Except for the handful of schools spending Thanksgiving in Hawaii at the Aloha Purdue Collegiate—rough life, playing college golf, huh?—the first half of the 2006-07 campaign has come and gone. With roughly 10 weeks to catch their breath before beginning the spring march to the NCAA Championship, players and programs must assess where they stand overall and consider how to repeat any success from the fall or recover from a disappointing start to the season.

And just who, exactly, will be doing the repeating and who is looking at recovering? Gaze no further than Campus Insider’s second annual Mid-Season Awards package, a compendium that serves as both a review of the season to date and a primer for what’s to come when players tee it up again in late January.

MID-SEASON PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Men: Dustin Johnson, Coastal Carolina
     Since first grabbing people’s attention with a victory at the NCAA East Regional in 2005, the 6-foot-4 native of Myrtle Beach, S.C., has proved you don’t have to play for a traditional power to succeed. This fall, however, Johnson has risen to the head of the class, winning the Coca-Cola Duke Classic and winding up as the top American at the International Collegiate, along with finishing no worse than T-8 in his four stroke-play events. In the process of posting a 70.33 stroke average, the senior has shot nine sub-par rounds and just one higher than a 73.
    Honorable mention: Colt Knost, SMU
        Three wins, five top-10s and one serving of crow

Women: Caroline Westrup, Florida State
     The only thing that derailed the sophomore from Ahus, Sweden this fall was an illness that forced her to withdraw mid-way through the Derby Invitational. Otherwise, Westrup’s second-place finish at the Cougar Classic and a share of medalist honors at the Lady Tar Heel Invitational helped her record a nation’s best 71.71 adjusted scoring average. To compliment her collegiate success, she also was the unofficial individual champion at the Women’s World Team Amateur Championship last month in South Africa while leading her country to a second-place showing.
    Honorable mention: Taylor Leon, Georgia
        Three top-four finishes, 71.55 scoring average, 90.4 percent fairways hit

MID-SEASON COACHES OF THE YEAR
Men: Jay Seawell, Alabama
     By his own admission, the 40-year-old doesn’t have a superstar in his line-up, but with five of the six players who’ve teed it up for his team this fall sporting scoring averages of 72.17 or lower, he does have the deepest team in college golf. Thus explains the Crimson Tide’s three victories in their first four starts and their first appearance at the top of the Golf World Coaches’ Poll. After spending five years convincing anyone who would listen that Alabama could be a contender both in the SEC and nationally, he has developed a program that is a legitimate threat to win the NCAA title.
    Honorable mention: Conrad Ray, Stanford
        First time Cardinal have multiple All-American candidates since mid-1990s       

Women: Martha Richards Freitag, Vanderbilt
       Having established the Commodore program in her first four years in Nashville, claiming the school’s first SEC title in 2004 and best ever finish at nationals (fifth), only to see the momentum stop with a disappointing 2005 season, Freitag has Vanderbilt back among the elite. Consecutive wins at the Lady Tar Heel and Stanford before finishing runner-up to Duke at the Hooters Match Play Championship demonstrated her 2006-07 squad is more than just the combined strength of All-Americans Jacqui Concolino and Chris Brady.
    Honorable mention: Todd McCorkle, Georgia
        Top-ranked Bulldogs proved to all that NCAA champ Duke wasn’t unbeatable.

MOST SURPRISING PLAYER
Men: Matt Cook, Western Carolina
    True, he had already re-written the record book at the tiny school in Cullowhee, N.C., posting the Caramounts’ first and second best single-season scoring averages in his first two years on campus. Still few would have guessed the junior from Murphy, N.C., would have the best scoring average among all Division I players—69.33—after the fall season. Thus far in five events, Cook has three victories, bringing his career total to eight wins.
    Honorable mention: Zack Miller, Stanford
        Notched three fall wins after just two top-10s the past two seasons.

Women: Brianna Broderick, Michigan
      A year after posting a 78.42 average and finishing no better than 12th in any tournament, the 22-year-old senior has a 73.42 average and four top-four finishes in four starts. Capping the turnaround was a playoff victory over Ohio State’s Dana Je at the Wolverine Invitational.
    Honorable mention: Alison Walshe, Arizona
        The chaos of a third school in three years hasn't hurt her game.

