ORLANDO--I can't tell you how many people have asked me if the Stanford golf teams are in trouble after reading the recent Associated Press article that reported the school's athletic department was projecting a $5 million deficit over the next three years and that sports programs might need to be cut in Palo Alto. "We're fine," Cardinal men's coach Conrad Ray assured me during the GCAA national convention. "The golf programs have never been stronger. We just opened up our new practice facility last spring. But I think our athletic director wanted to be out front in stating that times are tough right now and here's how we're going to be addressing it."

Indeed, the struggling economy was the 900-pound guerrilla in the convention hall here in Orlando this past week. Debate regarding any topic related to college golf--improving the NCAA postseason, working with the PGA Tour, holding summer international competitions, deciding on where and when to host next year's convention--came with a caveat (spoken or unspoken) about financial implications.

You don't have to look any further than the attendance figures at the convention to see how keeping down costs has become a tangible issue: 162 coaches made the trip to Orlando this past week, down from 201 a year earlier. The likely reason? Many athletic departments have put restrictions on coaches traveling for "personal development."

During the convention Darin Spease, chair of the NCAA Division I men's golf committee, said only two bids have been submitted to host for regionals in 2010, a problem when you consider that there six regionals that need a home. Some procedural issues about the bidding process, in part, explain the shortfall here, but I'm guessing the fact that the NCAA only provides a stipend of roughly $16,000 to schools who host the event has something to do with it, too.

In discussing the situation with several coaches, it appears that most have received word from their ADs that their budgets will be cut to offset loses in revenues and prevent any overall deficits. (Last week, for instance, Florida State's athletic director Randy Spetman, announced a 10-percent cut in the overall athletic budget for 2009-10.) Such cuts will come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the schools in question.

Many coaches say they'll be asked to reduce the amount they spend on recruiting, a particular hardship for programs that have relied on international players to help fill out their lineups. "It's been kind of in vogue to go to the British Boys Championship lately, but I'm guessing that won't happen this year as much," noted one coach. "The real problem here is that big programs will still have the money to go ahead and do it but mid-major programs are going to get left behind."

Others say they'll be more attentive with their tournament schedule for 2009-10, perhaps choosing to play one more "local" event rather attend an event across the country that will require airfares.

No one I spoke with has yet heard of programs that are being asked to cut scholarship money. Still, if the recession were to become prolonged, this could become a future issue. "I think everybody's endowments were hit hard last year," said one coach at one major Division I school. "Most are down at least 25 percent. For one year, that's not a problem, but if this continues I think we'll no longer be cutting into fat. It will be bone we're hitting."

Another bigger-picture question now lingers, as well. What if the university presidents that oversee the NCAA, under the pretext of trying to address the financial downturn, decide to revisit whether sports that play their seasons over more than one semester should consolidate their schedules to just the fall or the spring? (Don't laugh; whispers of such an idea are starting to be heard.) When this was up for discussion in golf several years ago, only to be quelled by the aggressive leadership of the GCAA and NGCA, the NCAA claimed it was acting because of student welfare and the number of days missed in the classroom. Now add into the equation the need to keep athletic departments from drowning in red ink, and getting presidents to change their thinking in the future becomes a much more difficult proposition.

ORLANDO--Do I have to go back to Connecticut? There's something very appealing about the 80-degree temperatures down here in the land of Mickey as compared to the snow/cold/endless winter we're experiencing back at GW HQ. It's the trademarked line I tell many coaches when they ask where we're based and I tell them in New England: "When January rolls around, we all wonder what a golf magazine is doing in the northeast."

In departing from another well-run Golf Coaches Association of America national convention--coaches who aren't attending this event miss out on getting the latest scoop from the NCAA and having an impact on shaping the future of the sport--there were a few other odds and ends that are worth noting.

* The USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship matches, played annually since 1975, have been postponed for 2009. Blame it on the troubled economy as a Japanese sponsor backed out of the event late last month. GCAA officials say they're working on an alternative team event to be held about the same time in the U.S., but it was too early to discuss any details.   

