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Mike Sweeney

Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #25 on: May 17, 2014, 06:14:32 PM »

http://stanfordmensgolf.com/SVTC_photos.htm

I would never go to class.

Please Google "Florida Gator Coed Golf - images" and get back to us. Oh yea, the home course is a Donald Ross course, and when it gets hot in the summer you get to play fancy tournaments up north at very fancy Ross courses.

You can attend professional football and semi-pro basketball and baseball games for basically free, and a degree from a university that will get you into great graduate schools if you can't putt.

High School Phenom: "Dad, I only got a 1/4 scholarship for Florida."

Dad: "If I can use the Disney Time Share 3 times a semester to visit, we can make the numbers work. Mom only wants to come once a semester." :)
« Last Edit: May 17, 2014, 06:18:12 PM by Mike Sweeney »

John McCarthy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #26 on: May 17, 2014, 08:16:09 PM »
There are many well thought out answers here.  Mine is not one of them.  I was 17 once, and I have seen the Song Girls on tv. 


USC all the way.
The only way of really finding out a man's true character is to play golf with him. In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself.
 PG Wodehouse

Buck Wolter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #27 on: May 17, 2014, 09:16:57 PM »
I worked with a guy who played at Wake and can't imagine there could be a better program to be a part of. He didn't play much but is on a first name basis with multiple hall of famers including one named Palmer, 2 of his teammates won $10M in a month, he played Old Town many, many times. One of his teammates is the pro at Fishers Island, he caddied for a teammate a week after graduation for them and he won his first web.com event. It goes on and on-- oh and he can play. Plus at Wake your chances of marrying up are a lot better than at an SEC school.
Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience -- CS Lewis

Andrew Buck

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #28 on: May 17, 2014, 09:29:16 PM »
Plus at Wake your chances of marrying up are a lot better than at an SEC school.

That can be a double edged sword, if you mean financially marrying up, as their are likely already financial baseline expectations for the wife to be.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2014, 10:04:27 PM by Andrew Buck »

Bruce Wellmon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #29 on: May 17, 2014, 09:32:19 PM »
1. Wake Forest.  Tradition. Old Town.
2. Clemson.  The Penley Clubhouse facility (thanks Mike Whitaker).  The Esso Club.

Steve Lang

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #30 on: May 17, 2014, 10:34:06 PM »
I would take visits to Stanford, Harvard, Illinois, Georgia Tech and probably Alabama.

...

Alabama is current king, but their sports culture and atmosphere would be fun as well.

Alabama... and don't forget that you get Jerry Pate as an active alumni supporter
Inverness (Toledo, OH) cathedral clock inscription: "God measures men by what they are. Not what they in wealth possess.  That vibrant message chimes afar.
The voice of Inverness"

Rees Milikin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #31 on: May 17, 2014, 10:36:27 PM »
Somewhere in the Southeast or Northern California, but would prefer the campus be not in a glorified cow pasture.

Top Picks: Vandy, UTC, GRU (Augusta State), USC-Aiken, CofC, GT, UGA, GSU, Standford, Cal...pretty sure I am forgetting a couple I wouldn't mind.

Michael Felton

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #32 on: May 17, 2014, 11:58:54 PM »
One of my friends is playing for Stanford at the moment. Their practice facility is incredible. I'd say there just for the practice facility. If you spent 4 years playing golf there and weren't world class by the end of it, then it's not happening no matter what you do.

John Cowden

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #33 on: May 18, 2014, 12:51:02 AM »
Why would anybody choose the humid heat of the SEC or anywhere nearby is beyond me.  The PAC 12 offers all of the best:  weather, courses, coaches, education, professional opportunities, lifestyle, tradition, and bright, beautiful coeds.  Choose your preferred climate--desert, beach, Bay Area, perfect, and perfect--then play and enjoy.  Choosing between Oregon and Stanford, should one be so blessed, would be the best dilemma a 17 year old stick could have.