MOST SURPRISING TEAM
Men: Stanford
     A three-win fall and return to the national spotlight was something many golf cognoscenti figured the Cardinal were poised for … in 2007. But with freshman Joseph Bramlett not missing a beat in joining the starting five and Miller winning three times individually, Ray has his alma mater positioned to contend for their first Pac-10 crown in 15 years.
    Honorable mention: Florida
        Diaper rash, my butt, Coach Alexander.

Women: Denver
      Come on, try to convince us your Magic 8-ball could have predicted the Pioneers would be the only program that would play more than three events in the fall and still have a perfect record. Six different Denver players have posted top-20 finishes, led by freshman sensation Stephanie Sherlock (two wins, four top-fives) and senior All-American candidate Emily Hoeper (one win, three top-fives). Strength of schedule—or lack there of—keeps them out of the top 10 nationally for now, but don’t take Denver lightly come the spring.
    Honorable mention: North Carolina
        Unranked in the preseason, now a solid top-20 team with three top-fives.

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER
Men: Seung-Su Han, UNLV
     After winning the prestigious Porter Cup in the summer, the 2006 Mountain West freshman of the year looked ready to join the college elite. Instead, he has hit the proverbial sophomore slump: T-29 at Inverness followed by T-72 at Tucker. The South Korean native then couldn't qualify to make the travel squad at the Ping Preview and Callaway Match Play. His stroke average for the fall (76.83) is more than three shots higher than for the entire 2005-06 season (73.08).
    Honorable mention: Webb Simpson, Wake Forest
        Bound to slide after standout summer.

Women: Dewi-Clarie Schreefel, USC
     The 2006 NCAA individual champion hasn’t given much indication she’s ready to defend her title, posting no better than a T-17 showing in three falls starts. Meanwhile, the junior’s 75.11 stroke average is only fourth best on the Trojans squad.
    Honorable mention: Da Sol Chung, UNLV
        Just one top-five finish this fall after seven in 2005-06.

MOST DISAPPOINTING TEAM
Men: Washington
     Granted the Huskies lost former NCAA champ James Lepp from their starting line-up to graduation and never seem to hit their stride in any year until the calendar reads April. Still, UW hasn’t posted a top-five since its runner-up showing at its home event in September. There’s too much talent on Matt Thurmond’s team for no individual player to have a top-10 finish in the last three events the Huskies have competed in as a team.
    Honorable mention: Wake Forest
        Posted top-seven finishes in just two of five fall starts.

Women: Purdue
     Last year’s Cinderella squad (six wins, 12 top-fives) has lost a bit of its luster as the Boilermakers have a fifth, 14th and T-11 to their credit entering next week’s fall finale in Hawaii. Not sure whether it’s a hangover from the disappointing ninth-place finish at 2006 NCAAs or the loss of standout Onnarin Sattayabanphot, but with four starters back from a year ago, you would have expected more out of West Lafayette.
    Honorable mention: California
        Only one finish better than T-12 in four starts.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
Men: Daniel Summerhays, BYU
      In 2005-06, the 22-year-old from Farmington, Utah, had a respectable 72.15 average in his first season back after serving a two-year Mormon mission. This fall, however, he has found a new gear, posting a 69.33 average and matching the NCAA 18-hole stroke record with a 60 at Golden Horseshoe at the Ping Preview. Nine of 12 rounds are under par compared to 18 of 39 a year ago.
    Honorable mention: Joseph Sykora, Alabama
        Average drops from 74.92 in 2005-06 to 70.17 this fall; wins Jerry Pate

Women: Catherine Matranga, TCU
     The senior from Fort Worth has shaved more than three strokes off her average from a year ago, posting a 72.42 mark this fall with a win (Dick McGuire), a T-2 and two other top-20 finishes. Recall that in 2005-06, the 21-year-old had just two top-10s in 12 starts overall.
    Honorable mention: Lauren Hunt, North Carolina
        Average drops from 76.76 in 2005-06 to 73.91 this fall; wins Cougar Fall Classic

