THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2005
2005
SPORTS
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WOMEN'S GOLF
Golf team to develop its younger players
BY TRAVIS ROBINET
trobinet@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Kansas women's golf coach Erin O'Neil knows her team has a lot of experience to gain this semester.
With no seniors on the squad and only three juniors out of nine players, the team must look to a younger generation to lead them.
Last semester was a good start, as the Jayhawks finished in the top 10 in their last three events, including a first-place finish at the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational held at Alvamar Golf & Country Club, Oct. 11-12. With 11 teams competing, Kansas won by a 15-stroke margin.
Since the break, the players have practiced improving their mental game, which is probably the biggest challenge golf has to offer, O'Neil said. Her players are reading the book "With Winning in Mind," by Lanny Bassham.
O'Neil said she wanted her players to read a few chapters a week so they could have positive attitudes going into each shot. Even though the book is not about golf specifically, O'Neil still thinks it is a good tool.
The short game is another aspect the team has been practicing.
"We want the girls to apply the book to golf," O'Neil said.
"I have them do a lot of wedge work. They'll hit 20 shots from 40 yards, another 20 from 60, and another 20 from 80," she said. "Also, I'll place nine balls in different areas and make the players get up and down."
O'Neil said her team is ready despite the weather. The players retreat to their indoor practice facility when it is impossible to get outside to play.
"It really affects our short game," sophomore Jill Womble said. "All you can do in the indoor facility is hit balls off of a mat. We don't even get to putt."
The Jayhawks took advantage of clear skies and warm weather last week and actually had an opportunity to play a few rounds.
"Last winter we didn't get to play at all." Womble said.
WOMEN'S GOLF SCHEDULI
The team will be able to prove just how far they have come during the six scheduled events this spring. If they improve enough, the regional championships are definitely within striking distance, O'Neil said.
The women's golf season begins Feb. 28 when the team heads to Texas A&M. Kansas coach Erin D'Neil said she expected her young team — that features just three upperclassmen — to make it to May's NCAA regionals. The Davhawks will participate in six events before regionalists.
DATES
EVENT
Feb. 28 - March 1
March 11-13
March 18-20
March 26-27
April 9-10
April 22-23
May 5-7
May 17-20
Texas A&M "Mo"morial Invitational
Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational
LSU Cleveland Classic
Mountain View Collegiate
Lady Boilermaker Invitational
Big 12 Conference Championship
NCAA Regional Championships
NCAA Championship
LOCATION
"There is no reason why we can't make it to regionals," she said.
College Station, Texas
Austin, Texas
Baton Rouge, La.
Tucson, Ariz.
West Lafayette, Ind.
Austin, Texas
TBD
Corvallis, Ore.
The lajahwys don't want to get ahead of themselves, however. Womble said that the team's goals this semester were to keep improving like
Source: KU Athletics Department
PRO-GOLF
they have been, work for every shot and be prepared for anything that comes their way while keeping an eye on regionals.
Golfers, celebrities enjoy the new view at Pebble Beach
— Edited by Jennifer Voldness
BY DOUG FERGUSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Actor Bill Murray walks along the 18th fairway during celebrity challenge event of the Pebble Beach AT&T National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach, Calif. yesterday
leff Chiu/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Tim Herron walked back to the sixth tee yesterday morning at Pebble Beach and took in a spectacular view of the 513-yard hole, which stretches out toward the Pacific Ocean, rising along the rugged cliffs on the right side of the fairway.
Something didn't look right.
"Wow." Herron said. "Look at those cliffs."
Then it dawned on him. He never could see the cliffs so clearly because of a large cypress tree. But that tree is no longer there, wiped out by holiday storms. It should make the par 5 play easier, because any tee shot that strayed too far to the right was blocked by the tree. Players either had to go over or around it.
"You can see the whole cliff now, and it's pretty cool," Herron said. "But it changes everything, especially on the second shot. That tree played with your head."
The Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will have a slightly different look when it gets under way today.
Rain that deluged California six weeks ago also washed out a small section of the 18th fairway about 280 yards from the tee, making the landing area a little tighter. Plus, the two cypress trees replaced in the middle of the fairway were planted about 20 yards farther out than they were.
"I hit a drive where I used to, and it was 15 yards from the water — not 25," Jim Furyk said.
But there are some things about
Pebble Beach that rarely change.
One of them is the weather,
and that's the good news. A tournament that developed a reputation for "Crosby weather" — cold, rain, wind, rain, fog, rain — looks as if it will be basking in sunshine for the fifth straight year.
And the field is eclectic as ever. Because the three courses
have room for 180 pro-team, the pros range from defending champion Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson to players like Steve Stricker, Garrett Willis and Tom Scherrer, whose only status on the PGA
Tour is having won a tournament once upon a time.
Amateurs range from Hollywood stars (Bill Murray, Kevin Costner) to comedians (George Lopez) to athletes (Patriots coach Bill Belicheck, Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice) to CEOs from Fortune 500 companies.
Another Pebble tradition over the last two decades is the type of name on the crystal trophy. Only three of the last 21 winners of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am have not won a major.
No other regular PGA Tour event has such a major list of winners over the last two decades. The next best is The Players Championship — the fifth major
— with 16 of the last 21 champions having also won majors.
“It's going to be a slow process of putting yourself in position and never really shooting yourself out of the tournament," said Mark O'Meara, a Masters and British Open champion who has won five times at Pebble. "Then when the final round is played at Pebble, it's not like somebody is going out and shooting suner. super low."
Furyk cited the quality of the courses and the size of the greens that require precision iron shots.
The celebrities out for a good time also contribute to 6-hour rounds, and so many footprints around the hole on the small greens will making the putting surface as smooth as broccoli. It can get aggravating.
But the pavoff is worth it.
Pebble Beach isn't a major, but it is teeming with tradition, and it's a chance to join a major call of past champions.