.
March 27-28—Western Intercollegiate, Pasatiempo GC,
    Santa Cruz, Calif.
March 27-28—UALR/First Tee Collegiate, Chenel CC,
    Little Rock, Ark.
March 27-28—Colorado-Stevinson Ranch Invitational,
    Stevinson (Calif.) Ranch

WOMEN
Ping Arizona State Invitational
    (Click for Live Scoring from Golfstat)
ASU Karsten GC (Par 72, 6,230 yards)
Tempe, Ariz.
March 31-April 2

Since its inception in 1966, the ASU Invitational has been one of the elite events in women’s college golf. Many of the game’s best have earned medalist honors in the desert, including Nancy Lopez (1976, 1977, Tulsa); Jody Rosenthal (1985, Tulsa); Kelly Robbins (1990, 1991, Tulsa); Wendy Ward (1994, 1995, Arizona State); Hilary Lunke (1998, Stanford); Grace Park (1999, Arizona State) and Lorena Ochoa (2002, Arizona). Suffice it to say, the tournament is a fitting compliment to the storied golf program the Sun Devils have built over the years.

The 41st edition has 10 top-25 teams in the 16-school field. UCLA, which regained its No. 2 position in the most recent Golf World Coaches’ Poll this week from host Arizona State, is coming off a victory at the Cal Guadalajara Invitational and looks as if its got freshman standout Jane Park rounding into form at an opportune time. The 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion had her best collegiate performance when she finished runner-up in Mexico. The Bruins also got good news when junior Hannah Jun, recovering from a broken neck suffered in an auto accident last December, had her halo brace removed earlier this month, although whether she’ll play again in the 2005-06 season remains uncertain.

Yet while many will be watching from a Bruins-Sun Devils clash—ASU is also the defending champions, having beaten UCLA in a tie-breaker here in 2005—don’t be surprised to see USC sneak in and claim its first team title of the spring after two runner-up showings. Trojan coach Andrea Gaston says that her 2005-06 squad has the best team chemistry of any groups she’s had in Los Angeles, including the 2003 NCAA champs. “They’re really enjoying one another,” Gaston said. “I love that part of it. I couldn’t ask for more because when you’re dealing with an individual sport, sometimes they don’t always want to be together.”

FIELD: No. 20 Arizona, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 23 Long Beach State, Missouri, Oregon, Oregon State, No. 7 Pepperdine, No. 18 Stanford, Texas, No. 17 Texas A&M, Tulsa, No. 2 UCLA, No. 10 UNLV, No. 5 USC, No. 25 Washington, Washington State.

Other events to watch:
March 27-28—Oregon Duck Invitational, Shadow Hills CC,
    Junction City, Ore.
March 27-28—UNC-Wilmington Lady Seahawk Invitational,
    River Landing CC, Wallace, N.C.
March 31-April 2—Bryan National Collegiate, Bryan Park
    Champions Cse., Browns Summitt, N.C.
March 31-April 2—Ryder Florida Collegiate Championship,
    Don Shula Golf Resort, Miami Lakes, Fla.

I moonlighted a little from the college beat recently to work on a cover story for Golf World about the new generation of players starting to surface on the PGA Tour, young guns whose preferred style of play, we theorized, “is more powerful and aggressive than traditionally espoused." In turn, they take a more “determined, offensive outlook” toward the game. The Big Bang is how we’ve dubbed the phenomenon, or as some people on tour like to refer to it, the “real” Tiger Woods effect.

The most obvious partakers of this philosophy have been Bubba Watson (formerly an All-American at Georgia), J.B. Holmes (Kentucky) and Camilo Villegas (Florida), rookies on tour in 2006 who’s mindset on the tee is swing the club as hard as you can and hit the ball as far as possible, accuracy be dammed. In turn, they have learned to adapt the rest of their games, honing their skills with a wedge in their hands to conversely have a high greens in regulation percentage and larger percentage of birdie putts. (A quote from Watson that was telling: “My goal is to hit it inside the white stakes. No matter where it is, fairway, in the trees, as long as I have a swing, [I’m happy].”

