Golfweek

REUNION, Fla. – The University of Central Oklahoma team was treated to dinner and fun by one of the world’s best golfers. On Friday night, the night before their practice round at the Golfweek Spring Invitational, the Bronchos were putting at the 12th green, located behind their villa at Reunion Resort. The Bronchos thought they were alone but heard a voice from above yell, “Hey, you guys want to putt for some cash?’’

So, who was the voice from above? Walking to the green in a backwards baseball cap was Sean O’Hair. The Bronchos team and O’Hair putted for a while before O’Hair offered to take them to dinner the next night.

O’Hair treated the team to Chili’s, where he talked about life on the PGA Tour, his Presidents Cup experience and ping-pong battles in Team USA’s lounge.

“That night was probably the greatest golf story these guys have ever experienced,’’ Central Oklahoma coach Dax Johnston said.

Later that night, O’Hair and the Bronchos returned to the 12th green, where O’Hair went one-on-one with the head coach. With the only light coming from Bronchos players’ cell phones, O’Hair dropped two bombs ...

REUNION, Fla. – As a sports fan, I remember when Chris Weinke was 26 years old and became the starting quarterback at Florida State. It was unusual for a 26-year-old to be in the starting lineup for a college football team. Weinke went on to win the 2000 Heisman Trophy. This week at the Golfweek Spring Invitational, I stumbled upon a couple of college golf “Weinkes,” if you will.

Seniors Steven Brame and Marcus Williams play for Lynn University. Brame, 27, never really considered playing college golf until a few years ago, while Williams, 28, always wanted the chance.

Brame, of Henderson, N.C., graduated from Northern Vance High School in 2001. His scoring average in high school was 82, and he classified himself as good enough to be a “weekend golfer.” After he graduated, Brame went to work for his father’s company, Document Systems, as a service manager. In 2004, a few years into being a full-time employee, Brame concentrated on his game and became a scratch golfer.

With a fire in his belly to give golf a serious try, Brame enrolled at Cape Fear Community College and finished his freshman year with a 76.1 scoring average. He ...

REUNION, Fla. – Lander University men’s golf coach Chipper Bagwell has quite an extensive resume. It was only within the last couple of years he could even add golf coach to it.

The Ware Shoals, S.C., native grew up only 15 miles north of Greenwood, S.C., (where Lander is located). It seemed only fitting he would make a career at the University.

In the 1970s, Bagwell coached the school’s women’s basketball program. From the later part of the decade to the mid-’80s, he left the local college to become a high school football coach and teacher.

“It was time for new challenges and new goals at the time,” Bagwell said.

Something just didn’t feel right, though, so he returned to Lander to become part of the men’s basketball program. Bagwell has coached off and on at Lander for a total of 19 years. His greatest coaching accomplishment to date was in 2004 when he took the men’s basketball team to the Elite 8.

It was later that same year that Bagwell became the school’s first golf coach.

“It was a real challenge our first year,” he sad. “Guys got down on ...

REUNION, Fla. – If Rollins College hopes to win this week’s Golfweek Spring Invitational at Reunion, it’s going to have to do it without their No. 1 player Jordan Lewis, who is sitting out with a back injury.

The decision was made Friday afternoon by both Lewis and head coach Kyle Frakes.

“Jordan tweaked his lower back and it just wasn’t feeling right,” Frakes said. “It was a tough call, but it was the right one,” coach Frakes said.

Lewis was an All-American last year and his scores will be missed. Stepping in for Lewis this week will be sophomore Jacob Lammert, making his first-ever appearance in a college tournament.

Frakes believes that Lammert can handle the responsibility almost as well as his leaders of the team - junior J.D. Guiney and senior Colin Dolph, a JUCO transfer from Nassau Community College in Long Island, New York.

Dolph is actually the second Nassau player to transfer and play for Rollins.

The first? That would be PGA Tour player Arjun Atwal.

I joked with coach Frakes about his connection and he replied with a laugh, “Yeah, that is a nice little pipeline I’ve got going on from up ...

Which conference is truly the best? The Pac-10 or the SEC?

Since this seems to always be a big debate in college golf circles, it was time to take a numeric approach to solve this puzzle.

It's important to note that I used all of the teams in each conference equally and only used results from the fall season. A power ranking was computed for each conference based on the average power rating of each team in that conference.

For the men, it was easily the Pac-10 Conference, but some might be surprised that the ACC checked in at No. 2 ahead of the SEC.