BEST PLAYER YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
Men: Derek Fathauer, Louisville
     The 20-year-old from Jensen Beach, Fla., had been as much curiosity as newsmaker in his first two years with the Cardinals, playing alongside identical twin brother Daryl (the two made a bit of history when both advanced to match play at the U.S. Amateur last August) and capturing the 2006 Big East individual title. This fall Derek continued to shine in anonymity, winning twice and finishing no worse than T-5 in five starts.
    Honorable Mention: Brian Locke, Loyola Marymount
        Four wins in first 15 months of school, including two this fall

Women: Stephanie Sherlock, Denver
     A two-sport high school star in Ontario, Sherlock saw her already stellar golf game (she was Canada’s top female junior in 2005) blossom this fall after hanging up her basketball hightops. With a victory in her first college start, the Oregon State Invitational, the 19-year-old followed it up with a T-5 and third-place showing in her next two events before closing the fall with a share of the title at the Lady Aztec Invitational.
    Honorable mention: Misun Cho , Pepperdine
        Has chance to be the Waves’ next great international player

BEST PLAYER YOU’LL HEAR OF BY SEASON’S END
Men: Niklas Lemke, Arizona State
     Rival coaches feared the day when the mental game of the 22-year-old from Sweden would catch up with his physical talents. The senior, considered among the longest hitters in the college game, broke through with his first career victory at the Olympia Fields/Illini Invitational after finishing second at the Topy Cup, then posted a T-3 at the Ping Preview. “All the pieces are starting to come together,” said Lemke, a third-team All-American in 2006. “I know what I need to do to play good every tournament."
    Honorable mention: Kyle Stanley, Clemson
        Starting to get comfortable with the college game

Women: Jacqui Concolino, Vanderbilt
     There’s no sophomore slump when talking about the 19-year-old from Orlando, whose worst finish this fall has been a T-11 after posting three top-10s. Concolino, the first freshman to earn All-American honors at Vanderbilt a year ago, can overpower a golf course like few in the women’s game, and has nine top-10s in 14 career starts to prove it. A T-4 in the Golf Daytona Beach Fall Preview at LPGA International, site of next May’s NCAA Championship, bodes well for Commodore fans.
    Honorable mention: Anna Nordqvist, Arizona State
        Sweden’s top junior has proved to be the real thing

BIGGEST QUESTION MARK ENTERING THE SPRING
Men: Jonathan Moore, Oklahoma State
     It would have been difficult for anyone to continue the torrid play that the Cowboy sophomore showed last spring when he swept his final three events, including the NCAA Championship, and put to rest the horrible slump that accompanied him upon his initial arrival to Stillwater, Okla. Still, coach Mike McGraw will look for more than a T-18 and T-24 showing from Moore (who missed two other starts to play for the U.S. at the World Team Amateur Championship) if OSU is to become the first repeat champions in the men’s game since Houston in the mid-1980s.
    Honorable mention: Charlie Beljan, New Mexico
        If his back doesn’t give out, he can win the NCAA title.

Women: Belen Mozo, USC   
    The 2006 Ladies British Open Amateur champion from Spain is expected to enroll in the spring semester. Those who’ve seen her play believe she could provide a major boost for the Trojans, who slipped from their preseason top-10 spot this fall but now might have the depth to contend for a national championship. Individually, Mozo also could quickly get herself into the hunt for player-of-the-year honors.
    Honorable mention: Anna Grezbien, Duke
        Can the former NCAA champ be the anchor Duke looks to need?


GOLF WORLD MID-SEASON ALL-AMERICAN TEAM
MEN
Charlie Beljan, New Mexico, Sr.
Matt Cook, Western Carolina, Jr.
Rhys Davies, East Tennessee State, Sr.
Derek Fathauer, Louisville, Jr.
Brian Harman, Georgia, Soph.
Billy Horschel, Florida, Soph.
Dustin Johnson, Coastal Carolina, Sr.
Colt Knost, SMU, Sr.
Niklas Lemke, Arizona State, Sr.
Jamie Lovemark, USC, Fr.
Zack Miller, Stanford, Sr.
Daniel Summerhays, BYU, Jr.