The reasons for such a new mind-set starting to occur are numerous and spelled out in detail in our 10-page package (Kudos to my co-author Tim Rosaforte, as well as John Antonini, Mathew Rudy, E. Michael Johnson and Dave Shedloski for their tremendous efforts). What convinced me, though, that this phenomenon is not a lone blip—and that the three above players aren’t just freaks of nature—was talking to more than a half dozen college coaches for the article. To a man, each suggested that this bomb-and-gouge style of play has been going on in the college ranks for a few years now, and is the method of choice by the top young amateurs.

“A lot of people look around and say, ‘that’s really different,’ ” says Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler. “Well, not to [them] it’s not. It’s second nature. [They've] done it [their] whole life.

“It’s just crank it on down there and deal with it,” he continued. “Because I think they feel like short shots, no matter how hard they are, they’re really not that hard any more. You heard growing up ‘Don’t get that in between yardage. Don’t get that finesse shot.’ Well they laugh at that now. There are no hard shots if you know what you’re doing. They’ve figured out how to get it up and down and how to hit the flop and how much better the wedge is. How much more spin … now you’re reading you can get too much spin. So there are no hard shots if you know what you’re doing. So it just becomes an absolute birdie fest.”

And just how long are these young players? Heppler recalled that when he and his team got a chance to play at Augusta National GC in February, one of his players, Mike Barbosa, hit driver, 6-iron into the par-5 second hole. “I think what we’re seeing is something that started four or five years ago and they’re now reaching something that’s visible,” says Heppler. “I think it’s a culture. Guys just play different. I mean I can go up and down my team and it’s little guys and it’s big guys. To see where we play from … that’s one thing about being at a place where you play the same place all the time. We’ve been at Golf Club [of Georgia] for eight years, nine years now. I can’t tell you how different it is. There were par 5s initially they didn’t go for. And longer par 4s now that they just try to knock it on, shorter ones now. Or just get it up there around the green and get it out of the bunker rather than with a wedge.”

In the package of stories, John Antonini and I highlighted a group of players who have adopted this new style including three amateurs—Oklahoma junior Anthony Kim, USC freshman-to-be Jamie Lovemark and Oklahoma State sophomore Pablo Martin. All three, I believe, will use their length off the tee and lack of fear to have success when they go to the next level, be it college for Lovemark or the pros for Kim and Martin.

No doubt, though, college golf has a lot of long bombers to watch. At the risk of leaving out a few names by listing players below—and if you see an omission, by all means leave you comments after this item—but here are some that the coaches passed on to me that people should pay attention to for the prodigious power off the tee

Oscar Alvarez, senior, BYU  (5-foot-10, 168 pounds)
Bronson Burgoon, freshman, Texas A&M (6-0, 175)
Rhys Davis, junior, East Tennessee State (6-1)
Andres Gonzalez, senior, UNLV (6-2, 210)
Taylor Hall, freshman, Georgia Tech (6-3, 190)
Dustin Johnson, junior, Coastal Carolina (6-4)
Niklas Lemke, junior, Arizona State (6-2)
Luke List, junior, Vanderbilt (6-2, 190)
Major Manning, junior, Augusta State (6-4, 190)
Brendon Todd, junior, Georgia (6-3, 185)
Dawie van der Walt, sophomore, Lamar (6-4)
Jhonattan Vegas, junior, Texas (6-3, 200)

One last point … this philosophy of play in many respects is much like baseball catering to home runs and basketball evolving into dunk contests. Yet while people dig the long ball, that doesn’t mean it’s good for the game. Just as each of the coaches said that the Big Bang theory is practiced in college golf, they all each lamented this fact, longing for the time when shot-making was still important. I have to say I agree with them. By becoming infatuated with distance, players aren’t necessarily better, just longer.

When Irene Cho is in contention next month at the Pac-10 Championship, or in May at the NCAA Championship, I bet you the USC senior gives an extra wink and a nod to her coach, Andrea Gaston, when the latter walks by. You see, if not for the Trojans’ coach for the past 10 years, Cho probably would be a 21-year-old former college golfer right now instead of a soon-to-be three-time All-American.

