NCAA championships – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Shaping up to be a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

It’s still only Friday but could the stars be aligning for a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s still only Friday but could the stars be aligning for a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

Let’s set the stage.

ASU is hosting the NCAA Championships this week in Scottsdale. Grayhawk Golf Club is home to 24 women’s teams this week, then 30 men’s teams next week. ASU is one of five schools to have a men’s and women’s team represented here.

It’s worth noting that ASU is also the only team ever to claim both NCAA titles in the same year. The Sun Devils did that in 1990.

Grayhawk, hosting the first of three straight NCAAs, is also home to Phil’s Grill, a restaurant in the clubhouse dedicated to Mickelson and his many golf accomplishments.

Framed art of Phil Mickelson winning the Masters at Phil’s Grill at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photo by Golfweek.

There is framed art of Lefty sporting the green jacket after winning the Masters. There are signed flags, magazine covers and commemorative plaques.

There’s also a framed flag and photo from Mickelson’s win in the 2005 PGA Championship, which he won at Baltrusrol.

That PGA is among the five majors and 44 wins Mickelson has piled up over the years. On the flip side, he hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since August, a span of 16 starts, his last top-10 at a major was nearly five years ago at the 2016 British Open, and he finished 69^th at the Wells Fargo Championship after holding the first-round lead two weeks ago.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJPP4MtBOG/

He opened this year’s PGA with a 70, then backed that up with a 69 on Friday to take the clubhouse lead and fans were buzzing about Lefty making a weekend charge.

With ASU’s golf teams looking for another double-dip, attempting to do so at Grayhawk of all places, and with Mickelson making headlines in a major, it’s shaping up to potentially be a heck of a weekend for the Sun Devils.

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Shaping up to be a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

It’s still only Friday but could the stars be aligning for a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s still only Friday but could the stars be aligning for a Phil Mickelson-Arizona State weekend?

Let’s set the stage.

It’s worth noting that ASU is also the only team ever to claim both NCAA titles in the same year. The Sun Devils did that in 1990.

Grayhawk, hosting the first of three straight NCAAs, is also home to Phil’s Grill, a restaurant in the clubhouse dedicated to Mickelson and his many golf accomplishments.

There is framed art of Lefty sporting the green jacket after winning the Masters. There are signed flags, magazine covers and commemorative plaques.

There’s also a framed flag and photo from Mickelson’s win in the 2005 PGA Championship, which he won at Baltrusrol.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJPP4MtBOG/

He opened this year’s PGA with a 70, then backed that up with a 69 on Friday to take the clubhouse lead and fans were buzzing about Lefty making a weekend charge.

Michigan State golfer James Piot heading to NCAA golf championships

Michigan State’s James Piot will be the lone Spartan heading to the NCAA championships after a strong performance in the regional.

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Michigan State Men’s golf senior James Piot will be heading to the NCAA championships. On Wednesday, Piot shot a 2-under-par 68 for the second straight round to finish the NCAA Kingston Springs regional to finish the tournament 5-under-par 208 (72-68-68), which tied him for fourth place at the Golf Club of Tennessee.

Piot was able to claim the lone individual bid in the Regional with his efforts due to the fact that he was the top finisher who also wasn’t on a team already advancing to the NCAA championships.

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‘We’re not done yet’: Kent State, the lone mid-major at the women’s NCAA Championship, is confident and ready to go

Kent State is just as good as, if not better than, the Power 5 schools in the field for the NCAA Championship, and they intend to prove it.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — They’ve won 22 consecutive conference championships. This year marks the fourth straight season—and eighth overall—of reaching the NCAA Championship. They’re not unfamiliar with being highly ranked in the polls and taking down Power 5 teams.

As the only mid-major to reach the 2021 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, the Kent State Golden Flashes are geared up to once again play on the biggest stage.

“I talk to them all the time, I say ‘We treat you like a Power 5,'” said Kent State head coach Lisa Strom after a practice round on Thursday at Grayhawk Golf Club. “Our program is based on a national schedule, we’re gearing towards a national championship, we’re not selling ourselves short by any means. We have the resources and the support from everybody at home to do that. And that’s how we treat our players and our program. We do things first class all the way.”

Kent State is one of 24 teams in Scottsdale for the first of three straight NCAAs at Grayhawk. The Golden Flashes punched their ticket after finishing in a tie for fifth in the Columbus regional, which was played on the Scarlet Course at Ohio State. It didn’t take long after that for it to sink in that they were headed back to the national championship.

“Finishing up in the Columbus regional, I’ll say it hit us,” Strom said. “It didn’t surprise us but I think it firmly established the spot we’re in, and I think that’s huge for their confidence.