WOMEN
Amanda Blumenherst, Duke, Soph.
Brianna Broderick, Michigan, Sr.
Jacqui Concolino, Vanderbilt, Soph.
Ashley Knoll, Texas A&M, Sr.
Taylor Leon, Georgia, Soph.
Stacy Lewis, Arkansas, Jr.
Catherine Matranga, TCU, Sr.
Anna Nordqvist, Arizona State, Fr.
Stephanie Sherlock, Denver, Fr.
Jenny Suh, Alabama, Sr.
Alison Walshe, Arizona, Jr.
Caroline Westrup, Florida State, Soph.

GOLF WORLD MID-SEASON ALL-FRESHMEN TEAM
MEN
Jonathan Bowers, Northwestern
Joseph Bramlett, Stanford
Adam Long, Duke
Jamie Lovemark, USC
Stephan Stallworth, San Jose State
Kyle Stanley, Clemson

WOMEN
Misun Cho, Pepperdine
Jodi Ewart, New Mexico
Anna Nordqvist, Arizona State
Angela Oh, Tennessee
Stephanie Sherlock, Denver
Kate White, Nebraska

(All photos courtesy of schools' Sports Information Departments, except Han, Schrefeel; Seawell photo: Kent Gidley; Schreefel: Charles Laberge; Sherlock: Rich Clarkson and Associates)

GOLF WORLD Players of the Week
Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5

MEN
Brian Locke, Loyola Marymount
The sophomore’s third career win came in impressive fashion, a seven-shot victory at the Bill Cullum Intercollegiate. Locke’s nine-under 207 at Wood Ranch GC in Simi Valley, Calif., helped the Lions claim the team title by one shot, their first regular-season win outside their home event since 1999.

WOMEN
Alison Whitaker, Duke
With a 4-0 record—including a 7-and-6 victory over Vanderbilt’s Julie Bartholomew in the final round—the freshman from Australia propelled the Blue Devils to the team title at the Hooters Collegiate Match Play in Orlando. Whitaker, 20, won two other matches with 5-and-4 margins.

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

MEN
1. Alabama —The Crimson Tide close out the fall with a trip to Hawaii and the Aloha Purdue Collegiate. Rough life, huh?

2. Oklahoma State—Maybe winter in Stillwater, Okla., doesn’t sound all that appealing, but it’s the time the Cowboys work the hardest.

3. Stanford—It wasn’t just the fact the Cardinal won their third tournament of the fall at the CordeValle Collegiate that was impressive. It’s the fact they won by 14 shots.

4. Florida —Look for junior standout Arnond Vongvanij to sign with the Gators in the coming days.

5. UCLA —A second straight T-7 finish, this time at their home event (CordeValle) puts a bit of a sour taste in the mouths of the Bruins heading into the mid-season break

WOMEN
1. Georgia —Hard to ask for anything more out of the Bulldogs this fall, with a win, two seconds and two thirds in five starts.

2. Duke—Victory at the Hooters Match Play Championship gives the two-time NCAA champs a shot of confidence.

3. Vanderbilt—The Commodores fell to Duke in the finals of the Match Play, but Martha Richards Freitag solidified her spot as the top coach of the fall season.

4. Arizona State —The Sun Devils won their first two events of the spring in 2006. Don’t be surprised if they do it again this season.

5. Auburn —The average drop score for the Tigers is 76.88, best in the country.

STAT OF THE WEEK
2
Number of putters in the bag of Stanford’s Zack Miller. On the advice of Cardinal coach Conrad Ray, the senior uses a long putter for lag putts and a traditional one for shorter attempts. So far so good, as Miller claimed a share of the title (along with teammate Rob Grube) at the CordeValle Collegiate this week, shooting a nine-under 63 in the second round en route to a 14-under 202. It was Miller’s third win of the fall. Also in his bag: four wedges.

STAT OF THE WEEK, PART II
80.0
Stroke average of Texas sophomore Caney Hines, the best of any Longhorn player who has competed in more than one tournament for the school this fall. In three starts prior to this week’s Hooters Collegiate Match Play Championship, Texas has finished 16th, 17th and 17th.

