[Hulk01]

Been a Stanford golf fan a long time.  Got to know Conrad back in my Advisory Board days, still communicate a couple times a year.

Slide has some insights on the team (and a damn good golf game.) He may know the Liu story.  I didn't try to press on it with Conrad. 

I don't watch them on video, no.  Watched most of last year's NCAA's, partly because Prairie Dunes is among my son Will's two or three favorite courses.  Will--who worked on Bandon Dunes and Old McDonald, and pulled a stint at Royal County Down--drove cross country a four years ago to play Sand Hills, Prairie Dunes, and every Donald Ross course he came upon and shot almost 200 photos of the course.  The greens complexes--just from seeing them in his photos--are my favorites of any, anywhere.

The new format for the NCAAs makes anything possible.  Cal should have been handed the big trophy two years ago, but fell victim to the near-arbitrariness of the match play format.  Stanford crushed the field in stroke play last year and seemed a worthier champion than anyone else.  Hell, I once tied our state champ in match play and had no business being on the course with him.

So they've made the NCAA finals more interesting, but less a measure of the nation's best golf team.  Maybe we get revenge this year, thanks in part because Boote has so much experience with match play.  Get a win from Maverick or Badman, another from Swegle and whomever plays fifth, and let Boote give us the trophy.  It could happen, just because the format allows damn near anything to happen.

[Hulk01]

Been a Stanford golf fan a long time.  Got to know Conrad back in my Advisory Board days, still communicate a couple times a year.

Slide has some insights on the team (and a damn good golf game.) He may know the Liu story.  I didn't try to press on it with Conrad. 

I don't watch them on video, no.  Watched most of last year's NCAA's, partly because Prairie Dunes is among my son Will's two or three favorite courses.  Will--who worked on Bandon Dunes and Old McDonald, and pulled a stint at Royal County Down--drove cross country a four years ago to play Sand Hills, Prairie Dunes, and every Donald Ross course he came upon and shot almost 200 photos of the course.  The greens complexes--just from seeing them in his photos--are my favorites of any, anywhere.

The new format for the NCAAs makes anything possible.  Cal should have been handed the big trophy two years ago, but fell victim to the near-arbitrariness of the match play format.  Stanford crushed the field in stroke play last year and seemed a worthier champion than anyone else.  Hell, I once tied our state champ in match play and had no business being on the course with him.

So they've made the NCAA finals more interesting, but less a measure of the nation's best golf team.  Maybe we get revenge this year, thanks in part because Boote has so much experience with match play.  Get a win from Maverick or Badman, another from Swegle and whomever plays fifth, and let Boote give us the trophy.  It could happen, just because the format allows damn near anything to happen.