[Hulk01]

There's nothing unusual in having two non-top ten college teams like Northwestern and Kent State being in the lead after a first round--or even after several more

Last year, the second place team after four rounds was the nation's #12 team--us.  #13 Washington finished fourth, #15 Virginia was fifth, and #18 South Carolina was seventh.  Meanwhile, #4 Florida and #5 Georgia didn't even get to the final day of stoke play.  They failed to make the 15 team cut after three rounds.

College golf is funky.  (As if golf isn't)  You don't see the extreme differences in teams that you see n football or basketball.  One reason may be scholarship limitations.  In football and basketball, you have far more scholarships (85 and 13 respectively) than you have starters.  In golf, however, you have only 4.5, so your fifth and sometimes your fourth spots can be very iffy  Now throw in the fact that while football fields and basketball courts are basically the same wherever you go, golf courses run the gamut, including being covered in three very different types of grass.  Some courses--as many of you know--favor a certain style (Nicklaus is famous for designing courses that suit his high fade). 

And so on.

So this is golf.  And college tennis, perhaps also in part because of the 4.5 scholarship limit, has a little of this. Stanford's women have hinted at this by by twice winning national championships with teams not rated in the top ten.

[Hulk01]

There's nothing unusual in having two non-top ten college teams like Northwestern and Kent State being in the lead after a first round--or even after several more

Last year, the second place team after four rounds was the nation's #12 team--us.  #13 Washington finished fourth, #15 Virginia was fifth, and #18 South Carolina was seventh.  Meanwhile, #4 Florida and #5 Georgia didn't even get to the final day of stoke play.  They failed to make the 15 team cut after three rounds.

College golf is funky.  (As if golf isn't)  You don't see the extreme differences in teams that you see n football or basketball.  One reason may be scholarship limitations.  In football and basketball, you have far more scholarships (85 and 13 respectively) than you have starters.  In golf, however, you have only 4.5, so your fifth and sometimes your fourth spots can be very iffy  Now throw in the fact that while football fields and basketball courts are basically the same wherever you go, golf courses run the gamut, including being covered in three very different types of grass.  Some courses--as many of you know--favor a certain style (Nicklaus is famous for designing courses that suit his high fade). 

And so on.

So this is golf.  And college tennis, perhaps also in part because of the 4.5 scholarship limit, has a little of this. Stanford's women have hinted at this by by twice winning national championships with teams not rated in the top ten.