TOURAMENT TO WATCH
Aloha Purdue Collegiate
Nov. 22-23
Kiahuna GC, Kauai, Hawaii
Men’s Field: Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, Purdue, Rice, Texas, Virginia Tech
Women’s Field: Iowa State, Kent State, Michigan, Pepperdine, Purdue, TCU, Texas, Tulsa, UNLV 
Skinny: Considering how unpredictable the weather is in West Lafayette, Ind., in late November, a trip to Hawaii at this time of the year definitely pretty good. The inaugural event, the final Division I team competition for the fall season has separate men’s and women’s tournaments, each playing on the same course.

“They don’t hand out the NCAA Championship trophy in November.”

On the list of clichés used by college golf coaches, it’s among the more popular, thanks in large part to its versatility. Those with teams that have started strong bring it up to suggest they haven’t won anything just because they played well in the fall. Those with teams that have struggled trot it out to say we’ve got plenty of time to get on a roll.

Of course the reality is they don’t hand out the hardware in the fall. Still, that doesn’t mean, you can’t see what possible storylines might play out as the post-season approaches. With context and perspective, the first half of a college golf season is useful in understanding what to keep an eye on in the coming months.

So what did we learn this fall about college golf? Here are five lessons to put away as you favorite teams take their annual winter break:

1) There are dominant teams that are going to runaway from the rest of the pack.
As much as coaches have professed in recent years that there are dozens of men’s and women’s programs with the talent to win a national championship, the truth is that the college game of late has been witness to bully golf—a program or two on both the men’s and women’s sides coming to an event and often winning as much on reputation as talent. For the men it has been Georgia and Oklahoma State, the past two NCAA champs, that have had their way with the opposition. On the women’s side, everything has revolved around Duke.

Yet if the past few months have showed us anything it’s that the parity everyone is so fond of finally has become reality. Consider that five different men’s schools garnered first-place votes in the most recent Golf World men’s coaches poll, the most this late in a season since the magazine resumed the poll seven seasons ago. Just three top-25 teams have more than two wins (Alabama, 3; Stanford, 3; Louisville, 4) while 12 have at least one win. As for the women, only one top-25 school has more than two wins (Denver, 4) and 12 teams have been victorious this fall.

Particularly impressive, too, is that the previously dominant programs haven’t necessarily slipped, but rather other schools have caught up. “At times there was a feeling that you couldn’t touch the elite teams, but when schools did that early this fall, it gave everybody else this psychological lift,” said Tennessee women’s coach Judi Pavon. “If Georgia could beat Duke [in the women’s game], well maybe we can too.”

2) Despite slow starts defending champions Oklahoma State and Duke will be in contention at nationals.
Having a target on your back isn’t always the most comfortable piece of clothing to wear, as the members of the Cowboys men’s squad and Blue Devils women’s team can certainly tell you after the past few months, both having lost their place at the top of the Golf World polls. Yet there is something about these two programs, and in particular their coaches, Mike McGraw and Dan Brooks, that quite likely relishes the fact they have looked vulnerable during the fall season. For one thing, it offers a platform to motivate players, something these two can do with the best of them.

Case in point: Each team’s triumph at their respective match-play tournaments in recent weeks. The victories were hardly coincidences, allowing both programs to go into the winter break on a positive note. More importantly, they sent messages to the rest of the college world that they aren’t going to give up their NCAA trophies without a fight.

3) Impact freshmen are fewer and far between.
In years to come we’ll look back on the Class of 2009 with a bit of nostalgia and awe for how quickly they adapted to the college game as freshmen a year ago. On the men’s side six players—NCAA champion Jonathan Moore of Oklahoma State, Florida’s Billy Horschel, UCLA’s Erik Flores, Georgia’s Brian Harman, Georgia State’s Mark Haastrup, and Georgia Tech’s Cameron Tringale—were first or second team All-Americans. On the women’s side, Duke’s Amanda Blumenherst was the national player of the year, joined by seven other first-year players named first or second team All- Americans—UNLV’s Da Sol Chung, UCLA’s Tiffany Joh and Jane Park, Florida State’s Caroline Westrup, Vanderbilt’s Jacqui Concolino, Georgia’s Taylor Leon and Arizona State’s Azahara Munoz and Jennifer Osborn.