“We’ve worked hard. We’re up in northeastern Ohio and we’re kind of a little forgotten spot but it’s college golf and we have to earn everything. I tell them that all the time, I say ‘No one’s going to hand them anything.'”

“We’re here. We’re just as good as anybody else,” said Emily Price, a junior who transferred from South Carolina. “Winning the tournaments we have, winning the conference 22 times in a row, then getting through regionals and beating some other good teams, I think we deserve the spot we’re in.”

Kent State will start alongside Texas and Maryland on the first tee Friday. With a 6:30 a.m. (Arizona) tee time. Even that doesn’t faze this squad.

“Oh, I love it. This heat? Get me out early,” Price said. “I’ve been waking up a little bit earlier than usual anyway so it’s nothing. Get me up before it’s too hot. I’m good with that.”

Strom agreed and noted the time change works in their favor, too.

“The 6:30 tee time, we gotta be ready to go,” she said. “Traveling from the East Coast helps. But for us, the first thing I thought of is, ‘Wow, our players get to hit the first tee shots of the national championship.'”

It’s been since 1992 when San Jose State won that a non-Power 5 program took home the NCAA title.

This Kent State squad might be the next.

“We’re on a good run,” Strom said. “It’s how they take care of their business, how they handle themselves, they do it in a very professional way. They work hard and they deserve all that credit that they’ve got yet.

“But we’re not done yet. They’re hungry for it.”

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Scottsdale, Grayhawk three weeks away from long awaited NCAA Championships

Arizona State golf coach Matt Thurmond said Scottsdale will be the “center of the collegiate golf universe”, at least for the short term.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The long awaited start of a three-year run for the NCAA golf Championships in Arizona is now just three weeks away.

The women are up first at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale from May 21-26 followed by the men from May 28-June 2. The 2022 and 2023 nationals also will be held at Grayhawk, which was to have hosted for the first time in 2020 before all spring NCAA championships were canceled due to the pandemic.

So a process that began in 2017, not long after Matt Thurmond was hired as Arizona State men’s golf coach, finally culminates in what Thurmond said will result in Scottsdale becoming the “center of the collegiate golf universe” at least for the short term.

Staging the championships is a combined effort by Grayhawk, ASU, NCAA, Golf Channel and the Thunderbirds to annually host 24 women’s and 30 men’s teams in stroke and match play for a combined total of 54 days (including practice rounds) over three years.

“We’re the tail end of a very big dog,” Del Cochran, Grayhawk general manager, said Thursday. “When we started this journey, we had no idea how it was going to go. We wondered how everyone would blend together, and it’s been absolutely seamless. We will all be proud of the product.”

Spectators will be allowed—with free admission thanks to a sponsorship—although how many and COVID protocol details have yet to be announced.

For the party to be at its peak requires the ASU teams to advance through NCAA regionals.

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The women must finish in the top six at a regional May 10-12 in Columbus, Ohio. The men will learn which of six May 17-19 regionals they will be assigned to on Wednesday, May 4, and then need a top-five finish to advance.

“It’s a little bit of pressure and motivation,” ASU women’s coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. “I’m just trying to keep them positive, and they are. I’m happy to go to Ohio State (for regional) because the Scarlet course is one of the best in the country. It could be 70 (degrees) one day and it could be 40 the next. I don’t think that will phase our group at all. It’s a separator course, you’re not going to be able to get away with anything and that’s what I want.”

The ASU women were third at Pac-12 Championships behind and host Stanford but played without four-time All-America Olivia Mehaffey due to COVID protocol. Mehaffey will be back for the postseason after first trying to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

ASU’s Linn Grant is ranked No. 4 in Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings, Ashley Menne 91, Alessandra Fanali 103 and Mehaffey 104. Amanda Linner broke through to finish ninth at Pac-12 Championships.

“Even if Olivia didn’t play last week, we know she’s always ready to go,” said Grant, a sophomore from Sweden. “Without her, we did a good job as a team and kept it together. Fortunately coach Michelle (Estill) and coach Missy have been to Columbus and know the course. Even a score on par will be good. I think that’s to our advantage. Even our fifth player is a really good player.”

The ASU men duked it out with Arizona at the Pac-12 Championships, ending Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California. Arizona won by four strokes and it is tantalizing to image a match-play pairing of the in-state rivals during nationals.

Chun An Yu and Ryggs Johnston tied for fourth individually at the Pac-12 meet and David Puig tied for eighth, a big three if you will that seems to be peaking at the right time.

“The competition is better than ever with all these seniors coming back,” Thurmond said. “Our team is excellent, and we’re getting beat by some teams. The Arizona team that beat us has five seniors. Oklahoma is No. 1 right now, they’re loaded. It’s going to be a great competition (nationals). We’ve got to get here first, but we can handle the pressure and we’ll find a way to get here.”