* Despite some conjecture recently that NCAA might change its stance on college players competing in professional qualifying schools, one of the association's compliance personnel, Steve Clar, clarified that the NCAA actually was still OK with this, provided they enter as amateurs and decline any prize money. Even if a college players earns a tour card of some sort at Q school, Clar said, the NCAA was fine with the golfer returning to school if they have declined the card. Only once a player takes the next step and actually enters a tournament as a professional, Clar said, is their eligibility in jeopardy. 

* Stanford junior Joseph Bramlett can't seem to catch a break. The Cardinal junior who missed last spring and much of the summer with an injury to his left wrist, only to come back this fall and post a 72.4 average with no finish worse than T-14 in four starts, once again has injured the wrist. It's not the same problem, says Stanford men's coach Conrad Ray, and there is optimism that Bramlett will be able to return to the line-up at some point in the spring.

* While Jack Nicklaus has kept ties with his alma mater, including overseeing the redesign of the Scarlet course in 2006--he golf legend has not had much interaction with the Ohio State players themselves. That is expected to change, however, next month as the Buckeyes head to Florida to play in the newly created Big Ten Match Play Championship at Heron Bay GC in Coral Springs, Fla. During their stay, Nicklaus is going to meet up with the group, potentially playing a golf with the team members. Nicklaus mentioned doing this during his acceptance speech for the LIfetime Achievement Award he received from the GCAA on Monday. "I called the guys that night," noted OSU associate head coach Brad Sparling, who said it was the first he had heard of Nicklaus' intentions. "They were pretty pumped."

* If the NCAA Division I men's golf committee needs another advocate for implementing a match-play component to the NCAA Championship starting this spring, they've got one in Nicklaus. Again during his acceptance speech, the Golden Bear recalled the use of match play for determining the NCAA medalist when he was in school. He continued by saying that he felt having match play in the championship was a concept that he fully endorsed, hinting at the fact that there is not enough of match play contested by young players.

* PGA Tour executive VP/COO Rick George was the keynote speaker at the convention and talked about how tour officials spent a good deal of time over six months developing/fine tuning/modifying its appearance and etiquette policy. He shared much of what the tour has done with the hope that the details could be passed down to the college players in order for them to be better prepared when they move on to professional golf.

GCAA officials, meanwhile, are hopeful a more formal partnership with the tour might be forthcoming this spring where the two organizations can share information and resources. Any arrangement with the PGA Tour would be a good thing for college golf. Who knows, it might even create a way for the long-held wish of many coaches of getting top college golfers direct access to the larger pro tours (e.g. exempting first-team All-Americans into PGA Tour events or giving them a conditional Nationwide Tour card) to some day become a reality.

ORLANDO--From the no-news-is-good-news department, discussions during the first day of the Golf Coaches Association of America's national convention were rather pedestrian as chairman Darin Spease and three other members of the NCAA Division I men's golf committee spoke at the Doubletree Hotel outside Universal Studios, with the NCAA's Donnie Wagner joining from Indianapolis via video conference.

Spease, the senior associate director of athletics at Charlotte, reviewed most of the mechanics that will govern this year's NCAA expanded regionals (three sites to six) and revamped nationals (54 holes of stroke play with the top eight teams then competing head-to-head in match play). About the only matter that raised anything close to contention was the new Pace of Play system that will be in place for the postseason (rules officials will be using the check-point system employed by the USGA and AJGA).

Traditionalists disappointed in the format change being made at the national championship did have their voice heard when Pepperdine's John Geiberger expressed his concern about the move away from a 72-hole stroke-play competition to determine the team and individual champion, a sentiment that garnered applause from some attendees. The thing is, the match-play horse is out of the barn, at least for the foreseeable future. Talking to some of the D-I golf committee members, they believe they have to give the new format at least three to five years to play out, literally and figuratively, before even toying with the thought of returning to stroke play only. Anyone hoping sentiment might allow for a change of heart from the D-I committee is going to be disappointed.

Truthfully, the best the traditionalists can hope for would be that the committee considers having the schools play 72 holes of stroke play to determine the eight teams to go to match play rather than the 54 holes in place for 2009. At least that would allow the NCAA individual champion to be crowned after four rounds instead of the three that will now be used, which is the change that arguably has the largest number of coaches upset.