“It was just amazing how you had all these kids jump right in and contribute,” Georgia women’s coach Todd McCorkle noted this past summer. “We all got spoiled. I’m not sure you can really expect to see that happen every year.”

Indeed, for the Class of 2010, the talent is there but so is the traditional need for time to adjust to the college game. USC’s Jamie Lovemark (one win, 70.5 stroke average) currently stands out among the men’s players while on the women’s side Stephanie Sherlock at Denver (two wins) and Anna Nordqvist at Arizona State (three top-10s, 71.89 average) have put together the start of likely All-American caliber seasons. No doubt talents such as Stanford’s Jordan Cox, UCLA’s Sydnee Michaels and others will have strong college careers. It’s just that it might take a little longer than immediately for them to get settled.

4) The SEC is the toughest conference, combined for both men and women in the country.
With the top-ranked Alabama men and Georgia women setting the pace, the debate over which league offers the stiffest opposition begins and ends in the down south. Along with the Crimson Tide, Florida (No. 2) and Georgia (No. 5) are in the top five in the men’s rankings while in the women’s rankings the Bulldogs are joined in the top 10 by Auburn (No. 5), Tennessee (No.7) and Vanderbilt (No. 8).

“We’ve got a pretty dynamic group of coaches in our conference right now,” Florida men’s coach Buddy Alexander noted earlier this year. “The schools are essentially the same and everybody is keeping up with the Jones as far as facilities are concerned.”

Critics will bring up the Pac-10 and ACC and sure they too each have 10 men’s and women’s schools ranked in the top 25 in the two polls. Yet the SEC brings more depth as 14 programs total received votes in the most recent poll compared to 12 in the other conferences.

5) Traditional national contenders are returning to prominence.
With three victories in five fall starts, the Stanford men’s golf team is back on the national stage, a credit to the work of third-year coach Conrad Ray for returning respect to the program after a decade of struggles. Meanwhile, Texas’ win at the Isleworth/UCF Invitational was the first in more than two years for the Longhorns and points to bigger things to come.

On the women’s side, Vanderbilt’s Martha Freitag has guided the Commodore to two wins after watching her team fail to qualify for the NCAA Championship the past two seasons. With the addition of transfers Alison Walshe and Mary Jacobs, Arizona too has crept back into the top-10 of the college rankings. Their strong play has each of these four teams in the hunt for the national championship.

Of course, they don’t hand out the NCAA title in November.

While there isn’t a single men’s or women’s college golf tournament scheduled to begin Nov. 8, the biggest day of the fall season for most every Division I team in the country is now less than a week away. Nothing, you see, affects the health of a program—and, in turn, the well-being of its coach—more than recruiting, a sometimes arduous, occasionally ugly, often exhilarating process that comes to a head next Wednesday when high school seniors can begin signing National Letters of Intent and officially announce where they’ll play their college golf.

As recently as five years ago, this first day of the week-long early signing period (a second signing period begins in April) required coaches keep a bottle of Pepto-Bismol at the ready seeing as it came with an accompanying anxiety somewhere between standing over a 15-foot birdie to win a tournament and getting a root canal. Talk to coaches at major programs, however, and they’ll tell you that while the signing day is no less important, today any tension or stress has already come and gone.

“Almost all the [top players] have made their decisions months ago, so there aren’t many real surprises,” contends Clemson men’s coach Larry Penley. “The biggest thing is making sure all the paper work is done and that all the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed. It’s a paper pushing week.”

Rather than nervously sitting by her office phone, Virginia women’s coach Jan Mann was actually getting in a little R&R with her family this past week on the Atlantic shore, taking her grandchildren out on Halloween.

That’s not to say there isn’t any last-minute grinding going on. Texas men’s coach John Fields anticipates three recruits coming for their official campus visits this weekend, where they’ll attend the Longhorns’ home football game against Oklahoma State, among other activities. Even Fields, though, says this week isn’t more harried than any other.

What’s changed coaches attitudes toward this time on the recruiting calendar has been the change in attitude of high schoolers toward making early verbal commitments to schools. It’s not unusual to hear of kids two or even three years away from stepping on a college campus already having pledged to attend a specific institute of higher learning. To wit: Philip Francis and Esther Choe, the recently named American Junior Golf Association players of the year, both made verbal commitments to UCLA and Arizona, respectively, this past summer, removing any of the suspense that often accompanies signing day in college football or basketball. 