Gaston isn’t one to toot her own horn, instead letting her 2003 NCAA championship title speak for her. Yet one of the more rewarding moments in her coaching career has to have been three years ago when she calmed Cho’s nerves, frayed by the confluence of great expectations on the course entering her first post-season in college and academic rigors off the course when trying to finish her freshman year while missing classes and re-scheduling finals.

Cho, a former figure skater turned talented golfer, was so overwhelmed by the moment she approached her coach following Pac-10s (where the pressure first mounted when she had been disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard) to let her know that maybe golf and school was just too much.

Coach wouldn’t let me give up, Cho (photo above courtesy of USC) confided last week, with gratitude, even if at the time she wasn’t so convinced. “She thought I’d regret the decision. She helped me pretty much figure out what I should do to get through those next couple months, how to balance everything.”

You could say the La Habra, Calif., managed to “get through” pretty well, thank you. After a T-34 finish at NCAA regionals, she turned heads by posting a T-3 finish at nationals, missing a playoff for the individual title (won by teammate Mikaela Parmalid) by one shot. No doubt, her score played a major part in the Trojans claiming the team title at Purdue’s Kampen Course. A few weeks later, Cho kept the run going by qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open, where she made the cut and was 20th after 36 holes before finishing 58th at Pumpkin Ridge.

Turn the clock forward three years and a confident and posed Cho is making a bid for national player of the year, posting a 71.62 stroke average in seven starts entering next week’s Ping ASU Invitational. After two runner-up finishes in the fall, she has won two of her first three spring starts, a one-shot triumph at the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge and a 10-shot victory at the Cal Guadalajara Invitational, where her second-round 64 and 13-under 203 total each broke school records.

“It’s still hitting me right now,” says Cho, who also leads the country in par-4 scoring (4.03) and birdies (76). “It’s like somebody else was doing that. It’s so weird. Everybody on the team is calling me Ms. 64.” That’s when they’re not referring to her as “the recruit,” an affectionate moniker describing how bubbly and excited she seems to be, like a new recruit visiting the school.

Cho’s stellar senior season reminds Gaston of her sophomore year, when had four top-10 performances and was a second-team All-American. The performance is even more special considering the disappointment Cho’s junior campaign, where expectations perhaps got the best of her and she had just one top-10s.

“[She was] constantly trying to fix something rather than trusting what you’ve got and really staying in the moment,” Gaston said. “I think she was really just a little less patient last year and I think that might have contributed to some of her finishes.”

Cho, too, says that patience has been everything this year, but that the struggles of her freshman and junior years have made her the player she is today, one who remains focused in the here and now. “I’ve learned a lot from those experiences.”

This “not getting ahead of herself” mind-set has spilled over into her plans post-NCAAs. She’ll graduate in December with a degree in Communications and will be a professional come LPGA Tour Q school at year’s end. Just when she’s turning pro, though, remains to be seen.

For now Cho merely wants to enjoy the moment, spending time with teammates who are closer than those of past years, the squad ranked No. 6 in the Golf World College Coaches poll. As a senior, she is well aware that time is running out, and she doesn’t want to miss a thing.

“I admire her tenacity, her perseverance, her courage to continue and face adversity,” Gaston says. “I think that’s what college is all about, to face those challenges. She’s a champion in my mind.”

And a grateful one at that.

MEN
Keven Fortin-Simard, Memphis
The sophomore from Quebec earned his third individual title in 2005-06 when he held off Baylor’s Ryan Baca to win by one at the Border Olympics. His 13-under 203 was 20 shots better than the tournament average at Laredo (Texas) CC and broke the Tigers’ school record for best 54-hole showing by two shots. It was Fortin-Simard’s third straight top-six finish. (Photo right courtesy of University of Memphis.)

