[Mick]

Golf is idiosyncratic, particularly college competitive golf.

You dispatch five 20-year-old guys to a distant locale to play a course they aren't  familiar, particularly given that day's setup and weather.  Get up the next day, play another round, repeat once more.  Think of it as three consecutive away games--except, unlike in all other sports, the field changes for every new event.  It's llke playing with an 18 foot three point line one week and a 22 footer--along with a much wider key--the next

And five guys.  One may be struggling off the tee, another struggling almost everywhere, a third on the verge of quitting and going home (e.g.) Jimmy Liu.  Go through a year of college and its challenges, including finals, midterms, social life.  Variables upon variables.

I think you can trace this at least partly to scholarship limits.  When you have a sport with fewer scholarships (4.5) that starters (5), you're bound to push all the teams more toward the middle--and if you guess wrong on even one of those scholarships, your team has an albatross. 

Great post, Hulk.

There was a young golfer in our neighborhood, took golf very seriously.  Best scoring average in his league during the regular season.  I wouldn't say he melted down in pressure situations, but he certainly felt it.  He played little league for one year, I was his coach.  He was a pitcher and his entire game was predicated on the first batter.  If he got the first batter out, he would mow down the rest.  If the first guy got on base, I might as well have pulled him right then (I never did, but he rarely lasted more than two innings in those situations).

He played in the CCS, shot a 78.  Played for a year at a mid level college, scoring average just over 75, sixth on his team.  He left the team after his frosh year.

He's in his mid-20s now.  I looked up his scores on the NCGA web site, and playing just for fun, in his last 20 rounds he's had 10 in the 60s, 9 in the 70s and an 83.  He's a +2.8.  The mental/emotional game is so critical, and so tough for 20 year old men.

[Mick]

Golf is idiosyncratic, particularly college competitive golf.

You dispatch five 20-year-old guys to a distant locale to play a course they aren't  familiar, particularly given that day's setup and weather.  Get up the next day, play another round, repeat once more.  Think of it as three consecutive away games--except, unlike in all other sports, the field changes for every new event.  It's llke playing with an 18 foot three point line one week and a 22 footer--along with a much wider key--the next

And five guys.  One may be struggling off the tee, another struggling almost everywhere, a third on the verge of quitting and going home (e.g.) Jimmy Liu.  Go through a year of college and its challenges, including finals, midterms, social life.  Variables upon variables.

I think you can trace this at least partly to scholarship limits.  When you have a sport with fewer scholarships (4.5) that starters (5), you're bound to push all the teams more toward the middle--and if you guess wrong on even one of those scholarships, your team has an albatross. 

Great post, Hulk.

There was a young golfer in our neighborhood, took golf very seriously.  Best scoring average in his league during the regular season.  I wouldn't say he melted down in pressure situations, but he certainly felt it.  He played little league for one year, I was his coach.  He was a pitcher and his entire game was predicated on the first batter.  If he got the first batter out, he would mow down the rest.  If the first guy got on base, I might as well have pulled him right then (I never did, but he rarely lasted more than two innings in those situations).

He played in the CCS, shot a 78.  Played for a year at a mid level college, scoring average just over 75, sixth on his team.  He left the team after his frosh year.

He's in his mid-20s now.  I looked up his scores on the NCGA web site, and playing just for fun, in his last 20 rounds he's had 10 in the 60s, 9 in the 70s and an 83.  He's a +2.8.  The mental/emotional game is so critical, and so tough for 20 year old men.