WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--I thought the 95-degree to 50-degree drop in temperatures (combined with the 35 mile-per-hour winds) last week in Albuquerque was going to be my weird weather encounter during my coverage of the women's and men's NCAA Championships. Well, I was wrong.

I've just spent roughly two hours in the basement of Mackey Arena, where Purdue's basketball teams compete, waiting out a tornado warning that caused the men's NCAA Division I golf committee to evacuate the Kampen Course in the middle of the third round of the 111th NCAA Championship and call play for the day.

According to local TV stations, two tornadoes were spotted nine miles northeast of Lafayette, making the decision to get everyone off the golf course and into the gym a great call.

Sounds like the course wasn't in too bad a shape except for receiving heavy rains for a few hours. The plan is to resume the third round tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. The most anyone has is nine holes, so it shouldn't take more than 2 1/2 hours to complete. They'll then make the cut to 15 teams and begin the fourth round. at 11 a.m., depending on whether a playoff is necessary to determine the advancing teams.

Tomorrow's weather is forecasted to be sunny and in the 80 degrees.

Inside the basement of the concrete structure, players entertained themselves by setting up a make-shift bowling alley with empty soda and water bottles. When officials noted that the course didn't seem to have any problems with downed trees and the like, one player jokingly noted: "If the rough got taken out a little, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--Kevin Chappell called it one of the top five rounds of his life. All I can say, then, is I wish I could have seen his other four after walking all 18 holes with the UCLA senior today and watching him shoot a four-under 68 in steady 15 mile-per-hour winds that gusted to 25 mph at Purdue's Kampen Course. I know I'm adding it to my own list of the top-five most impressive rounds I've seen in 11 years covering the college game.

The Fresno, Calif., native now sits at six-under 210 through 54 holes of the 111th NCAA Championship, four strokes better than Clemson's Kyle Stanley and Washington's Nick Taylor. He's the only golfer in the 156-player field to post two sub-par rounds (note: the afternoon wave of players is still on the course) let alone the only person to break 70 twice after posting an opening-round 69.

"I think this week has opened his eyes to understand that he's really at a level a lot of guys don't get to," said UCLA coach Derek Freeman. "There are times when he can do things that other guys physically just can't do, hit shots that other guys just can't."

Indeed, playing with Stanley and USC's Tim Sluiter (who sits tied for fifth, six shots back), Chappell impressively worked his way around the course, flighting his ball into the wind like a tour professional while posting one of only two sub-par rounds in the morning wave.

After making a six-foot birdie putt on the second hole and 10-footer to save par on the par-5 fifth, he was the first player in the day's opening five threesomes to hit the green on the 200-yard par-3 sixth hole.

A birdie/bogey exchange on the eighth and ninth hole had him turn at two under. He made a birdie on the par-5 10th, before hitting arguably his best shot of the day with his approach on the 477-yard par-4 12th. Digging out a low three-quarters 3-iron, Chappell landed the ball two feet from the hole for an easy birdie. He followed it up with another birdie on the par-3 13th from 10 feet.

The only true drama of his round came on the 18th. Chappell nearly hooked his drive out of bounds on the 484-yard par-4 playing into the wind, his ball coming to rest a few feet from a neighboring yard. Trying to hook his second shot to the green, this one stayed straight, landing in foot-long rough short and right of the green. From the fairway, Freeman called the entire team, sitting behind the green, to come help look for the ball, eventually finding it in the long grass.

Chappell somehow slashed the ball out over the green and nearly holed a 30-footer with his putter to save par, tapping in for a bogey 5 and a little relief.

"I couldn't ask for a better round," Chappell said. "The [into the wind] shots have been something I've always been able to play, and I like to hit my long irons. You screw around all the time on the range with those shots. It's nice to see them put to good use."

Chappell's play, meanwhile, almost single-handedly allowed UCLA to take back the team lead, as the Bruins shot a 10-over 298 (the next best score was Craig Leslie's 74) to go to 24-over 888 with one round to play.

