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By ERIC SODERSTROM
Managing Editor/Golfweek.com

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Try matching Oklahoma State coach Mike McGraw’s words to the scoreboard after the opening round of the NCAA Championship.

Doesn’t work.

“We had a tough day,” said McGraw, standing in some long grass behind the putting green at Purdue’s Kampen Course. “We just have to be able to handle everything it throws at us. Just have to get the right mindset going into tomorrow.”

The Cowboys, who shot 10-over 298, are in third place after the first 18 holes of the most important event of the year, one shot out of the lead held by both USC and UCLA, a decent day by most measuring sticks.

Only three schools broke 300, and teams like Alabama (309) and Wake Forest (314) are hoping tonight that they didn’t shoot themselves out of the tournament.

Yet McGraw sounded like he’d slammed a few cowboy hats to the ground Wednesday.

What gives?

Welcome to the Kampen Course, which has quickly proven to be a lot less fun than camping.

Of course, camping out in this Kampen rough is unofficially the most popular form of entertainment so far this week.

For example, see Kevin Tway, winner of the Central Regional at what was considered then to be probably the toughest track of the year, Ohio State’s Scarlet Course. Tway, who was playing better than almost everybody coming into this championship, shot 9-over 81.

Many of those strokes came at the 481-yard par-4 9th hole, where Tway made 9.

His first tee shot landed in the left rough, and still has yet to be found. His second drive landed in the right rough. Tway could only advance it about 60 yards from there, then hit his fifth shot over the green into another patch of long grass, which is pushing 6 inches in some places.

With little green to work with, Tway hit his sixth shot back over the other side of the green. He chipped short, then two-putted.

Which leads us to the next hole, the 608-yard par-5 10th. Tway eagled that one.

“It’s part of the game,” said McGraw, half-smiling. “It’s golf, it’s going to happen again. It’ll happen again this week.”

He’s talking about ridiculousness.

Like how his star freshman, Rickie Fowler, the No. 1 player in the country, played his last five holes birdie-birdie-birdie-quadruple bogey-bogey to finish with a 2-over 74, five shots out of the individual lead he probably should have shared with UCLA’s Kevin Chappell. Chappell rimmed out a 6-footer for par on No. 9, his final hole, for a 3-under 69.

Fowler, who also missed a final 6-footer to three-putt the 18th hole for bogey, stood with his arms above his head just minutes later on the putting green, staring toward the scoreboard.

About a half-hour earlier, Fowler stood on the tee at the 206-yard, par-3 17th with a 5-iron in his hand. He wanted to hit it easy. But it sailed right, into the hazard.

“I just came out of it,” Fowler said. So he pulled a 6-iron. Wanted to hit it hard. But that also sailed right.

Fowler made 7. Meanwhile, teammate Trent Leon was busy playing in the rough around the 18th green. Leon flopped and chipped and punched his way to a triple-bogey 7, the lowlight of an otherwise swell 1-over 73.

“If you get in a bad spot, it’s just not going to give,” said McGraw.

Chappell said he hasn’t seen “anyone able to hit it at the green out of the rough,” which is why he did his best all day to stay in the fairway. He missed only four fairways, making only two bogeys on a course that averaged just under 79 strokes per round.

“Couldn’t ask for anything better,” said Chappell, No. 3 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.

It was quite a different story for defending national champion Jamie Lovemark, who shot a 79 that USC threw away, only adding to the day’s list of oddities.

“This golf course is so difficult,” said UCLA coach Derek Freeman, who took his team to TPC Valencia last week to try and better simulate Kampen’s conditions. “You have to get your guys to understand that you’re going to make bogey, and just try to minimize your mistakes. Don’t compound mistakes.

“So I just tried to get them to understand that this is a hard golf course, and there are hard golf shots.”

Which only makes everything harder to understand.

• • •

Eric Soderstrom is the managing editor of Golfweek.com. To reach him e-mail at esoderstrom@golfweek.com.