Other top junior golfers also made it known long ago where they’ll tee it up next fall, Rickie Fowler (Oklahoma State), Arnond Vongvanij (Florida), Kevin Tway (Oklahoma State) and Shiwan Kim (Stanford) on the men’s side, Taylore Karle (Pepperdine), Megan Grehan (Vanderbilt) and Maria Jose Uribe (UCLA) on the women’s considered some of the prize catches of the Class of 2007. (For a listing of where players have signed, go next week to ajga.org).

“What we’re working on right now is recruiting in the class of 2008,” admits Tennessee women’s coach Judi Pavon. Fields concurs, saying that during the fall 50 percent of recruiting time is devoted to high school seniors and 50 percent to the next year’s class and younger.

With the fall tournament schedule winding down, college coaches will be on the recruiting trail in the next few months, attending the AJGA Polo Golf Junior Classic at Sea Island GC and Junior Orange Bowl in Miami, a prominent tournament that attracts many international players. “Recruiting is as critical as it every was,” Penley says. “It’s just much more of a year-round process.”

Bottom line: College golf coaches will be waiting with anticipation for those National Letters of Intent to come over their fax machines on Nov. 8. Only a few who don’t know whose names will be on them, however, will be reaching for the Pepto.

GOLF WORLD Players of the Week

Week of  Oct. 23-29
MEN
Jamie Lovemark, Southern California
A final-round 67 at Oregon’s Pacific Dunes GC gave the freshman from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., a four-under 209 total and an easy eight-shot victory at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge. In three tournaments this fall, Lovemark has had two top-three finishes and done no worse than T-13, compiling a 71.33 stroke average.

WOMEN
Marisa Milligan, Auburn
The redshirt freshman didn’t qualify for the Tigers’ starting five at the Derby Invitational, but played as an individual and claimed medalist honors in the rain-shortened event, posting a one-over 145. A birdie on the 17th hole at the Auburn University Club in the final round helped her card a one-under 71 and beat teammate Nicole Hage and North Carolina’s Lauren Hunt by one stroke for her first college title in only her second career start.

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

MEN
1. Alabama—For the first time in school history, the Crimson Tide are tops in all four major polls (Golf World, Golfweek/Sagarin, GCAA/Bridgestone, Golfstat).

2. Oklahoma State —Who needs Pablo Martin and Jonathan Moore? The Cowboys showed their depth with a victory at the Callaway Collegiate Match Play.

3. UCLA—The Bruins get a bit of a pass for their T-7 performance at the Match Play. Expect them to bounce back as they host the CordeValle Collegiate (see below).

4. Florida—For the second time in four seasons the Gators record top-five finishes in each of their fall starts.   

5. Stanford—The Cardinal’s 15-under total at last month’s Prestige was their fourth best showing in school history.

WOMEN
1. Georgia—The Bulldog record for best single-season scoring average by an individual is Angela Jerman's 72.91 set in 2001-02. At mid-way point of 2006-07 season, Whitney Wade (72.33) and Taylor Leon (71.55) are already on pace to break the mark.

2. Duke—First time the Blue Devils aren’t the No. 1 seed when playing in the Hooters Collegiate Match Play Championship.

3. Arizona State—The Sun Devils, second to Oklahoma State at this week's Las Vegas Founders Collegiate Showdown, are getting their tee shots in the fairway nearly 80 percent of the time while hitting greens in regulation at an almost 67-percent clip.

4. Vanderbilt—Sophomore Jacqui Concolino (three top-10s this fall; worst finish: T-11) could be the most underrated women’s golfer in the country. 

5. Auburn —The Tigers withstood tough weather at their home event, never letting challengers get a real chance to steal away the Derby Invitational title. 