On the women's side, again it was the Pac-10 Conference giving the Pac-10 Conference the title as the best conference in college golf.

Click here for the complete standings.

Trey Jones, the director of golf at Florida State, last coached a women’s golf team in 2001, when he was the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Georgia State. Tomorrow, Jones will step back into the women’s game when he takes the Seminoles women’s team to Puerto Rico.

“I’m excited to take the women out for competition,” Jones said. “I think they are tired of practicing and excited to go play.”

Florida State still has not found a replacement for head coach Debbie Dillman, who was let go in early January. According to Jones, a new coach will not be named until the end of spring.

In the meantime, Jones and assistant men’s golf coach Chris Malloy will take on coaching responsibilities for the women’s team.

“Chris and I will split time between both the men’s and women’s teams taking care of tournaments, practices and travel,” Jones said.

As far as this week is concerned, Jones is anxious to see what the girls can do at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic.

“I’ve been with them (the women’s team) for a little while now, and we have been ...

Richard Werenski has joined the roster at Georgia Tech, making the jump to college golf a semester early. He will be eligible for competition next fall.

Werenski graduated from the Heritage Academy in Hilton Head Island, S.C., in the fall, where he also attended the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy. He is originally from South Hadley, Mass.

Ranked No. 16 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings for the class of 2010, Werenski played in the 2008 U.S. Junior, advancing to the Round of 32, and qualified for the 2009 U.S. Amateur. He had two top-10 finishes in amateur events in 2009 (eighth at the Terra Cotta Invitational and T-4 at the New England Amateur).

Another top junior player, Oliver Schniederjans, the Georgia Junior Player of the Year, has verbally committed to Georgia Tech for the fall of 2011.

Over the past decade, I have seen the business of recruiting news explode within the worlds of college football and basketball, not to mention the Internet. However, when it comes to golf I have seen very little other than the simple announcements of which players have signed at which school come NCAA signing period.

People involved in college golf recruiting want more. And with the recent launch of Recruiting Extra to golfweek.com, we will bring you more.

Now when a player makes an verbal commitment, the plan is to give you more than the name of the player and where they plan to play their college golf. We want to let you know why that player may have chosen that particular school, what other schools they were interested in and maybe even a quote from that player on their decision. You might also find information such as which schools a top recruit has narrowed their list or has recently made an unofficial or official visit to a school.

You will be able to find Recruiting Extra (Boys and Girls) on both the Junior and College sections of golfweek.com.

And be sure to e-mail us any information, commitments or ...

Courtney Ellenbogen feels like she has trekked the Himalayas in her short amateur career. The peaks have been breathless – AJGA titles and U.S. Women’s Open appearances – and the valleys, well, loathsome. 

The Duke freshman knows what it’s like to be respected within the game’s most elite circles. But she also knows how it feels to look into an opponent’s eyes on the first tee and see no fear. 

“One of the most important things I have learned is (my) ability to come back from a really tough time,” Ellenbogen said.

The big numbers behind her, Ellenbogen is the competitive bulldog – er, Blue Devil – of old. Duke coach Dan Brooks has served as her swing coach since she started school last fall, and her game is on the rise.

“I was just amazed at how quickly she was able to get out of it,” Brooks said.

This is a comeback story still in progress.

Ivan Lendl, the former Grand Slam tennis champion, watched his daughter, Isabelle, go through a similar slump.

“It’s tough to watch,” said Ivan, signing an autograph at the U.S. Girls’ Junior last summer. “Whether it’s your kid or any ...

I certainly agree with my friend and co-worker Lance Ringler about sports being a great fodder for debate. And I really like the idea he’s running with about Mount Rushmore and college golf. How he came up with it, who knows (Lance’s mind often works in strange ways), but it’s good, a lot of fun and seems to be getting some nice responses.

As far as Lance’s four selections to his Mount Rushmore of men’s college golf – Oklahoma State, Houston, Yale and Georgia –  I definitely agree with half.

I mean, Houston and Oklahoma State are no-brainers. In 45 NCAA Championship starts, the Cougars won a record 16 titles. In addition, they finished second four times and third, fourth and fifth, two times each.

The Cowboys, who own the record of 63 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances, have 10 titles to their credit and - how about this - 15 second places, three thirds, 12 fourths and eight fifths.

And that’s not even getting into all the regular season tournaments they have won over the years.