Crosstown rival USC appeared to be taking control half way through the third round, taking as much as a six-stroke advantage on UCLA at one point. But over the final three holes (which also includes the 608-yard par-5 16th and 206-yard par-3 17th, both also playing into the wind) the Trojans stumbled mightly, making five bogeys, a double bogey and a triple bogey, and leaving coach Chris Zambri befuddled.

"I don’t know what’s going on," said Zambri, whose squad shot a third-round 12-over 300. "Finishing rounds is a big, big, big part of golf. Finishing tournaments is a big part of golf. You can practice until the cows come home, hit a million range balls, it’s still not going to help you [unless you finish the round]. We’ve just got to make sure these guys are ready to feel that and handle that.

Amazingly, defending NCAA champion Jamie Lovemark was the non-counter for the second time in three days for the Trojans, the sophomore shooting a six-over 78. "It's a shame," Zambri said. "I don’t know what to say. Hopefully he can turn it around tomorrow and put up a big round for us."

USC's struggles helped third-round leader Clemson also stay in the mix as the Tigers posted a 14-over 302 but are tied with the Trojans overall entering the final round, three strokes back of UCLA. While shooting six over on the par-5s, Stanley finished with a two-over 74, matching Ben Martin as Clemson's best of the day.

In fourth place alone is Stanford, looking to become the first school in 23 years to defend its NCAA team title.

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--They had been conspicuous by their absence from the top of the leader board for much of the 2007-08 season. But Clemson and Florida junior Billy Horschel, the team and individual leader at the 111th NCAA Championship through 36 holes, figured the Purdue’s Kampen Course was a pretty good place to let everyone know rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.

For the Tigers, ranked 15th in the final Golf World/Nike Golf spring coaches’ poll after having carded four runner-up finishes in 11 starts this season without a win, an even-par 288 in Round 2 was the quintessential tale of two nines. Starting on the 10th tee, Clemson made the turn in 11 over par,  counting five double bogeys. Over their next nine holes, they made no bogeys and shot 11 under par, led by sophomore Kyle Stanley’s 68, to finish at 13-over 589 overall.

"We had to tighten the screws kind of quick," said Clemson coach Larry Penley, the hall of fame coach making his 25th NCAA championship appearance. "We certainly couldn't let it get away from us. If we would have followed that nine with another six or seven or eight over par, we're stuck in a log jam at 25 or 26 over par. Now you're fighting to make the cut, just trying to be respectable.

"We put our selves into position where we can try to win this golf tournament the next 36 holes. And that's all we wanted, we just want a chance. And that back side today is going to give us a chance."

Also counting for the Tigers was Phillip Mollica (72), Sam Saunders (74) and David May (74).

Clemson holds a one-stroke edge over first-round co-leader UCLA, the Bruins shooting a five-over 293. The other school on top after 18 holes, USC, finished the day with a six-over 294 to fall two off the pace in third place. (For full field scoring, click here to link to Golfstat.)

Amazingly it has been more than two years since the Tigers last won a tournament title, winning the U.S. Collegiate in April 2006. A year ago the Tigers lost in a playoff for the final berth out of the East Regional into the NCAA Championship, Stanley advancing individually and finishing runner-up at Golden Horseshoe.

The winless streak isn't quite as long for Horschel, but the two-time first-team All-American could do no better than a T-3 finish at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate this season after a victory in his freshman and sophomore season. With a five-under 67 Thursday, however, the 21-year-old from Grant, Fla., put himself in a position to change that as he took the 36-hole lead with a five-under 139 overall.

"I have just been making some putts," Horschel said. "That's the real difference from [earlier this year]. Just getting a little confidence in my putting. I always felt like I’m close to breaking through."

Horschel's play has single-handedly kept the Gators in the team competition, as no other Florida golfer has shot better than a 74 yet the team is only four shots back of Clemson. "All-Americans step up at big times, and he did that for us the last round at regionals and he's doing that for us this week," said Florida coach Buddy Alexander.

One back of Horschel is Stanley, while Washington sophomore Nick Taylor is two shots off the pace after shooting a six-under 66, the best individual round of the tournament.

First-round individual leader Kevin Chappell of UCLA is three back of Horschel after making a double bogey on the 18th hole to finish at one-over 71 for the day. He's tied in fourth place with Georgia's Hudson Swafford, who shot a 69 Thursday. (For full individual scoring, click here to link to Golfstat.)

