[d4cohn]

Well, what do all of the final 8 schools but Stanford and Wake Forest have in common? Answer: their home state is contiguous with Arkansas. (And Wake is just one state away from Arkansas).

Weather, climate, and time zones matter. Our guys were headed to the course at 3 a.m. PDT body clock time yesterday. Playing in summer Arkansas humidity is worlds different than Mediterranean-climated California. When Cal misses by one stroke, it's not hard to think somewhere along the way discomfort, jet lag, and/or lack of familiarity with the climate caused a tiny mental lapse. That's all it takes.

One trend I've noticed recently is that very few national championships are hosted out West these days, and I do think it makes a difference to have home geographic turf advantage, especially for sports played outside. 

Congrats to our guys for representing literally the rest of the country in match play.

This is great analysis, but to consider things from the macro, sports-wide perspective, as opposed to the micro, men's golf-specific perspective,
I just keep wondering when I see the Pac struggle to place teams in the CFP, the Pac struggle to place teams in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the Pac, until the super-regional round throughout the season, fall behind the SEC and possibly even the Big 12 in softball (a sport we had dominated until 2010-2011), and have as many regional hosts and fewer tournament teams as compared to the Big 10 etc.

The issues feel systemic across sports, and seem to boil down to the usual points of returned revenue to the schools, conference-wide fan interest etc.

[d4cohn]

Well, what do all of the final 8 schools but Stanford and Wake Forest have in common? Answer: their home state is contiguous with Arkansas. (And Wake is just one state away from Arkansas).

Weather, climate, and time zones matter. Our guys were headed to the course at 3 a.m. PDT body clock time yesterday. Playing in summer Arkansas humidity is worlds different than Mediterranean-climated California. When Cal misses by one stroke, it's not hard to think somewhere along the way discomfort, jet lag, and/or lack of familiarity with the climate caused a tiny mental lapse. That's all it takes.

One trend I've noticed recently is that very few national championships are hosted out West these days, and I do think it makes a difference to have home geographic turf advantage, especially for sports played outside. 

Congrats to our guys for representing literally the rest of the country in match play.

This is great analysis, but to consider things from the macro, sports-wide perspective, as opposed to the micro, men's golf-specific perspective,
I just keep wondering when I see the Pac struggle to place teams in the CFP, the Pac struggle to place teams in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the Pac, until the super-regional round throughout the season, fall behind the SEC and possibly even the Big 12 in softball (a sport we had dominated until 2010-2011), and have as many regional hosts and fewer tournament teams as compared to the Big 10 etc.

The issues feel systemic across sports, and seem to boil down to the usual points of returned revenue to the schools, conference-wide fan interest etc.