STAT OF THE WEEK
15
Worst individual finish by a Tulsa men’s golfer (junior Ryan Henry) during this past weekend’s Landfall Tradition outside of Wilmington, N.C. Junior Mitch Cohlmia and freshman Nicolas Geyger shared medalist honors while junior Brett Myers and junior Sam Korbe had top-five showings. Not surprisingly, the Golden Hurricane managed to win the team title—by 26 shots—giving the school back-to-back victories for the first time since the spring 1998.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
* THERE ARE big wins in college golf and then there are BIG WINS, and two of the later came in the past week. John Fields says he sensed a different attitude with this year’s Texas men’s squad even before the Longhorns won their first team title since 2004 at the Isleworth/UCF Collegiate. Still, the 12-shot win over one of the deepest fields of the fall season will allow his players to enjoy the winter break on a positive note and help quiet rumblings of Texas' long-term downfall.

“We’ve taken some pretty strong blows from our competitors,” Fields told Campus Insider. “Out in the recruiting world we’ve had people saying one thing or another. I think people thought we were dead, and we’re not. We’re not dead.”

The Longhorns might have gotten their breakthrough victory earlier if not for a scorecard error at last month’s Jerry Pate National Collegiate (freshman standout Lance Lopez signed for the wrong number, forcing Texas to drop his 66 in favor of a 73; the Longhorns finished third overall, nine shots back of winner Alabama). Fields said the team didn’t dwell on the mishap, had its best qualifier in five years prior to the Isleworth tournament and then rode the momentum to Orlando. In addition to Lopez (72.13 stroke average), seniors Farren Keenan (72.5) and Jhonattan Vegas (71.83) have had solid falls, as has Matt Bortis (71.83), a transfer from Arkansas.

“I think that [the last few seasons] we had kind of a selfish attitude that persisted among several players that was kind of infectious and just precluded us from crating the kind of atmosphere you’d want around your golf team,” Fields said. “Without dwelling on that too much, I’m just thankful being where I am right now and with the guys that I’m coaching right now. There is a lot of good things that are about to happen with this program.” 

Meanwhile, the Virginia women might have needed a tiebreaker to claim victory after being caught by Michigan State in the final round of the Landfall Tradition, but coach Jan Mann will take it considering it means the Cavaliers finally have that historic first win in program history out of the way. In three-and-a-half years since her team's debut, Mann has built her team into a national power, but she needed this group to actually finish off the job and take home some hardware if her players were to have complete confidence they could compete with the best squads in the country.

“I think this team knew they were good enough to win, but this definitely solidifies it for them,” Mann says. “It’s very special.”

Even better is that they hung on despite a poor start in the final round at the Nicklaus Course at the CC of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C. Had UVa let it slip away, it would have been a long fall in Charlottesville.

* COLONIAL CC and the Friends of Golf in cooperation with the Golf Coaches Association of America announced last week the 23 players who made the “watch list” for the 2007 Ben Hogan Award. There aren’t any real surprises, although I wonder about the prudence of announcing this list so early in the season. Recall that in the 2003-04 season, Spencer Levin didn’t tee it up for New Mexico until the spring semester and eventually played his way into the running for national player of the year honors. There’s a risk that could happen again here, not so much from a player that didn’t play during the fall but rather from one who didn’t play well enough to win but then catches fire in the spring. What about someone such as Texas A&M’s Bronson Burgoon, Alabama’s Joseph Sykora or Vanderbilt’s Luke List? All three have shown potential for All-American caliber seasons. For my money, though, the player that Colonial CC, FOG and the GCAA might regret not having on the list is BYU’s Daniel Summerhays, who hasn’t finished worse that T-7, has broken par in six of his nine rounds and has a 69.67 stroke average entering next week’s Pacific Invitational.

TOURAMENT TO WATCH
CordeValle Collegiate
Nov. 6-7
CordeValle CC, San Martin, Calif. (For live scoring, click here)
Field: Arizona, Arkansas, Augusta State, California, Coastal Carolina, Lamar, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, South Carolina, Stanford, TCU, UCLA, USC, Washington 
Defending champion: UCLA (15-under 849); Michael Wilson, California (10-under 206)
Skinny: In the event’s debut last fall, UCLA’s Erik Flores had his coming out party as the then freshman made five birdies on the inward nine en route to a final-round 68 to help the Bruins capture the team title by six shots over Northwestern.