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--The word regarding what specific format will be adopted for the bracketed portion of next year’s new fangled men's NCAA Championship is that there’s no word ⿿ not yet at least.

The six member NCAA Division I men's golf committee, chaired by former Oklahoma State coach/current athletic director Mike Holder, will gather June 18-20 for its annual meeting in Colorado Springs, at which time it hopes to decide how it will conduct the championship once it reduces the field from 30 teams to eight after 54 holes of stroke-play qualifying.

"We're still talking to coaches to try to get their input on what they think would be the best format to conduct the championship," Holder said. "We'll take any suggestions, even up to midnight the night before we meet."

Last September, the NCAA approved the overall change to the structure of the championship to determine a team winner, changing it from a 72-hole stroke-play competition that has been in existence since 1968. In April, the final hurdle for new overall structure was cleared when the NCAA approved the budget request to make the change. (Crowning the individual champion also will be change, as the individual medalist will be determined after the 54 holes of stroke-play qualifying.)

Among the ideas to be discussed regarding how to conduct the bracketed format to determine a team winner are a strict match-play structure between members of two teams; a medal-match mix where a winner is determined by the best 18-hole score between two players; and using an aggregate team score for 18 holes, counting either the top four scores on a team or all five.

In talking to a few people who are watching this closely, the latter format of aggregate scoring is gaining some momentum, specifically counting all five scores on a team. The sticking point there, of course, is if a player on a team is hurt during a round and can’t finish or is disqualified under the rules of golf.

Some coaches at this year's NCAA Championship asked about the possibility of changing the overall format from 54 holes and eight advancing teams to 72 holes and four advancing teams. That is not an option, according to NCAA associate director of championships Donnie Wagner, as the 54 hole/eight advancing teams setup is what has been approved from a budgetary standpoint for at least 2009 and 2010.

Another point of discussion at the men's golf committee meeting next month will be the much talked about ".500 rule" that went into place this past season requiring schools to have a winning record in order to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA postseason. There is a chance the rule could be rescinded, but it would require a 4-2 committee vote, which appears at this point to be unlikely. Holder, for one, said that while he was against the rule originally, he now seems more in favor of it as a tool to help raise the level of competition across Division I.

If the ".500 rule" remains in place, Holder said that the committee will then address the need to create specific guidelines to define what exactly is a tournament and  whether a team's schedule needs to be set prior to the fall or spring in order to prevent midseason changes to help bolster a team's overall record.

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--Has Los Angeles become the center of the college golf universe?

It's hard not to begin thinking that way after seeing the USC women win the NCAA title last week and now watching the Trojan men grab a share of the lead after round 1 of the men's NCAA Championship. Adding more proof to the theory, consider who USC is tied with at nine-over 297:

UCLA.

For a while now there's been talk about how deep a team USC fields, but we saw it first-hand Wednesday when the team's drop score came from defending NCAA champion Jamie Lovemark, who shot a 79. Instead leading the way was freshman Tim Sluiter who shot a two-under 70, one of only three sub-par rounds from the 156-player field.

Sophomore Rory Hie shot a 74, junior Tom Glissmeyer a 75 and freshman Matthew Giles a 78.

"This course is like a U.S. Open, where it really comes down to hitting some fairways," Southern California coach Chris Zambri said. "I think we drive it pretty well, but we also drive it pretty long, which is one of our strengths. The longer you hit it, if you hit it offline, the further offline it goes, so our strength becomes not necessarily a weakness, but with the rough so high, the premium is on hitting it in the middle of the fairway."

Sluiter’s round was particularly impressive considering he was still in some pain after having surgery on his right big toe last week to remove part of a infected toe nail.

"I'm pretty confident in how I've been playing," said the Netherlands native sitting near the clubhouse with one shoe on and one shoe off. "I shot a 83 at regionals, but I didn't really care about that. I know I was playing pretty good. If I missed a fairway, I had good lies. I could get the ball on the green."

Sluiter, and Kent State senior David Markle, who shot a 70 in the morning wave, were done one better however by UCLA senior Kevin Chappell, who was at four under with one hole to play before three-putting and finishing with a three-under 69.