What sounded more likely to gain favor with the committee is the possibility of including 16 schools rather than eight in the match-play portion of the championship, particularly if things prove to be exciting this spring at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

Meanwhile, the most intriguing/realistic suggestion floated Monday afternoon was the idea of increasing the number of holes played at regionals from 54 to 72. Teams would play 36 holes the first day, than 18 the next two, thus keeping the event as a three-day competition and affecting costs only nominally (Point of order: any proposal to the NCAA that will cost money has a substantially harder road to travel).

Given that regionals now have only 75 players at each site, the extra round is more feasible from a logistical standpoint. Another reason to consider the idea is that considering how only five schools will advance from each regional to the NCAA Championship, having an extra round to identify the top teams would seem to make sense. Suffice it to say, the concept seemed to have the support of the coaches in attendance as a straw-poll vote showed a 47-25 tally in favor of expanding to 72 holes.

ORLANDO--With the Palmer Cup scheduled to be held in the United States in 2009, it fitting will come to Cherry Hills CC outside Denver, site of Arnold Palmer's famous U.S. Open victory in almost 49 years ago.

Cherry Hills CC pro emeritus Clayton Cole and head professional John Ogden told the audience at the Golf Coaches Association of America's annual awards banquet Monday night that the club was excited to host the event June 3-5 and test the course, which is in the final stage of a renovation that stretches it by 400 yards--to approximately 7,600 yards--and returns the bunkering to the original design of architect William Flynn.

Washington's Matt Thurmond will coach the U.S. team is it tries to win back the cup after Europe's 14-10 victory last year at Scotland's Glasgow GC. The U.S. holds a 6-5-1 overall lead in the annual competition.

There are several intriguing storylines to keep an eye on as the spring season beckons--only 12 days until tournament action finally begins again--but there's one in particular that I'm curious to see how it plays out:

How will the Oklahoma State women's team fare?

Not many schools experienced a more tumultuous fall than the Cowgirls, who had their head coach (Laura Matthews) abruptly resign in October and an All-American caliber player (Jaclyn Sweeney) transfer in December. Still, they finished the first half of the 2008-09 campaign ranked fourth in the Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll. Short on players--only five women appear on the current roster--OSU is long on talent with Swedish standouts Pernilla Lindberg (71.58 average) and Caroline Hedwall (71.17) leading the charge and making the school an attractive "dark horse" challenger to the current Big Three (UCLA, Arizona State and USC) in the women's game.

"I don't think a lot of changes need to be made," says Annie Young, the 26-year-old former OSU All-American hired last month to replace Matthews, about preparing for the spring. "They did a heck of a job this fall. They know how to play golf. They're so talented that if I just let them go play, they're going to be fine."

Can the same be said, though, for Young? The Highland, Utah, native, who spent her time since graduating in 2005 trying to make it on the LPGA Tour, has never been a coach of any sort at any level. Considering she's not that far removed from being an elite amateur player herself (under her maiden name, Thurman, she won the 2002 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links title and securing the winning point for the victorious 2004 U.S. Curtis Cup team), she'll likely be able to relate to her new charges. That said, being a teammate and being a coach are two very different things.

As tough as it might have been for Young to take over the program mid-season, the timing actually might have worked to her advantage. Hired in early December, she met with her players for a get-acquainted dinner just before they took finals. As they finished their course work and went home for the winter break, Young was able to hit the recruiting trail in hopes of finding a few more bodies for the 2009-10 season (three of the five Cowgirls are seniors, including Lindberg). Top high schoolers Jane Rah, Sue Kim and Kimberly Kim had committed verbally to the program for next fall but after Matthews left, only Rah signed a letter of intent in November. (Sources say Kimberly Kim is still considering going to OSU; Young wouldn't comment, other than saying "We'll be able to put a good group of girls together.")