Honorable Mentions:
Anthony Kim, Oklahoma—medalist at Hall of Fame Invitational (8-under 208)
Matt Harmon, Michigan State—medalist at Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational (9-under 207)
Duncan Stewart, Jacksonville—medalist at El Diablo Intercollegiate (9-under 207)
Kyle Ellis, Mississippi—medalist at South Alabama Spring Classic (4-under 212)
Jason D’Amore, Loyola Marymount—medalist at Callaway Golf Invitational (7-under 209)

WOMEN
Shannon Johnson, Indiana
It wasn’t just medalist honors the senior claimed at the UNLV Spring Invitational, defeating Campbell’s Alejandra Shaw by four shots. Her five-under 211 at Boulder Creek GC in Henderson, Nev., (book-ended by a pair of 68s) was good enough to break the Hoosiers’ 54-hole school record by a shot. It was the Sioux Falls, S.D., native’s second tournament victory of the season. (Photo right courtesy of Indiana University.)

Honorable Mentions:
Amanda Blumenherst, Duke—medalist at Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational (2-over 218)

FEATURED TOURNAMENTS for the week of March 20

Men
Hootie at Bulls Bay Collegiate Invitational (Click for Live Scoring from Golfstat)
Bulls Bay GC (Par 71, 7,200 yards)
Awendaw, S.C.
March 26-28

The second-year event, put on by Bulls Bay owner Joe Rice, offers players a few sweet perks, not the least being the chance to play this standout new course designed by the late Mike Strantz that opened outside Charleston in winter 2001. As was the case a year ago, teams, along with tournament sponsors and guests, also will be treated to a concert by Hootie and the Blowfish (band members Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim Sonefeld at all members at the course as well as University of South Carolina alumni). The tournament raised $30,000 last year for the Hootie and the Blowfish Foundation to improve public education in the Palmetto State, and tournament chairman Doug Carnes hopes to reach that figure again this year.

South Carolina, Clemson and the College of Charleston share hosting duties for the event, which was won by Kentucky in a one-hole playoff over Augusta State a year ago. Current PGA Tour rookie J.B. Holmes, a Wildcat senior in 2005, made a birdie on the playoff hole to give his team the victory. Augusta State’s Scott Jamieson took the individual title with a eight-under 205 score, five better than Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson.

This year’s favorites include the local schools as well as North Carolina, which is coming off its first team win since the fall of 2004 after claiming the title at last week's Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational.

FIELD: No. 20 Alabama, Auburn, Augusta State, Central Florida, College of Charleston, No. 15 Clemson, Florida State, No. 22 Kentucky, LSU, North Carolina, N.C. State, No. 16 South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Virginia, No. 12 Wake Forest.

Women
Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic
University of Georgia GC 
Athens, Ga.
March 24-26

The 34th playing of this staple on the women’s spring tournament calendar will be poignant as it marks the first time the event has been held since the November 2005 death of its now namesake, former Georgia women’s golf coach and athletics administrator Liz Murphey. Suffice it to say, Murphey’s accomplishments at Georgia were considerable. Under her leadership as assistant athletic director for women’s sports, Bulldogs’ teams won eight of 14 SEC women’s all-sports awards, presented annually to the outstanding program in the conference. She also oversaw the women’s golf team when it became an official varsity sport in 1978, leading the squad to 21 team and 18 individual titles from 1978 to 1986, and eventually became a charter member of the National Golf Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.

As the Bulldogs look to host the event, they also are trying to make it back-to-back-to-back victories in the tournament (and 12 team triumphs overall). A year ago Georgia went wire-to-wire to win by 13 shots over LSU. More importantly, Todd McCorkle’s squad is looking to return to the form it showed in the fall, when Georgia finished no worse than third in any event compared to this spring, where it has posted an 11th-place finish at the Arizona Wildcat in February and a T-4 at the Cal Guadalajara Invitational.

Leading the charge for the Bulldogs will be Kelly Froelich, the event’s defending champion individually. The senior’s two-over 218 total won the event by two shots and allowed her to join a distinguished list of past winners, including Hollis Stacy (1973, Rollins); Beth Daniel (1977, Furman); Juli Inkster (1982, San Jose State), Jody Rosenthal (1983, 1984, 1985, Tulsa) and Vicki Goetze-Ackermann (1992, Georgia).