"I hit the ball in the fairway for the most part and that allowed me to play to my strength, which is my iron game," said Chappell who hit 10 of 14 fairways. "I felt like I could maybe wear the golf course down."

Three Bruins, Erik Flores, Phillip Francis and Craig Leslie, shot 76s with UCLA dropping Lucas Lee's 79.

The two West Coast schools have a one-shot edge over Oklahoma State at Purdue's Kampen Course, thanks in part to the Cowboys giving up eight strokes to par on their final two holes from their four counting golfers.

OSU freshman Rickie Fowler was three under on his round before making a quadruple bogey on the 17th hole and three-putting for bogey on No. 18 to close at 74. In front of him on the 18th, junior Trent Leon made a triple-bogey on the 18th to shoot a 73.

The Kampen Course proved to be an equal opportunity destroyer--the first-round scoring average was 78.9--taking down several of college golf's top players in the first 18 holes. In addition to Lovemark, SEC player of the year Michael Thompson of  Alabama shot a 76 (Alabama, the top-ranked team in the final Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll, sits a disappointing T-12 after round 1, 12 back of the leaders) and Central Regional champion Kevin Tway of Oklahoma State an 81

Tway's round was particular interesting. After taking a quintuple-bogey 9 on the ninth hole he made an eagle 3 on the par-5 10th after getting on in two.

"It's a cruel game sometimes," said OSU coach Mike McGraw. "You just have to be able to handle everything [the game] throws at you. Luckily we play in the morning so we don't have a lot of time to stew on this."

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--One.

Ironically it's the answer to two trivia questions through the morning wave of the first round of the NCAA Championship.

How many rounds of 90 and over were shot?

How many rounds of 72 or lower were shot?

While Oregon’s Jake Dukeminier sadly shot a 18-over 90, Kent State senior David Markle finished with a two-under 70, carding four birdies and two bogeys to finish four strokes better than any other player to finish in the first half of Wednesday's play at Purdue's treacherous Kampen Course. (Click here for all individual scores.)

“It’s almost like four or five under really because it’s just so hard out there,” said Kent State coach Herb Page, whose team posted a 13-over 301 to finish one stroke better than Illinois for the low team score of the morning. (Click here for all team scores.)

Markle has some experience on the 7,460 yard, par-72 layout; he had a 78-70-72 showing here during the Boilermaker Invitational in April, where he finished T-40. The 23-year-old from Shelburne, Ontario had posted a 72.6 average during the spring, winning the National Invitational Tournament in Arizona in March.

“You’re going to make some mistakes out there,” said Markle after the round. “It’s a battle of mental toughness.”

An ominous tone for just how tough the course was likely to play was set with the second tee ball hit this morning. Augusta State sophomore Mitch Krywulycz’s drive appeared to land no more than five yards off the fairway but couldn’t be found by spotters or the players in the tall rough. After the allowed five minutes to search, the Australian had to return to the tee. He finished the day with a 17-over 89, 19 strokes high than back-to-back 70s he shot at the East Regionals.

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND.--I know I’m not going out on much of a limb, but I guarantee NOBODY is going to shoot a 60 this week at the NCAA Championship, a la Duke's Michael Schachner a year ago in Colonial Williamsburg.

I guarantee no scoring record of any kind will be broken.

I guarantee that the team champion will finish 72 holes double digits over par.

All these are made possible by Purdue’s magnificently maniacal Kampen Course. If it weren’t for all the NCAA signage, you’d think the course was hosting the U.S. Open. That’s how brutal the rough is, where officials finally created a first cut that’s only about 3¿ inches tall rather than the five-plus inches that are everywhere else

Suffice it to say, the course is a true championship test. It’s not tricked up, just tricky if you’re not hitting the ball solid or making any putts.

Parents of players are going to have a crucial role this week. They’re going to need to act as forecaddies, helping locate errant golf balls that are eaten by the tenacious rough. If I were a coach, I might even take out a classified ad in the local newspaper and hire a couple of “team spotters” for the week.

NCAA officials told coaches yesterday that they would have two spotters on every par 4 and four on the par 5s. They’re going to need them.