Suffice it to say, however, Young has been anxious to finally get to work with her current team, the defending Big 12 Conference champions, as school resumed last week. If there's a concern on her part, it's whether having such a thin roster might result in complacency while working back in Stillwater. To that end, she intends to carry a bag and play with her team during practice rounds. "I think it's a big factor in getting them to be competitive out there," Young says. "It's easier to understand what they're going through if you're playing the game along with them."

Young believes she'll be able to help her players most with the mental aspect of the game. "I learned a lot out on tour at what it takes to be successful," Young says. "Now, I wasn't always able to carry that over to my own game, but I got a lot of good ideas." Also working in her favor is the fact that she has veteran assistants Alan Bratton and Donnie Darr to lean on, not only as she learns the logistics of being an NCAA coach but also in getting to know her players better.

So what, then, should people expect from the Oklahoma State women?

"I think it would be bad for me to say that I don't expect to be up there for the conference championship and be in the hunt when it comes to nationals," Young says. "We might only go five deep, but any of those five can fire a pretty low number at any time. You don't know what the outcome will be, but we definitely should be in the mix with the talent we have."

A follow-up to my post last week on Proposal 2008-53:

At the NCAA annual convention last week in Washington D.C., the Legislative Council adopted the proposal, which seeks to change Bylaw 17.12.5.1.2 by increasing the number of golfers a school has to have playing in a tournament in order for that tournament to trigger an institutional date of competition. Rather than just one student-athlete, the number now jumps to five, or any number that can contribute to a team score on a particular date.

After being reviewed by the Legislative Council, the proposal went for review before the NCAA Board of Directors, which took no action. Thus, the proposal now enters into a 60-day override period, where opponents have until March 18 to seek an override vote (more than 30 requests must be submitted for a vote to occur). More likely, however, is that the proposal will become final that day and will go into effect Aug. 1.

One of the worst kept secrets during the winter break finally became official Wednesday afternoon: former Oklahoma State standout Jaclyn Sweeney has transferred to Arizona State.

"I call her my 2008 Christmas present," said Sun Devils women's coach Melissa Luellen. "It was such a fast deal that transpired for her to transfer from Oklahoma State."

Just how fast? After being released from her scholarship at Oklahoma State last month, Sweeney (right) e-mailed Luellen on Dec. 11 to inquire whether there might be a spot for her on the Sun Devils' roster, what with ASU All-American Anna Nordqvist having decided to turn pro and leave school early. Luellen, who was returning home from the National Golf Coaches Association's annual convention in Las Vegas, got the e-mail en route to the airport. Once getting a copy of the release, Luellen talked to Sweeney on the phone Dec. 12 and set up an official visit on campus for Dec. 16.

"I think she thought I wouldn't want her to come. I don't know why," Luellen said. "Obviously with the loss of Anna, just an exceptional player, that hurt us a lot. Then to have the opportunity to get such a great player [in Sweeney], to have that opportunity for her to join the team in January was just beyond belief."

Once the 19-year-old Andover, Mass., native took her official visit--after also taking an official visit at Georgia--Sweeney was set on going to ASU, the No. 2 ranked school in the final fall Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll. Still, there was a hitch: She needed to take a three-credit-hour online sociology course in order to have the proper credits to transfer. Cramming all her studies into less than a week, she passing the class, allowing her to be officially admitted to Arizona State Jan. 14.

"I guess you can say the winter has been a little crazy," Sweeney told Golf World Wednesday night when reached by cell phone. "I'm just so excited to have a fresh start."

There's no questioning Sweeney's talent: the former Leadbetter Academy student won the Big 12 Conference title last April, one of five top-10 finishes in eight spring starts (she enrolled at OSU in January 2008 after playing in LPGA Q school in December 2007). Her results also earned her the Big 12 newcomer-of-the-year award.

Infamously, though, she closed out the 2007-08 campaign by breaking her left index finger during the second round of the NCAA Championship last May when she slammed a club in her bag out of frustration, causing the Cowgirls to play with only four players the rest of the championship.

This past fall, Sweeney played in just one tournament for Oklahoma State (T-48 at the Mason Rudolph in September) after being given the OK to participate again in LPGA Q school, where she reached the finals but missed the 72-hole cut.