Johnston said, “We’ve been trending upward lately. We haven’t really brought our best to any tournament yet so in a way I guess that be a good sign. We go (to regional) knowing our best is yet to come hopefully. That’s something to look forward to.”

The ASU teams have something of a home course advantage at Grayhawk given multiple opportunities to play the Raptor course, but more than 30 other men’s and women’s teams also have come to town for a test run on the desert course.

“Oregon and Oklahoma State won national championships when they hosted, but those were all places where nobody was allowed to go play it,” Thurmond said. “ASU to our credit pushed very aggressively to allow anyone and everyone to come play here, which in the past it was the opposite. The host team wouldn’t allow anyone near the course.

“So we gave away a lot of advantage, but we thought it was the best thing for the championship. All these teams have flown in, played a few rounds. They go back and prepare for it. It just adds to the energy around the event.”

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Locked on Longhorns podcast: ‘NCAA fall championships cancelled, UTEP update’

The Locked on Longhorns podcast discusses the latest announcement from the NCAA with cancelling fall championships. UTEP update as well.

The podcast returns the Friday edition to discuss the fallout of the conference cancellations. John Williams stops by to help breakdown the quarterback situation in Norman. Is Spencer Rattler the starter while competing in a “quarterback battle” with Tanner Mordecai? Plus the NCAA has announced no fall championships in 2020. Is this a power play to put pressure on the remaining six FBS conferences planning on playing?

UTEP recently had a coronavirus outbreak within their team that caused the Miners to halt practice. Adrian Broaddus of ESPN El Paso brings us up to speed on the latest happenings. What are the expectations for UTEP and will they travel to Austin to play on September 12th?

Plus an interview with Locked on Saints’ Ross Jackson. The Saints have three former Longhorns poised to make the team this year. What are the expectations of Malcolm Roach and Lil’Jordan Humphrey. How can the Saints use Humphrey in year two and why did Roach’s production suffer at Texas?

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NCAA grants extra year of eligibility for spring athletes, not winter

The NCAA announced Monday that it would grant an extra year of eligibility to spring athletes whose seasons were cut short due to COVID-19.

The NCAA announced Monday night that it would grant an extra year of eligibility to spring athletes whose seasons were cut short due to COVID-19.

The NCAA did a lot right in how they’re dealing with this situation, but there is one major flaw. Let’s discuss what the NCAA got right first, before we move on to the big mistake.

What the NCAA got right

The NCAA was faced with a huge dilemma here. How do you allow athletes to play an extra year without messing with the incoming freshman class or putting a huge financial burden on schools who can’t afford to give out extra scholarships–especially as there are very few money-making sports in the spring.

The NCAA essentially had two solutions for this. The first is that the schools don’t have to offer scholarships. They can, but they don’t have to. Additionally, the NCAA’s fund for student support will be available to help cover these scholarships. I don’t know if the organization has enough to cover everyone–it just had to slash the annual payout to DI schools because of the basketball tournament’s cancellation–but it will clearly do what it can.

Next, the NCAA is raising scholarship and roster limits. This means that schools will have bigger rosters over the next few years as the current players use their extra eligibility. It might hamper playing time a bit with bigger rosters, but it’s the only real solution. (The release did not indicate if there would be anything to mitigate the fact that those with more freshman this year will have bigger rosters for a longer period of time.)

Winter sports

The NCAA made one major mistake, though. Winter sport athletes who did not finish their seasons will not be granted another year. Even though almost no NCAA Championships were completed for the winter, in any division, the NCAA still (apparently) felt that because the large majority of most of the seasons were completed, that’s enough to not grant an extra year.

This will obviously disappoint basketball fans and players nationwide, as well as plenty of other sports. Many Buckeyes will be impacted, and you can’t help but feel for guys like Kollin Moore. It took a combination of illness, an otherworldly talent like Bo Nickal, and a full-on cancellation of the NCAAs to keep Moore from winning a National Championship during his four years in Columbus.

We can hope that the NCAA will change their decision on winter athletes, because the abrupt ending to careers like this is very much not fair. At least the NCAA did right by the spring athletes, though.

NCAA cancels all spring, winter championships due to coronavirus outbreak

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the NCAA has cancelled all winter and spring championship events.

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The Duke women and Stanford men will have to wait another year to defend their 2019 NCAA golf titles.

On Thursday afternoon, in the wake of countless professional sports organizations and college conferences cancelling their respective tournaments and shutting down athletic competitions and practices due to the coronavirus outbreak, the NCAA followed suit.

The NCAA has announced the cancellation of not just March Madness – the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments – but all winter and spring NCAA championship events.

The women’s golf NCAA Championship was slated for May 22-27, with the men the following week May 29-June 3 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Per the NCAA release:

Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.

Keep up with all the golf tournaments being cancelled and postponed here

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