8B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PROFILE
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21. 2008
Walk-on golfer exceeds expectations
Freshman Brad Hopfinger finishes in top 30 four times this school year
Jeff Jacobsen/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Brad Hopfinger, Lake Forest, Ill., freshman, was not rectuited by any college coaches while he was in high school, but is having an exceptional first season with four top-30 finishes so far.
BY BRYAN WHEELER
bwheeler@kansan.com
Brad Hopfinger may not have been recruited by any college coaches during high school, but the freshman walk-on has been playing as good as anyone for Kansas' men's golf team.
Competing in the Hawaii-Hilo Invitational tournament to start the spring season, Hopfinger carded his fourth top-30 finish of the school year. On the first day of
the tournament,
Hopfinger had a career-best round of 66.
Hopfinger had a three-round score of 210 and finished the tournament tied for 26th place.
Hopfinger,
from Lake
Forest, Ill., a
North Shore
suburb of Chicago, was a stand-out golfer in high school. Playing for Lake Forest High School, Hopfinger was an Illinois All-State golfer and individual conference championship winner in 2006. In 2007, Hopfinger finished fifth in the 2007 Illinois State Golf Tournament.
Though Hopfinger was a stand-out golfer in high school, he did not get any scholarship offers.
"In high school I was a couple of shots away from being noticed by college coaches," said Hopfinger.
Though no schools actively recruited Hofinger, Jeff Mory, his swing coach and former coach at Northwestern, contacted former Kansas coach and current director of golf operations Ross Randall.
With an open spot on the roster
Hopfinger was off to Kansas.
"As a walk-on, he exceeds all expectations of what you want out of a player. You wish you could have 10 more like him."
Hopfinger finished the fall season strong at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C., tied for 12<sup>th</sup> place with 220 strokes.
Hopfinger started his collegiate career in the fall of 2007 at the Kansas Invitational. With a three-round score of 225 and a tie for $22^{nd}$ place, Hopfinger was off to a solid start for the Jayhawks. Nearly a month later, Hopfinger carded a then-career best three-round score of 219 and tied for $23^{rd}$ place in the Prestige at PGA West in Palm Springs, Calif.
KIT GROVE Men's golf coach
Men's golf coach Kit Grove said motivation was the reason behind Hopfinger's success.
"When you're a walk-on you want to prove you belong." Grove said.
Hopfinger has also been a success in the classroom as well. With plans of majoring in business, the freshman was named to the Athletics Director's Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA during the fall 2007 semester.
"As a walk-on, he exceeds all expectations of what you want out of a player," Grove said. "You wish you could have 10 more like him."
With his success as a freshman on the green, Hopfinger would like to become a more consistent golfer in tournaments.
"One round has always hurt me," Hopfinger said. "I would like to just have three competitive
rounds."
With the spring season just underway for the Jayhawks, Hopfinger would like to build on
Hopfinger and the Jayhawks will be trying to defend their 2007 team title on Feb. 25 and 26 in the All-American Golf Classic in Houston.
"I would just like to be in a position where I'm in contention to win a tournament," said Hopfinger.
his success.
Edited by Jared Duncan
BASEBALL Hank Aaron optimistic about future of the game
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Hank Aaron hobbled into Atlanta's spring training camp with no opinion on whether Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but saying he's confident baseball is on the way to recovering from the Steroids Era.
He declined to say whether he found Clemens' testimony before Congress believable, taking the same tact he consistently followed when similar charges were leveled against Barry Bonds, the guy who broke the Hammer's long ball record last season.
Tejada questioned about steroids while in Florida
KISSMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Miguel Tejada arrived at spring training with his new team and within minutes faced questions about the Mitchell Report and an FBI investigation looking into his alleged link to performance-enhancing drugs.
Tejada refused to answer any of them, preferring to discuss baseball and his fresh start with the Astros. Asked if he could answer the allegations in the Mitchell Report, Tejada said, "No, can't. Not at all."