Sweeney told Golf World she has no intention of trying Q school again in 2009. "I'm fully committed to college golf," she said. "I'm not going to go back to Q school this year. I want to have a college experience and have a collegiate resume going into professional golf.

"You're not going to see me at ASU for just four months," she continued. "You're going to see me there for a minimum of a year and a half. I've already put the ASU grips on my wedges and on my putter. I really want to commit to this school, and I'm really excited to be part of such a great team. I know people are probably going to comment on it. You can say what you want to say about my qualifying experience, but I'm very happy I did it. I have no regrets in going."

As I wrote in this week's issue of Golf World, despite losing Nordqvist, the addition of Sweeney, along with the highly anticipated arrival of January freshmen Carlota Ciganda and Giulia Molinaro (a fellow Leadbetter Academy pupil) provide Luellen with more depth than she has had on her roster at any times since she started coaching at ASU in 2002.

"It's going to be very competitive," Luellen said. "I've told them, 'We're going back to qualifying. It's going to be nothing but better for your and your game ... to keep you on your toes. This is what you signed up for, come to ASU to be on a highly competitive team. And we're finally able to provide that for you.' "

A calculator isn't necessary to add up the number of the people who know what Proposal 2008-53 is all about--two hands and a foot (if that) will suffice.

However, with the NCAA beginning its annual convention tomorrow in Washington D.C., it's worth becoming a bit more conversant with what advocates of junior varsity golf/expanded playing opportunities hope is the first step toward making such practices less confusing, more appealing and more sensible for schools around the country.

Specifically, the proposal seeks to change the definition of when a school has used one of its 24 "dates of competition." The current NCAA bylaw (17.12.5.1.2 for those keeping score at home) states that merely having one student-athlete in a tournament triggers an institutional date of competition. Proposal 2008-53 tries to increase the number to five or more student-athletes or any number of student-athletes that allows a school to post a team score at a tournament.

What does this have to do with junior varsity golf? Well, because Bylaw 17.12.5.1.2 says a school uses a date of competition if only one golfer is competing, coaches had to become inventive if they wanted players at the bottom of their rosters to have any chance of seeing any real tournament action. Thus, they created JV squads, which allowed them to get around the bylaw by using different NCAA legislation and interpretations already on the books (Got to love the NCAA, don't you?!?). As it turns out, so long as no more than 50 percent of the golfers participating in a tournament compete "primarily on the varsity level" (which is determined by its own cumbersome formula), the tournament can be considered a JV contest and thus not count against the 24 dates of "varsity" competition.

It's about this time that most people's eyes start to glaze over, which is exactly why some coaches (Texas A&M's J.T. Higgins, UCLA's Derek Freeman, Washington's Matt Thurmond, among others) are trying to clear things up by changing legislation. Tracking whether players are competing in JV or varsity events, and whether a player is technically a JV or varsity player, is so confusing most schools haven't bothered creating a JV team in the first place. That said, letting players who aren't qualifying for a school's starting lineup get the chance to play as individuals in other tournaments appeals to many coaches. (Who doesn't want to let their players get a chance to play? Maybe they'll see a player develop who might otherwise not.)

To accomplish the latter requires overhauling the former. The big picture solution favored by many coaches is to streamline the NCAA rules to state that schools be allowed 24 dates of competition as a team for qualification toward the NCAA postseason and that individual players be allowed no more than 24 dates of competition, but that those 24 dates don't have to be one in the same. If a player is slumping and fails to make the starting lineup for School A's varsity event, but can play in another tournament that wouldn't count from a team standpoint but might help him work his way out of the rut, why not let him do it?

For the bigger picture change to be made, however, first the coaches needed to adjust Bylaw 17.12.5.1.2. Backers of Proposal 2008-53 (it was sponsored by the Big 12 Conference) say if it passes--a "big if" by the way--they'll then likely craft another proposal in the future that gives teams and individuals their separate 24 dates of competition.

"If we can't get this [passed], we probably can't get the next one," David Batson, Texas A&M's director of athletic compliance and the principle author of Proposal 2008-53 told me last week. "[The second idea] a much more cumbersome concept and you really need the golf committee, and the championships committee behind that one."

