THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THUR5DAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
SPORTS
3B
--are off to a much better start this season than last year"
GOLF
Golfers turn in solid performances at Nebraska meet
BY BRYAN WHEELER
bwheeler@kansan.com
The men's golf team started its season with a third-place finish in the Nebraska Fairway Club Invitational in Nebraska City, Neb. The tournament, which was held at Arbor Links Golf Club, was the site of the layhawks' best team finish since last year's Kansas Invitational. Sophomore Nate Barbee led the team with a two-round score of 143 and finished tied for a career-high fourth place.
"I'm pleased with our start this year," said coach K Grove. "We
Heavy rain and lightning delayed the scheduled 8 a.m. start
or the tournament until 1 p.m. Monday. The tournament started with windy and cold weather and was shortened from 54 holes to 36.
In the first round. Barbee
Anson
shot a 70, marking his fifth career round under par. Junior Walt
Koelbel finished close behind in the top 10 with a score of 73 and placed tenth in the round. Overall, Kansas finished Monday with a team score of 294, just four strokes away from first place.
"I thought a score of 300 would be a solid round today with the weather, so I am very pleased with our score," said Grove in a press release.
Senior Andrew Storm and Barbee led the Jayhawks on Tuesday with second-round scores of 73. Storm's finish in the second round gave him a final score of 149, which tied him for 18th place. Koelbelfin-
Making his debut for the Jayhawks, freshman Ian Anson, a native of Surrey, England, had a final score of 150, finished tied for 25th place.
ished the second round with a 79 and finished tied for 34rd place.
"I'm pretty happy with the result," Anson said. "I wasn't on top of my game, but considering it was my first tournament, I must say that I am rather pleased."
Redshirt freshman Blake Giroux also made his debut for the Jayhawks. Giroux had a two-round score of 154 and finished in 42nd place. Competing as an individual.
senior Patrick Roth finished in a tie for 56th place.
Coach Grove said he thought that overall his team did well, but
that he would like to see the team have some consistency throughout the rest of the season.
"Nate had a really solid tournament," Grove said. "Everyone
eise had one good round and one
bad round, but with some maturity
Barbee
this team could sneak up on some teams this year."
The Jayhawks will host the Kansas Invitational Sept. 15 to Sept. 16 for its next tournament. The event will take place at Alvamar Golf Club in Lawrence.
The team hopes to build off its success in Nebraska.
NFL
"I thought as a team we played pretty solid." Barbee said. "This should give us confidence going into our home tournament next week."
Titans, fans concerned for Young after he sprains left knee
Edited by Scott R. Toland
ASSOCIATED PRESS
On the opening page of his official Web site, there's a photo montage of Vince Young looking nearly as invincible as Superman. Football in hand, you get the feeling about the only thing he can't do is fly.
Inside, just past the link to the nearest store selling Vince Young sausage, ribs and brisket, is a spot to download posters of an imposing No. 10 complete with these words of encouragement:
"Believe in yourself."
Good words to live by, if only life were that easy.
Young once believed in himself, believed so strongly that he won a national championship for the Texas Longhorns with one of the greatest performances ever seen against USC at the Rose Bowl. Down late in the game, he drove his team to two touchdowns, closing both out with scrambling runs into the end zone.
NFL scouts weren't too excited about his passing motion, but the idea of a big quarterback who could elude defenders, run at will and throw with accuracy made them believe.
"It is hard, all he is going through right now. He's hurting inside and out."
His agent would downplay it later, saying Young was simply at a friend's house eating chicken wings and watching football. But whatever Fisher told police it was enough for them to send unmarked SWAT units out and call crisis negotiators in. Those kind of things aren't usually done when someone leaves for a drive and doesn't come home on time. They're usually done when someone is distraught and could hurt himself or others.
We may never know what was in Young's mind that night. We do know he appeared disconsolate after throwing two interceptions and getting booed in Sunday's game, and that it appeared Fisher had to force him to re-enter the game before he got hurt.
His mother told The Tennessean that Young was tired of all the neq-
Now it's hard to figure out what to believe with Young.
to Young at his home, so evidently they were worried even before he went off into the night without his cell phone and with an unloaded gun in his glove compartment.
Everyone was a believer then. But somewhere along the slide to mediocrity, the beliefs have been shaken.
FELICIA YOUNG Mother of Vince Young
too. The Tennessee Titans made him the third overall pick in the 2006 draft, and he rewarded them with a spot in the Pro Bowl in his first season.
The official word Wednesday out of Nashville was that nothing was wrong with Young other than a sprained left knee that will keep him out of three or four games. There was scant mention that coach Jeff Fisher was so worried about his quarterback's mental health that he sent police out on a search Monday night to try and find him.
This wasn't just a case of a coach wondering whether his quarterback had stumbled off to a strip club. Earlier that day, the Titans had sent a psychologist over to talk
ativity and the boos. Felicia Young said her son needed people to give him space and to pray for him.
"It is hard, all he is going through right now. He's hurting inside and out," she said
But it was
just a few boos and one lousy game — which the Titans went on to win. What happens if things really go south for Young? Is a pro athlete with enormous skills and a contract that could bring him $58 million so mentally fragile that it could be dangerous for him to go on the field and perform?
"When you're booed by fans and you already have a negative self image it reinforces it and can make it worse," said Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter, a sports psychologist in San Carlos, Calif. "If you have 100,000 people saying the same thing that you're already thinking, it's not a good thing."
It's true that all we usually see is the upside of being a famous professional athlete. We see the good times, the big money, the fancy Escalades, and the women who always seem to be hanging by the clubhouse gates. But when things
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young waits to call a play late in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday. Young was booed after being intercepted midway through the quarter and later left the game after spraining his knee in the 17-10 win.
go sour the stark reality of living up to everyone's expectations can be hard to deal with. It's not just the boos, but the feeling that they've failed in something they never once imagined they would ever fail in.
Playing quarterback just exacerbates that. Fans who wouldn't have any clue whether a lineman missed a block or a receiver ran the wrong route are sure they know when a quarterback is good or bad and usually aren't afraid to let him know it. The quarterback is the first person praised for winning a game and the first one called names for losing one.
The best that can be hoped for Young is that he just had a few bad days and was merely overwhelmed by not playing well in a game he had spent all of training camp preparing for. A few weeks to rest his sprained knee and heal his wounded psyche might be enough to turn things around.
Come watch the Hawks play South Florida on one of our 4 hi-definition giant projection screens. Duffy's opens at 5 p.m. Game starts at 7 p.m.
If not, Young's fans might have a lot more to worry about than
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