Welcome to the college golf twilight zone.
Instead of spending the spring doubling down in preparation for conference championships, college golfers were packing boxes and headed home. The Forecaddie wasn’t surprised to hear many players say they hadn’t touched a golf club in days, the general consensus being that with no tournaments on the horizon, what is there to prepare for?
After tournaments began toppling like dominoes, it wasn’t long until the biggest fell. The NCAA announced March 12 that it would cancel all its winter and spring championships.
In Scottsdale, Arizona, where Grayhawk Golf Club was set to start a three-year hosting commitment for the NCAA championships, organizers were on pins and needles. Preparations – logistics, personnel, infrastructure – had been rolling for months. The cancellation was met with disappointment but understanding.
Del Cochran, captain of the club at Grayhawk, says college golf fans are in for a treat whenever the NCAA championships do arrive. Over the past several months, Cochran and a planning crew of at least 25 to 30 people have worked to iron out the nuances of hosting a major event – one that has its own unique stamp.
“If you do your job correctly, the enthusiasm grows, your event gains in stature and the excitement around it continues to increase so that by year three, you’ve got a different event than you started out with, just because you have a system in place with the marketing presence and with a community that is now beginning to support it,” Cochran said.
That said, Cochran hopes Grayhawk will still get its three-year hosting opportunity. The local commitment is there despite the fact that the two-week NCAA hosting block falls at the end of Scottsdale’s high season. Cochran expects Grayhawk will get some play back now that the tee sheet is empty at the end of May.
The college golf world will see Grayhawk again, but the seniors? There’s a much larger asterisk there.
The Man Out Front gives kudos to the NCAA for answering a most pressing question relatively quickly. Less than 24 hours after the NCAA postseason was canceled, the organization clarified that athletes competing in spring sports would get additional eligibility. It’s just that things have yet to get much clearer than that.
The Forecaddie’s head was spinning after scanning a memo sent to NCAA member schools acknowledging the extraordinary situation that left college seniors’ golf careers abruptly kaput. It would be appropriate, the NCAA wrote, to grant additional eligibility while it also recognized that several issues still need to be addressed, financial aid implications among them.
TMOF couldn’t agree more. For college seniors, it presents both a beacon of hope and an agonizing decision. At the very least, it’s an opportunity for closure. Gwk
This story originally appeared in Issue 2 – 2020 of Golfweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.