Kevin_Reilly

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #34 on: May 18, 2014, 01:11:17 AM »
One of my friends is playing for Stanford at the moment. Their practice facility is incredible. I'd say there just for the practice facility. If you spent 4 years playing golf there and weren't world class by the end of it, then it's not happening no matter what you do.

FWIW, the practice area is a lot smaller than it was when it opened in 2008  About half of the facility's land was used by a campus energy project. 
"GOLF COURSES SHOULD BE ENJOYED RATHER THAN RATED" - Tom Watson

Matt Bielawa

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #35 on: May 18, 2014, 06:35:57 AM »
Lots of great response, and this confirms my suspicion that no matter how good the home courses are, northern courses are at a serious disadvantage, and can probably only hope for occasional success in most cases.  What Mike Small has done at Illinois is incredibly impressive, and a few other schools compete somewhat consistently, but not many.  My alma mater has university-owned courses designed by Maxwell/MacKenzie and Dye, a nearby solid Ross course, and a multi-million dollar practice facility that opened just a couple years ago,  and they're typically mediocre at best.  One of the country's best few players is from Michigan, and actually had a cup of coffee at UM, but then fled to UGa after his freshman year.  I guess that's just the way it is.

Mark Chaplin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #36 on: May 18, 2014, 02:16:06 PM »
Gordon Jones went to St Andrews and won a Bobby Jones Scholarship to Emory, needless to say he's played all of the great courses in the east of the USA from north of Florida and South of Canada.

Texas Tech get the odd private jet trip courtesy of rich fathers and spent a couple of days at ANGC this year.
Cave Nil Vino

Buck Wolter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #37 on: May 18, 2014, 05:00:38 PM »
Changing my vote to Iowa State -- shot 18 under yesterday to qualify for the NCAAs for the first time since 1953! Interesting mix of Aussies, A Kiwi, a Spaniard and a few Midwesterners. Go Clones!

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/05/all-30-mens-schools-that-advan.html


Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience -- CS Lewis

Colin Sheehan

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #38 on: May 19, 2014, 09:42:10 AM »
Here's one biased point of view that believes the best choice (certainly worthy of debate) is Yale. Here's a variety of reasons why you would want to attend yourself (if you could do it over again) or send your son or daughter to play for the programs:

1. True amateur athletics. Academics are the top priority, ahead of golf. Students athletes are not given any special treatment or compromised expectations.

2. Opportunity to receive world class education with diverse and interesting classmates from every state in the country and along with many countries from around the world.

3. Opportunity to play the Ray Tompkins Memorial on a daily basis, including fall and spring home events.

4. Fall season ends in mid-October around the time of mid-terms. Students dedicate the remainder of that semester to academics. Spring season doesn't begin until spring break in March so students have the first half of the spring semester to dedicate exclusively to academics.

5. Only program in US to make a quadrennial trip to the UK to play matches against the university golf teams of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews and Edinburgh along with fixtures with many other clubs like Royal Cinque Ports among others.

6. Play the top courses in the US and the UK. See below.

7. Team achieves one of the highest gpa in college golf. Last year they had a 3.64. One of half-dozen teams to break the 3.5 threshold. Team also has an average of two Academic All-Americans each year. (Award only eligible to juniors and seniors.)

8. 100% graduation rate for the program. Following graduation, players move on to variety of options, including med school, law school, Wall Street, Washington DC, etc....even pursuit of professional golf.
 
9. Fantastic indoor facility with Trackman.

10. Opportunity to represent one of the oldest and most decorated program in college golf history that remains one of the best teams in the northeast. While not in the peer group of national championship contenders, the team is capable of very high benchmarks, and finished the 2014 season ranked 72 in the country ahead of Florida, Duke and Chapel Hill among others. Notable recent results included -20 at St. John's event at Bethpage Red, -17 at Princeton Invitational, -8 at Macdonald Cup.