It’s not, of course, just the rough that’s going to make the tournament so tough. The course’s length--7,450 yards--makes it a radically different course than Golden Horseshoe a year ago when Stanford claimed the team title over Georgia.

One coach told me today that in the moderate breezes that blew during the practice rounds, his team had trouble reaching the greens on some of the par 4s in two when they played into the wind. “And if you hit it in the rough, you’re lucky to make a 5.”

All this favors the top-ranked teams in the field this week; a tough course will tend to separate the talented schools from the so-so ones much more than a more amenable layout.

So it is that I think this week’s title is a race between USC, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma State and Charlotte.

The 49ers won here at the NCAA Fall Preview, so they’re not only familiar with the course but familiar with how to win on it. However, I’m not sure if they’re games are as sharp as they were then. Oklahoma State has the player most likely to be named player of the year (Rickie Fowler), but Mike McGraw’s team is a pretty young one and doesn’t have much NCAA experience.

Georgia shot a record 41-under 811 in the East Regional, which is likely good for the confidence but is bad for their preparation. Adjusting mentally to a golf course that is going to play considerable more challenging, requires patience to know when to attack and when to play safe.

So in my mind it comes down to USC and Alabama. And while I think the Crimson Tide have been the “best team” in the 2007-08 season, I don’t think they’re the hottest anymore. That title goes to the Trojans, who in Jamie Lovemark, Rory Hie and Tom Glissmeyer, have some bombers whose games are well suited to this course.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.--Between women's and men's NCAA Championships, I took a side trip to the valley of the sun for the AJGA's Thunderbird International Junior. It was my first time at the event, and lets just say, not many amateur tournaments are run any better.

Aside from an entertaining finish on the boys' side--five players were either tied for the lead or one off the pace with two holes left before Hyun Soek Lim made birdie on the 18th to claim the title and joined girls' winner Jessica Wallace as tourney champions--I got a chance to catch up with some of the top junior players.

Looking at the players in the field, I'm not surprised to see the trend of early verbal college commitments that I wrote about last summer continues. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. By my count six of the 14 boys from the Class of 2009 playing at Grayhawk GC already have committed to schools and four of 10 on the girls’ side.

Thankfully I found one voice of reason. "It's stupid," said Lindy Duncan, a 17-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who has narrowed down her choices to Florida, Central Florida, Duke and Auburn but says she isn’t likely to make a choice until later in the summer. "You should take your time. You don't want to end up someplace where you don’t feel comfortable just because you feel you had to make a decision."

The problem, however, is that it's almost become expected that players will commit sometime in the spring of their junior year, if not before then.

"When someone is playing well, they don't want to risk [losing a scholarship offer]. The coaches might always change their mind," said Tiffany Lua, the tournament runner-up, who made her verbal to UCLA a full 17 months before she’ll graduate from college. "I think it's a rule they're going to have to change because people are committing way too early."

Don't count on it, though.

ALBUQUERQUE--That huge gust of air coming from the University of New Mexico Championship Course late Friday night wasn't another powerful desert breeze. It was the sigh of relief collectively expelled by the members of NCAA Women's Division I Golf Committee after somehow getting the 26th NCAA Women's Championship done before sundown Friday night.

Barely.

It is pretty amazing given the half dozen stoppages in play during the week due to wind, rain, hail, lightning, darkness--an alien sighting seemed to be the only thing that didn't delay the tournament--that they got everything completed.

I commend the committee for handling the various adverse weather conditions as well as it did. Still Nancy Cross and her group needs to consider more flexible scheduling (pushing up tee times to 7 a.m., adding a 54-hole cut, etc.) to prevent some worst-case scenarios from even possibly coming true. If, heaven forbid, there had been one more weather delay Friday afternoon we all would have been back to the course Saturday morning.

Or would we? All you heard from NCAA officials was how going into Saturday was the ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT, despite the fact that the day has been purposely built into the schedule for just such weather problems. Of course this year we had six players competing in next week's Curtis Cup who had Saturday flights to catch to get to Scotland. That's all fine and dandy, but the NCAA Championship is about more than those six players.