So, no doubt, these two programs stand head and shoulders above all others in the realm of NCAA golf.

To me, the ...

Add Sue Kim’s name to the list of college freshmen who lasted only one semester. Kim, 18, left Denver in December and moved with her parents to La Quinta, Calif.

“I couldn’t adjust to the whole college thing,” said Kim, who plans to compete on the Canadian National Team this summer as an amateur before going to LPGA Q-School.

Kim played in all four tournaments for the Pioneers. Her best finish was T-12 at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate. Kim was a two-time junior Canadian Order of Merit winner and was 26th in the Golfweek/Junior Rankings when she signed with Denver.

The Pioneers finished the fall ranked 18th.

You might see Hudson Swafford competing at the Azalea Amateur in late March in South Carolina.

You certainly should see him competing this summer on the U.S. amateur circuit.

Where you likely won’t see him – at least for the next five months – is on the college scene with his Georgia Bulldogs team.

“Unless something really crazy happens, I definitely will redshirt this season,” said Swafford, a senior who has been out since undergoing surgery on his left shoulder in August.

“Right now I think that’s the best thing for me to do,” Swafford said Jan. 19. “I feel it’s a good decision and one that will turn out for the best in the long run.”

Swafford, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., is a two-time, second-team All-American and was the SEC Freshman of the Year for 2006-07. Last season, he was a first-team All-SEC selection and won the Puerto Rico Classic while leading the Bulldogs to a team victory. He finished 12th at the SEC Championship and sixth at the NCAA Southeast Regional.

“Of course we would love to have ‘Hud’ back in our lineup this spring, but I want what is best for him long-term,” coach Chris ...

The great thing about sports is debating. Who is the best quarterback of all time? In the NBA, is the Eastern Conference better than the Western Conference? Which four teams will survive March Madness and advance to the Final Four? Which major will be the toughest to win this year?

I want to hear what you, the college golf fan, think about our sport.

Whom would you put on your Mount Rushmore? Pick four teams, which matches the number of presidents on the South Dakota memorial.

For me, it seems pretty obvious with the women’s game. You have to have Arizona State, which has won the most team titles, and Duke, which has dominated in the past 10 years when college golf has been the most competitive. For my final two . . . this is where opinions might begin to differ. I will go with San Jose State for having one of the strongest and most consistent programs of all-time. The final spot on the rock is a tough one, but I would have to lean toward Southern Cal.

The men’s game certainly has more candidates. I’ll start with Oklahoma State. Do I need to explain? Next, I like ...

As we remain deep in the middle of a college golf lull, here are four reasons why I can’t wait for the spring to start already:

1.) The youth movement. When you look at the top 10 individuals in the Golfweek/Sagarin Men’s Rankings do you notice how young these guys are? Five of the top 10 are freshmen or sophomores, and the list only includes one senior (Diego Velasquez from Oregon State). Providing the one-two punch atop the rankings are Oklahoma State’s Peter Uihlein and Alabama’s Bud Cauley, both sophomores. Everyone knows that these two individuals are great, but are they the best we will see this spring? Morgan Hoffman will also be in the mix for the Player of the Year race, but how do you settle the Best-Player-in-Stillwater debate? Heck, Trent Whitekiller is ranked No. 14 in the country! All I can say is I can’t wait to get to the Big XII Championship … I mean the Honors Course for nationals.

2.) Oklahoma State vs. ? I know, I know. All the talk always seems to focus on Oklahoma State, but can you blame me? Let’s break down the rest of the ...

January is usually a quiet month in college golf. Just two players left school (Jane Rah and Amelia Lewis) and one transferred (Taylor Travis). That’s about it.

But January is now heating up. The vacancy light is open above the door of four women’s coaches offices, three of which opened after the final putts dropped from the fall season - Miami, BYU and Florida State. The other - Mississippi State - was announced towards the end of October.

All four of these jobs are garnering a lot of attention and are attractive jobs for different reasons.

• Longtime Miami coach Lela Cannon announced her intentions to retire on Nov. 7.

Do we really need to say why the Miami job is attractive? This school, which does not have a men’s golf program, could own the international market with the right coach in place. The weather isn’t bad, either. Former Hurricane golfers and current head coaches Jill Briles-Hinton and Julie (Brand) Gallup would be on my list to call. This might even be a spot where a male coach could be in the running for the job - similar to J.T. Horton going to Tulane.

• After 22 years of guiding the ...