Texas Children's Houston Open

Memorial Park Golf Course



The Loop

Surprisingly, no surprises

October 01, 2008

OK, all is right with the college golf universe again. The Oklahoma State men--on paper one of the deepest squads in the country--claimed the title at the Ping/Golfweek Preview. This after Washington made short work of the competition at the Husky Invitational and Wake Forest came out on top over the weekend at the VCU Shootout. This is not to say that parity doesn't still exist in the men's game, but the golf world hasn't come off its axis either.

Truth is, UCLA men's coach Derek Freeman, OSU's__Mike McGraw__, Georgia's__Chris Haack__, Clemson's__Larry Penley__, etc., I'm guessing, have been able to make good use of the fact that none of the supposed "superpowers" got off to impressive September starts. No team ranked in the top 25 in the latest Golf World/Nike Golf coaches' poll can expect to go haphazardly into a tournament and record a top-five finish. The competition is way too strong. And so, these coaches I'm sure have been preaching to their congregations if you're not going to be focused, we're going to struggle â¿¿ and if we struggle, we're going to try new lineups.

Bottom line, the top teams are going to win their fair share of tournaments but if they don't come prepared week in and week out, they're also going to suffer their share of frustration and defeat.