Another Georgia players to watch are Whitney Wade, a junior who leads the team with a 72.78 stroke average, and Taylor Leon, a freshman who just trails Wade with a 72.83 average. Leon and her two brothers (Tyler and Trent) were the subject of a profile I wrote for Golf World in our March 17 issue.

Look for Auburn, coming off a two-tournament win streak, and Arkansas, with former Bulldog Kelley Hester at the helm, to provide the toughest challenges.

FIELD: No. 9 Arkansas, No. 4 Auburn, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Florida State, Furman, No. 8 Georgia, Kent State, Michigan State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, No. 20 Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, No. 13 Vanderbilt, No. 12 Wake Forest, No. 24 Washington.

FEATURED COLLEGE TOURNAMENTS for the week of March 13

Men
Hall of Fame Invitational (Click for Live Scoring from Golfstat)
Redstone GC
Humble, Texas
March 17-19

Players participating in the third annual event run by the Golf Coaches' Association of America are treated to playing the same course that will be used a month later for the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open. Yet it’s not the difficulty of the course that will concern most of the schools competing in the event but rather fatigue. Thirteen of the 17-team field have played in the last week.

Defending champion of the event is Oklahoma State, who held off UNLV by two shots in 2005. UNLV senior Ryan Moore claimed medalist honors with a 10-under 206, one better than OSU’s Tyler Leon.

One other unique feature of the event: the GCAA invites the Division II (USC-Aiken) and Division III (Guilford College) champions to participate.

FIELD: Arizona, Arkansas, No. 15 Clemson, No. 7 Duke, No. 14 East Tennessee State, No. 1 Georgia, Guilford College, New Mexico, Oklahoma, No. 2 Oklahoma State, Purdue, USC-Aiken, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, No. 12 Wake Forest

Women
Betsy Rawls Invitational (Click for Live Scoring from Golfstat)
University of Texas GC 
Austin, Texas
March 17-19

If ever a team needed a little home cooking, it’s the Texas women’s squad. The Longhorns started their spring season last week with a disappointing 11th-place showing of 11 teams at the Cal-Guadalajara Invitational, a feat made only worse by the fact that it was the highest finish UT has posted in the 2005-06 season. Indeed, it’s been 10 months since a Susan Watkins’ squad has had a top-five finish. There is no harder worker than Watkins, in her 12th season at her alma mater, and no one who expects more of her players. She can only hope being at home will help kick-start her squad.

Given Texas track record in the event, maybe Watkins’ hopes will be fulfilled. The Longhorns have won the event six times in its 32-year history, most recently in 1999. A year ago it was Duke that came out on top with a one-stroke victory over Oklahoma State. Arkansas’ Stacy Lewis took medalist honors.

Suffice it to say, the list of defending champions reads like a who’s who of women’s college golf. Among them are Nancy Lopez (Tulsa, 1976); Beth Daniel (Furman, 1977); Val Skinner (Oklahoma State, 1982); Jody Rosenthal (Tulsa, 1984); Annika Sorenstam (Arizona, 1992).

FIELD: No. 25 Baylor, No. 1 Duke, Iowa State, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, No. 21 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Purdue, SMU, TCU, Texas, No. 19 Texas A&M, Tulsa

With their one-stroke victory over Baylor March 7 at the Louisiana Classics, combined with wins at the Club de Golf Santa Anita/North Texas Classic in Mexico Feb. 20 and All-American Intercollegiate in Houston Feb. 28, the University of Houston men has won three straight tournament titles. Of course, there was a time once when such an occurrence was hardly cause to pause and ponder. According to results compiled in Houston’s media guide, the Cougars played in 171 events from 1956 to 1974, of which they won 163.  If you really want to blow you mind, consider that U of H went from 1955 to 1980—almost 26 years—never going three events without winning at least one tournament, a stretch where the school finished worse than second only eight times.

Yet after a three-plus decade run, college golf’s most successful dynasty—16 national championships remains the gold standard—began to show its age, a problem that only worsened in recent years when the Cougars failed to even get a bid to the NCAA regionals the past three seasons. The reasons are varied, as I chronicled in a feature story last May in Golf World magazine (“Hard Act to Follow”).