(Opponents of such changes, or JV golf in general, argue that allowing this kind of flexibility would given an advantage to bigger budget schools, who can afford to send players to tournaments where they're playing merely as individuals, over smaller ones.)   

Back to the "big if" on whether Proposal 2008-53 will pass. At the NCAA Convention this week, it will go before the Legislative Council along with hundreds of other proposals, but only after having been battered around late last year by the NCAA Championships/Sports Management Cabinet. (Originally, the proposal tried to delete Bylaw 17.12.5.1.2, but that was opposed by the cabinet. The proposal was then modified last October to its current form in hopes getting approval.)

"I think this is a nice compromise between the two," Batson said, "and I think it accounts for what the Championships cabinet's concern was and maybe even goes further to capture some of their concerns. I think it will get support, but there is no guarantee in this process."

In other words, stay tuned.

A difficult fall on the course--one win at the Hooters Collegiate Match Play and no finish in three stroke-play tournaments better than a fifth place--has turned into an even more stressful winter off it for coach Dan Brooks and the Duke women with news today that freshman Mina Harigae, the 2007 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links champion, has left school to concentrate on her game with an eye on playing professionally later in 2009. (Busy week out of Durham, N.C., huh?!?)

"I enjoyed playing college golf and Duke is a wonderful place, but I have decided I need to focus more on golf and my goal of turning professional," said Harigae in a press release. "I have not decided when I will turn professional but I plan on doing so by the end of the summer."

The 19-year-old from Monterey, Calif., a member of the 2008 U.S. Curtis Cup team, played in three fall events for the Blue Devils, posting a T-14 and T-5 finish in two stroke-play tournaments and having a team-best 71.13 stroke average. Her play was good enough to earn a spot on Golf World's All-Freshmen team for the fall semester.

Harigae's departure leaves only five players on the active roster at Duke, which finished the fall ranked No. 7 in the Golf World/NGCA coaches' poll. Of the remaining players, only seniors Amanda Blumenherst (72.72) and Jennie Lee (72.0) finished the first half of the season with stroke averages lower than 75.45.

Duke opens the spring season at the Central District Invitational, Feb. 16-18.

Duke athletic officials were hoping to have a replacement for former men's golf coach O.D. Vincent, who resigned from the post last month, in place by the start of the spring semester. While missing their self-imposed deadline by two days--students began classes in Durham, N.C., on Jan. 7--they can be excused by the fact that they got the right person with the hiring of Charlotte men's coach Jamie Green to take over the Blue Devils program.

A source at the school confirmed Green's selection Jan. 9. A formal release was expected later in the day.

A 1993 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan, Green was in the midst of his sixth season with the 49ers. He had led the team to NCAA Championship appearances each of the past three seasons, including back-to-back top-10 showings in 2007 (T-3) and 2008 (T-8), as well as winning three straight Atlantic 10 Conference titles.

"This is easily the hardest coaching decision I've ever made," said Green in regards to stepping down at Charlotte, where he had signed a contract last April that would run through the 2011 season, the first multi-year contract for a coach at the school in any sport other than basketball.

Green met with his new Duke players formally Friday afternoon after they finished practice for the day. He'll have a final meeting with his former 49er team next Monday when the spring semester begins at Charlotte.

While at Charlotte, Green's program earned the school's first berth into the NCAA postseason (2005). At one time during the 2007-08 season, the 49ers were ranked No. 1 in the Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll, the first time a 49er team in any sport had earned the No. 1 ranking.

Green's ties to North Carolina (he was an assistant coach at North Carolina from 2000-03 before taking the Charlotte head job) as well as his innovative and energetic style (his 49er teams won 17 tournaments during his tenure) made him a natural fit for the Blue Devils. Meanwhile, his players had recorded the school's highest male team GPA in 2004 and 2005 and had earned Atlantic 10 student athlete of the year awards in 2006 and 2007. Each player on his 2007-08 squad at a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Charlotte assistant coach Adam Pry will take over the 49ers program as interim head coach for the spring semester. The school will delay its search for a permanent replacement until the conclusion of the 2008-09 season.