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Scores with relation to par from the first round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship, played May 28 at the par-72, 7,450-yard Kampen Course at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind. (Note: y-played as individual):

TEAMS
1. USC	297	+	9
1. UCLA	297	+	9
3. Oklahoma St.	298	+	10
4. Clemson	301	+	13
4. Kent St.	301	+	13
6. Illinois	302	+	14
6. Florida	302	+	14
8. Georgia	303	+	15
9. Washington	305	+	17
10. Auburn	306	+	18
10. Charlotte	306	+	18
12. Stanford	309	+	21
12. Texas A&M	309	+	21
12. Middle Tennessee St.	309	+	21
12. Alabama	309	+	21
16. San Diego St.	310	+	22
17. Arizona St.	311	+	23
17. Louisville	311	+	23
17. Texas	311	+	23
17. UAB	311	+	23
21. Virginia	312	+	24
22. Indiana	313	+	25
22. East Tennessee St.	313	+	25
24. Wake Forest	314	+	26
25. Penn St.	315	+	27
25. Oregon	315	+	27
27. UC Irvine	320	+	32
28. Mississippi St.	326	+	38
28. Augusta St.	326	+	38
30. St. Mary’s	333	+	45
• • •
INDIVIDUALS
1. Kevin Chappell, UCLA	69		-3
2. David Markle, Kent St.	70		-2
2. Tim Sluiter, USC	70		-2
4. Billy Horschel, Florida	72		E
4. y-Joel Sjoholm, Georgia St.	72		E
4. Kyle Stanley, Clemson	72		E
7. Trent Leon, Okla. St.	73	+	1
7. Webb Simpson, Wake Forest	73	+	1
7. Hudson Swafford, Georgia	73	+	1
10. Joey Benedetti, Oregon	74	+	2
10. Zach Bixler, Washington	74	+	2
10. Rickie Fowler, Okla. St.	74	+	2
10. Aaron Goldberg, SDSU	74	+	2
10. Russell Henley, Georgia	74	+	2
10. Rory Hie, USC	74	+	2
10. Mark Johnson, Okla. St.	74	+	2
10. Scott Langley, Illinois	74	+	2
10. Ben Martin, Clemson	74	+	2
10. Gareth Shaw, ETSU	74	+	2
10. y-Derek Tolan, Colorado	74	+	2
10. Adam West, UAB	74	+	2
10. Stefan Wiedergruen, Charlotte	74	+	2
23. Tyson Alexander, Florida	75	+	3
23. Tom Ballinger, Kent St.	75	+	3
23. Jorge Campillo, Indiana	75	+	3
23. Rick Cochran, MTSU	75	+	3
23. Chris DeForest, Illinois	75	+	3
23. Rhys Enoch, ETSU	75	+	3
23. Kevin Foley, Penn St.	75	+	3
23. Tom Glissmeyer, USC	75	+	3
23. Charlie Holland, Texas	75	+	3
23. Phillip Mollica, Clemson	75	+	3
23. Henrik Norlander, Augusta St.	75	+	3
23. Andrea Pavan, Texas A&M	75	+	3
23. Brad Smith, UAB	75	+	3
23. Kyle Stough, Virginia	75	+	3
23. Gordon Strother, Auburn	75	+	3
23. Matthew Swan, Alabama	75	+	3
23. Nick Taylor, Washington	75	+	3
40. Zach Barlow, Illinois	76	+	4
40. Chadd Cocco, St. Mary’s	76	+	4
40. Erik Flores, UCLA	76	+	4
40. Phillip Francis, UCLA	76	+	4
40. Stephan Gross, ASU	76	+	4
40. Craig Leslie, UCLA	76	+	4
40. Lance Lopez, Texas	76	+	4
40. Jay Moseley, Auburn	76	+	4
40. David Palm, SDSU	76	+	4
40. Robert Rohanna, Penn St.	76	+	4
40. Michael Thompson, Alabama	76	+	4
40. Manuel Villegas, Florida	76	+	4
40. Steve Ziegler, Stanford	76	+	4
53. Larry Blatt, Illinois	77	+	5
53. Kent Bulle, MTSU	77	+	5
53. Greg Carlin, Virginia	77	+	5
53. Tim Cha, UC Irvine	77	+	5
53. Andrew DiBitetto, Charlotte	77	+	5
53. Ignacio Elvira, Texas A&M	77	+	5
53. Derek Fathauer, Louisville	77	+	5
53. Robert Gates, Jr., Texas A&M	77	+	5
53. Noah Goldman, Miss. St.	77	+	5
53. Sihwan Kim, Stanford	77	+	5
53. Jason Millard, MTSU	77	+	5
53. Trevor Murphy, Charlotte	77	+	5
53. Glenn Northcutt, Auburn	77	+	5
53. Adam Rainaud, Louisville	77	+	5