The even more embarrassing outcome would have been this: say the final weather delay lasts 25 minutes longer and the final threesome of Azahara Munoz, Tiffany Joh and Belen Mozo are on the 18th tee when darkness finally falls and play must stop. Now what? You keep them all around Saturday for one hole? Ugh!!! Meanwhile, Joh is one of the six who's got a plane to Scotland to catch. Would she have stayed? I'm guessing yes, but it would have be an interesting call.

Another fun hypothetical: suppose USC and UCLA had tied in the team competition. There wouldn't have been enough light to conduct the playoff, so again do we all come back Saturday morning for the one hole? Or do we have co-champions? And would Joh have been back for the playoff? (In 1995, the Oklahoma State men won a playoff over Stanford with only four players when Leif Westerberg had already left to catch a plane back to Europe.)

I think I felt another breeze coming from the committee headquarters.

Meanwhile, here are some other random thoughts from women's nationals:

1.) Congrats to Southern California for claiming the team title. The Trojans were certainly the hottest team coming into the NCAA Women's Championship, winning their final three tournaments by an average of more than 17 strokes, but they also handled the pressure of being the actual favorites with great ease. Say what you will about senior Dewi Claire Schreefel being an all or nothing kind of player; she certainly stepped up with her final-round 69 to help seal the deal for USC. Her T-8 finish was her third top-10 at nationals in her career.

2.) Do you know how close we were to saying that the 2008 medalist was Georgia's Garrett Phillips? While eventual champion Munoz of Arizona State and UCLA's Joh were duking it out on the back nine, Phillips was never more than two shots off the lead as she teed off at the same 2 p.m. time slot but on the 10th tee, and even held a brief share of first place early in the round.

After a birdie on her 16th hole (No. 7), Phillips stood at even par, one stroke back of Munoz and Joh. She had an uphill birdie putt on No. 8 come just short of the hole. Than on the par-5 ninth hole, Phillips had a 12-footer for an eagle that, as it turns out, could have won the tournament for the 21-year-old from St. Simons Island, Ga. She missed the putt, then missed a three-footer for birdie that would have gotten her in the Munoz/Joh playoff. Unbelievable she then missed the par putt as well, eventually putting her two shots back in solo third place.

"She nearly walked away with the title and nobody would have known," said Georgia coach Kelley Hester via phone the day after the tournament.

You've got to feel for Phillips, though, as the senior's last moment in her college career is a four-putt on a hole that could have won her the NCAA title.

3.) Given just how competitive the women's game has become, I don't think we'll see another team equal Duke's three straight NCAA championships, let alone achieve the four-peat that the Blue Devils couldn't accomplish this past week. It's going to be more and more like the men's game, where we haven't had a repeat champion in two decades.

4.) Great call by the NCAA committee to change its mind and have the fourth-round tee times be reflective of the results at the end of the completed third round. Originally, because darkness kept 21 players from finishing the third round on Thursday night, the fourth-round tee times were going to be determined by how teams stood Thursday night rather than at the end of the completed third round Friday morning.

What's the big deal? Arizona State moved into third place early Friday morning when the third round was completed, allowing Munoz to be paired with Joh and USC's Mozo in the final threesome. Without the late switch of tee times Friday morning, Munoz instead would have been teeing off at 1:10 p.m., five groups ahead of the final threesome. We would have lost a lot of drama if this had been the case.

"I'm happy it got switched," ASU coach Melissa Luellen said late Friday night. "I wanted Aza to have that experience of being in the last group."

5.) Will Florida women's coach Jill Briles-Hinton ever catch a break? Following Friday's final round, 16-year-old freshman Hannah Yun apparently let it be known that she was not coming back to play for the Gators next fall (kudos to my competitors at Golfweek for learning of this first). I'm not sure if Briles-Hinton had heard this a while eariler or if it was news to her, but seriously now, I'd be developing a complex with all these odd defections. After losing the Song sisters a few years back when they turned pro rather than play for the Gators, then seeing Mallory Blackwelder leave to play for her mom at Kentucky, then having Sandra Gal turn pro mid-way through the 2007-08 season, seeing Yun leave seems like it's piling on.

