[oldalum]

 If you are even only a sort-of golf fan, I strongly recommend the Anne Walker podcast.

I second that emotion. I'm an un-knowledgeable golf fan, but it was terrific, and mostly about elite college sports, just with golf as the topic. And I also learned how impressive a golfer she was, and how she discovered her passion in life early. And in the interest of promoting thread drift (this thread is pretty much over anyway):

I thought she was very circumspect about the subject of the LPGA giving qualifier spots to top collegiate players, probably because she is still part of the group trying to get the LPGA to change. But no need for us to be as tactful, it is critically damaging to Stanford and the Pac-12. This year it cost us the best chance at a national championship that we've probably ever had when assessed at the start of the conference season. Imagine the reaction if the NBA held an early draft each year and poached 10 or 15 of the best college basketball players just before conference play started. Does getting a few college players on tour 5 months earlier than they would have started significantly promote the LPGA brand? Really? Couldn't some accommodation be made, maybe they get to play the last half of the LPGA season and the first half of the next before their one-year tour exemption ends and their results assessed to see if they get another one? I don't know anything about it, but it seems like a solvable problem.

[oldalum]

 If you are even only a sort-of golf fan, I strongly recommend the Anne Walker podcast.

I second that emotion. I'm an un-knowledgeable golf fan, but it was terrific, and mostly about elite college sports, just with golf as the topic. And I also learned how impressive a golfer she was, and how she discovered her passion in life early. And in the interest of promoting thread drift (this thread is pretty much over anyway):

I thought she was very circumspect about the subject of the LPGA giving qualifier spots to top collegiate players, probably because she is still part of the group trying to get the LPGA to change. But no need for us to be as tactful, it is critically damaging to Stanford and the Pac-12. This year it cost us the best chance at a national championship that we've probably ever had when assessed at the start of the conference season. Imagine the reaction if the NBA held an early draft each year and poached 10 or 15 of the best college basketball players just before conference play started. Does getting a few college players on tour 5 months earlier than they would have started significantly promote the LPGA brand? Really? Couldn't some accommodation be made, maybe they get to play the last half of the LPGA season and the first half of the next before their one-year tour exemption ends and their results assessed to see if they get another one? I don't know anything about it, but it seems like a solvable problem.