Colorado University Athletics
Men's Golf Blog - January 28, 2010
January 28, 2010 | Men's Golf
Hello Colorado Men's Golf fans! We hope all of you enjoyed the holidays and if you're anything like us you are looking forward to the golf season ahead. Our schedule resumes at the Mauna Lani Invitational in early February on the big island of Hawaii. Due to the strong tradition of our program coupled with the generosity of Coach Earl Tamiya of the University of Hawaii-Hilo we are fortunate to annually begin our spring season in such a great locale. At last year's event we beat several top-notch programs and look to beat all of them this year. Usually when we travel to more tropical climates people assume our players haven't seen anything but ski slopes, icicles and abominable snowmen for the last few months. Though partially true, that stereotype is always amusing for us to hear. The Boulder area is less precipitous and due to low humidity, more temperate than typically assumed by outsiders. It is mid January and though conditions obviously differ from Hawaii our guys are practicing and playing golf today. Some people might find winter golf uncomfortable, but playing through it tends to make a golfer mentally tougher and ready for adversity. Additionally, over the month long winter break our players traveled to places such as Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tucson, Los Angeles, Grand Cayman and Dubai. This gave us plenty of opportunity to relax after last fall's final exams and further prepares us for Mauna Lani.
You probably already noticed the style of this release differs from the ordinary CUBuffs.com content related to the men's golf program. In addition to the very informative and detailed work created by our sports information director we decided to begin a journal chronicling, through first-person accounts, all matters CU Golf. The intent of this journal is to give our fans, supporters and recruits a more personal idea of what it's like to be a part of our team. Those of you who never follow collegiate golf, or golf altogether; we hope you find it interesting. It might even lead you to take up the game. Those of you who already follow us closely will gain a refreshing new perspective on our team. We and several of the players will post journal entries, photographs and videos after tournaments and other major events relevant to the team. In this first installment we will bring you up to speed on the major happenings over the last several months.
2009 marked one of the most compelling years in Colorado Golf history with nothing more noteworthy than the formation of Colorado National Golf Club via the generosity of former Buff golfer Steve Kerr. Many of you likely attended the May 2nd grand opening of CNGC, which included appearances by Hale Irwin, Steve Jones, Steve Kerr, Mike Bohn, Chancellor DiStefano and many others important to our program. The speeches on the driving range that day told stories about the effort that goes into developing an elite college golf program. Our guys enjoyed the festivities, but the wisdom provided to us behind closed doors by Hale, Steve and Steve highlighted that day. Many a time, relatively unaccomplished young men subconsciously believe people like Hale Irwin intrinsically possess powers beyond that of an average person. Hale made it clear he holds no supernatural capabilities. Rather his ongoing success comes from his chosen ability to concern himself only with matters of which he controls. This relates to anything from proper alignment in the golf swing to deciding to study for your next finance test instead of not studying and just writing the equations on your arm. He implied that if you take shortcuts in life then expect your dreams to be cut short. Everyone in the athletic world hears similar advice to that and then forgets it the next day, but in this instance the fact that Hale and both Steves regularly generate positive results proves their own advice to be true and gives their words added power.
In addition to those three great Buff alums, our guys met with ex Buff and former PGA Tour and Champions Tour winner Dale Douglass before playing Castle Pines Golf Club this fall. He provided similar advice, which only solidified the tips we received back at CNGC on May 2nd.
Colorado National Golf Club feels more and more like a real home to us and many of our alums come back to see the facility. One of the most successful Buffs, Jonathan Kaye, spent a great deal of time practicing at the course this summer. Several guys on the team took the opportunity to pick his brain and observe his golf game. Aside from his noticeable physical talent and knowledge of different shots, Jonathan carries a belief in himself that most college golfers would be wise to copy. Though he probably thought nothing of it, the swagger he displays as a Coloradan rubs off on younger guys and makes them better.
Even though a player eventually uses his four years of eligibility and graduates from CU we believe he is still a part of the team and is vital to our current success. This goes for both the aforementioned professional golfers and the ex CU golfers with various other occupations. Interaction with the latter of the two shows our players that life can still be enjoyable and competitive after college should they choose not to play professionally. We encourage any and all ex Buffaloes to come to a practice or tournament as our guys benefit greatly from this.
After summer break ended we immediately began our season at the inaugural State of Colorado Cup; a Ryder Cup style event against CSU. Though we narrowly lost the overall match we gained much experience and thoroughly enjoyed the golf course, Ballyneal Golf Club in Holyoke, Colorado. Ballyneal is a links style course near the Colorado-Nebraska border. It features massive fescue covered sand dunes and greens similar to the most treacherous of British Open courses. The well furnished on-site lodges housed both teams during the event and the feeling of being stranded on the wide-open prairie made for a great backdrop. The annual match continues this fall and will grow to a 54-hole, two-day event instead of a 36-hole, one-day event. We hope to see as many Buff fans out there as possible next year.
After the State of Colorado Cup we played guest at five more tournaments this fall hosted by New Mexico, Air Force, Notre Dame, Cal-Berkeley and UCLA. Our best team finish of third place came at the MacKenzie Invite (Cal), but we struggled in a couple of the others. Several of the guys recorded personal bests during these five tournaments including a course record 64 by Kevin Kring at Air Force's tournament, and low career finishes by Justin Bardgett and Sebastian Heisele of fifth place and sixth place, respectively. On top of competition, the perks for playing college golf at CU were quite high this semester. For example, we received complimentary tickets to the Notre Dame vs. Washington football game while at their tournament in October. Also, we experienced five days of living and dining at the highly touted Cordevalle resort in San Martin, California during UCLA's tournament. Lastly, every player on the team received a full tour-quality club fitting by TaylorMade in October. Though we enjoy these benefits our competitive goals remain first and foremost in our minds. For us to meet them improvements must be made this spring if we want to achieve success. Each round just a few shots separates the winners from the losers. We can gain many of these shots back by improving our short games, course management and/or attitudes. Fortunately we have control over all three of those categories which makes for a less daunting task than trying to control things like your talent level, course conditions and good/bad breaks. We embrace this challenge and look to test our progress in Hawaii.
Click on our 2010 schedule to see a list of other upcoming events. We love to see Buff fans dressed in black and gold all across the country. Next fall we are excited to announce the inaugural Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Colorado National Golf Club September 27-28, the first intercollegiate golf tournament hosted by CU in the state of Colorado since the 1993 Fox Acres Invitational. In addition to our regular schedule we will host our annual fundraiser, Colorado Golf Day, for the third time this fall. This year the event will be held on Friday, August 27th with a 1:00 pm start at Colorado National. We would love for you to join us in support of the CU Men's Golf Team.
Thank you and check out the photo album containing various pictures from the past several months. Go Buffs!
-Coach Edwards and Coach Grady