6.) Then Briles-Hinton loses out on national coach of the year honors to USC's Andrea Gaston Friday night at the NGCA award banquet. All due respect to Gaston and her national champion Trojans, but for everything that Briles-Hinton has endured this season, I would have given her the nod.

7.) The Stacy Lewis v. Amanda Blumenherst clash that I've been promoting this spring (I promise, this is the last time I'll run the boxing-gloves graphic) came to an end last night when Blumenherst won the national player-of-the-year award for a record third time. The Duke junior was one shot better than Lewis at the NCAA Championship, finishing T-5 to Lewis' T-8. I'm usually not a fan of co-honorees, but this might have been one instance where it made sense. Duke's schedule might have been a bit tougher, but six victories by Lewis is still six victories.

8.) Blumenherst's final-round 68, which pushed her from T-14 to her share of fifth place, also allowed her to maintain her streak of tournaments where she's finished in the top 10. The number is now 32 ... and counting.

9.) Munoz wasn't just the NCAA medalist. She also won the Edith Cummings Munson Award, given to the top student in women's college golf. The junior carries a 3.9 GPA in psychology.

10.) I'm guessing Jaclyn Sweeney of Oklahoma State learned a painful lesson, literally and figuratively, when she broke her left index finger during the second round after slamming her golf club in her bag in an apparent bit of anger. While Sweeney tried playing two more holes, she had to withdraw from the tournament, leaving her Cowgirl teammates to play with just four players. While a bit of a darkhorse entering the tournament, OSU finished T-19. As one person familiar with the program said to me, for as bad as you feel for Sweeney you've got to feel even worse for her teammates who put in all that effort during the season only to be short-handed in the year's biggest event.

ALBUQUERQUE--Has the run ended for Duke at the NCAA Women's Championship? It’s hard to envision a scenario where the Blue Devils can claim a record fourth-straight national title Friday after ending Thursday's play at the University of New Mexico Championship Course 18 strokes off the lead of Southern California and UCLA.

En route to victory at the 2005 and 2006 championships coach Dan Brooks' squads made impressive Day 3 charges to take control of their destiny. In contrast, Duke was 11 over on the day and 34 over total with four players still needing to complete one to three holes when the third round was called for darkness. The performance dropped them from a tie for seventh at the start of the third round to eighth place.

The chances look better for Arkansas’ Stacy Lewis to repeat as the individual champion, but only slightly. The 23-year-old fifth-year senior from The Woodlands, Texas, was two over on the day and three over for the tournament with two holes to play in the third round, putting her five shots back of 54-hole leader Azahara Munoz of Arizona State, who finished her round. (For full individual results, click here to link to Golfstat.)

Lewis couldn't seem to get any putts to fall as she played in the same foursome as her rival for national player-of-the-year honors, Amanda Blumenherst (The Duke junior started bogey/double bogey, after amazingly shanking her third shot on the par-5 fifth hole, but settling in at three over on the day and five over for the tournament with two holes to play). That said, Lewis did come back from six shots back with 18 holes to play to claim medalist honors at LPGA International a year ago with a final-round 66. She also shot a 66 in the last round of the 2006 championship to finish tied for ninth.

Despite playing a shotgun format for the third round, 21 players were still on the course when darkness halted play. They will come back and finish the third round at 7 a.m. Friday morning.

The third-round shotgun start was supposed to start at 12:30 p.m., but didn't begin until 1 p.m. because of the threat of bad weather. Play was then stopped at 1:15 p.m. when a thunderstorm finally came through the course, causing a one hour, five minute delay.

Friday's final round could prove emotional for Lewis as she completes her impressive college run. "She's excited to be moving on to the next part of her career," said Dale Lewis, Stacy's father, "but I think there are going to be some tears shed on that last hole."

For most of Thursday afternoon, individuals and teams seemed to be running in place as the standings didn't change much. The exception came from Southern California and UCLA. The Los Angeles schools appeared to separate themselves--both the Trojans and Bruins are at 16 over, each with a few players still to finish the third round--setting up an interesting showdown for the title. (For full team results, click here to link to Golfstat.) The two schools are the only programs not named Duke to win the NCAA title since 2001 (USC in 2003, UCLA in 2004).