53. y-Jurrian van der Vaart, Va. Tech	77	+	5
53. Trent Whitekiller, Okla. St.	77	+	5
53. John Wise, Washington	77	+	5
70. Seth Brandon, Indiana	78	+	6
70. James Byrne, ASU	78	+	6
70. Brett Cairns, Kent St.	78	+	6
70. Will Collins, Virginia	78	+	6
70. Jonas Enander Hedin, Charlotte	78	+	6
70. Matthew Giles, USC	78	+	6
70. Steven Groover, Auburn	78	+	6
70. Rob Grube, Stanford	78	+	6
70. Adam Hadwin, Louisville	78	+	6
70. Brian Harman, Georgia	78	+	6
70. Bobby Hudson, Texas	78	+	6
70. Dodge Kemmer, Stanford	78	+	6
70. David Ludlow, Kent St.	78	+	6
70. Sean Maekawa, Oregon	78	+	6
70. Braxton Marquez, ASU	78	+	6
70. Adam Mitchell, Georgia	78	+	6
70. y-James Sacheck, TCU	78	+	6
87. Drew Allenspach, Indiana	79	+	7
87. Knut Borsheim, ASU	79	+	7
87. Jordan Cox, Stanford	79	+	7
87. Daryl Fathauer, Louisville	79	+	7
87. Brendan Gielow, Wake Forest	79	+	7
87. Mark Harrell, Alabama	79	+	7
87. Patton Kizzire, Auburn	79	+	7
87. Lucas Lee, UCLA	79	+	7
87. Jamie Lovemark, USC	79	+	7
87. Will Strickler, Florida	79	+	7
87. Zach Sucher, UAB	79	+	7
87. Joseph Sykora, Alabama	79	+	7
87. Darren Wallace, Washington	79	+	7
100. Bronson Burgoon, Texas A&M	80	+	8
100. Johan Carlsson, SDSU	80	+	8
100. Karsten Clements, Louisville	80	+	8
100. Dustin Groves, Wake Forest	80	+	8
100. Matt Hoffman, Illinois	80	+	8
100. Jesper Kennegard, ASU	80	+	8
100. Kenny Kim, UC Irvine	80	+	8
100. David May, Clemson	80	+	8
100. Chad Moscovic, SDSU	80	+	8
100. Corey Nagy, Charlotte	80	+	8
100. Chas Narramore, MTSU	80	+	8
100. Sean Shahi, UC Irvine	80	+	8
100. y-Eric Shriver, Pepperdine	80	+	8
100. Derek Sipe, Oregon	80	+	8
114. Jim Markovitz, Penn St.	81	+	9
114. Alex Martin, Indiana	81	+	9
114. Cian McNamara, ETSU	81	+	9
114. Carlos Sainz, Miss. St.	81	+	9
114. Sam Saunders, Clemson	81	+	9
114. Kevin Tway, Okla. St.	81	+	9
120. Tarik Can, Augusta St.	82	+	10
120. Amory Davis, Virginia	82	+	10
120. Jace Moore, Texas	82	+	10
120. Matt Van Zandt, Texas A&M	82	+	10
120. Travis Wadkins, Wake Forest	82	+	10
120. y-Dan Woltman, Wisconsin	82	+	10
126. Tyler Brown, Florida	83	+	11
126. John Chin, UC Irvine	83	+	11
126. Harvin Groft, Penn St.	83	+	11
126. John Hahn, Kent St.	83	+	11
126. Mike Oimoen, UAB	83	+	11
126. Seamus Power, ETSU	83	+	11
126. Santiago Quirarte, Indiana	83	+	11
126. Kevin Schultz, Texas	83	+	11
126. Isaiah Telles, Oregon	83	+	11
135. Jake Amos, Augusta St.	84	+	12
135. Josh Bevell, Miss. St.	84	+	12
135. Tze Huang Choo, Washington	84	+	12
135. Matt Fast, Miss. St.	84	+	12
135. Matt Hoffenberg, SDSU	84	+	12
135. TJ Howe, Penn St.	84	+	12
135. Chris McCartin, Wake Forest	84	+	12
135. Robert McRae, St. Mary’s	84	+	12
135. Josh Oller, Miss. St.	84	+	12
135. Kyle Sapp, UAB	84	+	12
145. Simon Doherty, ETSU	85	+	13
145. Max Greil, UC Irvine	85	+	13
145. Keith Guest, Augusta St.	85	+	13
148. Nick Bailes, MTSU	86	+	14
148. Daniel Cone, St. Mary’s	86	+	14
148. Harris English, Georgia	86	+	14
151. Josh Kelley, St. Mary’s	87	+	15
152. Steven Rojas, Virginia	88	+	16
153. Mitch Krywulycz, Augusta St.	89	+	17
153. Michael McRae, St. Mary’s	89	+	17
155. Jack Dukeminier, Oregon	90	+	18
155. Matt Hughes, Alabama	90	+	18

Posted: 5/28/2008

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