I’d love to tell you that while sitting in Houston coach Vince Jarrett’s office about this time a year ago to discuss the direction of the program I had a vibe that the Cougars were prepared to start the turn-around sooner than later. (Patricia Arquette’s character in NBC’s Medium I’m not.) The 63-year-old U of H alumni had won a national championship while coaching at Division II Abilene Christian, but his low-key approach didn’t seem to be the manner that would inspire the Cougars to roar once again.

As it turns out, Jarrett’s tactics appear to be working. Rather than pump them up with motivational jargon, waking up the echoes of past (my apologizes ND fans), Jarrett has fought to keep history in the rear view mirror. It’s only the present they can control anyway.

“I think after winning a couple times last year they felt like they should have gotten some type of bid to regionals,” Jarrett told me on the phone this week. “They year, regionals right now are not even in our mind. Our mind is we’re going to play every golf tournament we can to the best of our ability, and in the end if we can get that opportunity, that’s just going to be icing on the cake.”

Of course, it helps to have your players stepping up in big situations. Five different Cougars have already posted top-five finishes individually, most notably junior Pablo Acuna, who claimed medalist honors in Mexico. (Junior Ricky Romano was second at the Louisiana Classics; senior Zach Mowbray was T-4 in Mexico; senior Kevin Newman was T-5 at the Del Walker Intercollegiate; and sophomore Jordan Irwin was T-5 at the Del Walker.)

Jarrett says that despite failing to take home any trophies in the fall, the team did have three top-four performances in four starts. Disappointed with the way they closed out events, they were encouraged by the position they were putting themselves in. Most importantly, the team believed things were about to go their way.

“I think right now, they feel like they belong playing in these events,” Jarrett says. “Maybe in the past they weren’t so sure. They’re just growing up. It’s just maturing.”

You can’t consider the Cougars a lock to break through and grab their first bid to regionals since 2002 just yet, particularly when you look at their up-coming schedule. Houston tries to make it four wins in row when it plays at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in South Carolina March 13, then returns to Texas to play in the Border Olympics March 17-18. A week later, the team is in Little Rock, Ark., for UALR Collegiate Classic. After playing in the Courtyard by Marriott Intercollegiate the first week of April comes the Conference USA Championship.

For those not counting at home, that’s five events in 38 days. Too much golf still has to be played to do anything more than focus on the present. So it is that Jarrett hopes his players won’t stumble upon the fact that the last time Houston won three straight tournaments was in the fall of 1985. What's more important is that they make it four in a row.

Georgia junior Chris Kirk and Oklahoma State sophomore Pablo Martin are fast become college golf’s equivalent of Jack Nicklaus-Arnold Palmer circa the 1960s. Like they did at last fall’s Isleworth-UCF Collegiate Invitational, where Martin edged his rival after making a tap-in eagle on the second to last hole, the duo waged a classic one-on-one duel for medalist honors at the Puerto Rico Classic two weeks ago. This time it was Kirk who came out on top, shooting a back-nine 30 in the final round (making seven birdies over his last 10 holes) to come from six back of Martin and win by a single shot. Kirk’s 11-under 205 matched the seventh best effort in school history and helped him claim his third career win while the top-ranked Bulldogs also won the team title by four shots over Florida (and 19 over third-place OSU).

Such a dual, mind you, isn't necessarily surprising to faithful readers of Campus Insider. Recall that at the end of the fall we picked Martin (bottom right photo, courtesy of OKState.com) as the player of the first half of the 2005-06 season, and Kirk (top right photo; courtesy of the University of Georgia) as the best player you'll hear about before the season ends.

The good news is we’ve got two more chances in the next 11 days to see Kirk and Martin go head-to-head as both the Bulldogs and Cowboys are in the field at the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas March 10-12 and the Hall of Fame Invitational outside of Houston March 17-19. The two obviously bring out the best in each other, their friendly off-the-course relationship creating a good natured on-the-course rivalry. If one can get the better of the other in both tournaments, they have the inside track at winning player of the year honors.

Meanwhile, do you have another choice for who should be college player of the year for the men? Send us your choice by clicking on the "Comments" link below.