GOLF
Europeans change rules to end losing streak
LONDON (AP) — Europe made four changes to its criteria for making the Solheim Cup, trying to get its best players and end a losing streak to the Americans dating to 2003.
The Ladies European Tour will continue to take the top five players from its points list, the top four from the women's world ranking and three captain's picks. But it will award points to the top 20 players in the majors, up from the top 10. It also will award more points for events with the highest purses, and fewer points for regular LET events that don't often get the best players.
Europe has never won the Solheim Cup in the United States. The matches will be played in August 2009 outside Chicago.
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Humanities and Western Civilization Program 2007-08 Peace & Conflict Studies Lecture
"Medecins Sans Frontières and Shrinking Humanitarian Space"
Michael Barringer-Mills
Field Coordinator
Médecins Sans Frontières
(Doctors Without Borders)
Monday, February 25
7:30 p.m. Alderson Auditorium
Kansas Union
Co-sponsored by College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of African & African-American Studies Department of Geography Department of Political Science Kansas African Studies Center Center for European Studies
WNBA
Fever acquire All Star in complex trade deal
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Fever acquired All-Star forward and Katie Douglas in a trade with the Connecticut Sun. The Fever sent forward Tamika Whitmore, the 12th pick in the 2008 WNBA draft, and the rights to former Duke guard Jessica Foley to the Sun.
Storm trades draft pick for WNBA All Star
SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Storm acquired Swin Cash from the Detroit Shock in exchange for the fourth overall pick in this year's draft.
Cash, a two-time WNBA All-Star, averaged 11.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season. She was a member of the WNBA champion Shock teams in 2003 and 2006.
HOCKEY Rule changes considered for NHL in Florida
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NHL general managers discussed several possible rules changes, including the size of goaltender equipment. One longstanding problem with reducing the size of goaltender equipment has been a lack of cooperation from the NHL Players Association.
Meanwhile, the GMs decided not to increase shootouts from three shooters to six shooters. However, they are still deciding whether to scrape the ice before overtime, with 58 percent of overtime games having gone to shootouts this season.
TENNIS
Blake easily wins SAP
Open match in California
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — James Blake easily won his first match at the SAP Open, beating Sam Warburg 6-3, 6-1.
Robby Ginepri and Mardy Fish also won their opening-round matches, and German qualifier Denis Gremelmuy upset seventh-seeded Sam Querrey in the early session. session. Germany's Benjamin Becker and Lu Yen-hsun also advanced.
Defending tennis champ ousted in tournament
Earlier, Nicolas Almagro extended his winning streak to eight matches when he edged Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2). Also advancing were No. 4-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela, No. 6 Igor Andreev and No. 8 Filippo Volandri. Other first-round winners included Argentina's Juan Pablo Brzezicki and Sergio Roitman, Spain's Oscar Hernandez and Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Italy's Fabio Fognini, and Brazil's Thomaz Belluci.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Three-time winner Carlos Moya and defending champion Juan Monaco were ousted in the first round of the Copa Telmex. Third-seeded Moya lost to Jose Acasuso of Argentina 6-2, 6-4, and the second-seeded Monaco fell to fellow Argentine Agustin Calleri 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
Soderling reaches second round in ABN tournament
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP)
— Robin Sodlering of Sweden beat eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 to reach the second round of the ABN Amro tournament.
Second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeated Jan Henrych 6-3, 6-3; third-seeded David Ferrer downed Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-4, 7-5; and Michael Llodra of France defeated Raemon Sluiter of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-6 (6).
France's Nicolas Mahut and Gilles Simon, and Serbia's Janko Tiparevic also advanced.
Wozniacki upsets Bartoli in women's Qatar Open
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Caroline Wozniacki upset eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the Qatar Open, while fan favorite Sania Mirza pulled out with leg cramps.
Also, Vera Zvonareva defeated 17th-seeded Francesca Schiavone 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in another second-round match. Ninth-seeded Patty Schnyder and 11th-seeded Dinara Safina advanced in first-round matches.
Associated Press