Today is graduation for the seniors. Here's a list of some of the courses they have played since they began as freshmen: Augusta National, Pine Valley, Merion, Seminole, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, National Golf Links of America, St. Andrews Old Course, Turnberry, Royal St. Georges, Muirfield, Kingsbarns, North Berwick, Prestwick, Royal Worlington, Rye (England), Swinley Forest, Elie, Riviera, Bel Air, Maidstone, The Bridge, Los Angeles Country Club, Newport, Baltusrol, Torrey Pines, Quaker Ridge, Stanwich, Piping Rock, Caves Valley, Aronimink, The Creek, Mountain Lake, Chechessee Creek, Cherokee Plantation, The Dunes Club, Sakonnet, Yeamans Hall, Friar's Head, Peachtree, Sebonack, Rancho Santa Fe, Century, Old Oaks, Medalist, Indian Creek, Palmetto, Streamsong Blue & Red, and more.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2014, 10:48:05 PM by Colin Sheehan »

Dustin Ferrell

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #39 on: May 19, 2014, 11:39:09 AM »
Great topic!  I never realized how great it would be to be a top amature getting your pic of top programs.  I played football in college, and in hindsight...I should have started golfing way earlier in life (I blame you Dad! / jk).

A couple of the golfing highlights of my life was getting to play Cypress Pt. a few years back along with playing Riviera, and LACC on another trip.  On those trips, Stanford teed off right after us at Cypress, I saw USC at Riviera, and saw UCLA at LACC.  I guess I didn't realize that these programs got to play those tracks regularly so I was pretty impressed.  

That being said...I've read UGA gets a round at Augusta and If I were a recruit, a southern climate would be a must.  

Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #40 on: May 19, 2014, 11:46:47 AM »
Particularly interesting topic for me as we (West Virginia) will be announcing the hire of the golf coach in the next day or two. The coach, an assistant in the SEC will resurrect a program that was on the shelf for 33 years. It will be a tough place to field a competitive team but I think we have some solid support behind the program so we shall see how it goes.

Greg Tallman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #41 on: May 19, 2014, 12:50:38 PM »
Particularly interesting topic for me as we (West Virginia) will be announcing the hire of the golf coach in the next day or two. The coach, an assistant in the SEC will resurrect a program that was on the shelf for 33 years. It will be a tough place to field a competitive team but I think we have some solid support behind the program so we shall see how it goes.

Mike McGraw? If so, very VERY strong hire.

We were hoping for MM but he turned down the position and is expected to become the next HC at Florida from what I can gather.

I chatted with the AAD back in November and urged them to sweeten the deal for a guy like McGraw as he has recruiting cred beyond what anyone else being considered could bring. My argument was that even is he only stayed 3-4 years he would likely have the program well ahead of schedule upon departure. Had the Florida job not come open I believe we would have gotten him to come to Morgantown.

Russ Arbuthnot

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #42 on: May 19, 2014, 01:04:40 PM »
Based on the talent coming out of there, I'd say Georgia. Bubba, Harris English, Patrick Reed (transfered to Augusta St. after first two years), Brendan Todd, Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Hudson Swafford, and now Garber. I don't think you can underestimate the daily exposure to high levels of talent / competition, and good coaching.

Jason Kang

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #43 on: May 20, 2014, 10:16:16 PM »
Can't speak for big-time juniors with professional aspirations.  However, for the rest, below is what I would strive for, based on my observations of friends' and acquaintances' experiences.

For Americans without serious professional aspirations
Yale.  Do an exchange year at Oxbridge and don't come home til you've made the OCGS.

For UK boys:
Oxbridge (OCGS) or St Andrews (Bobby Jones exchange with Emory).  Gordon, if you're reading this, many thanks for the tour of the RAC.  AH sends his regards as well.

I trust that one can enjoy a great golfing experience at any school, but overall, I guess what I'm trying to say is:
Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, by hook or by crook.





Here's one biased point of view that believes the best choice (certainly worthy of debate) is Yale. Here's a variety of reasons why you would want to attend yourself (if you could do it over again) or send your son or daughter to play for the programs:

1. Academics are the top priority, ahead of golf. Students athletes are not given any special treatment.

2. Opportunity to receive world class education with diverse and interesting classmates from every state in the country and plenty of countries around the world.

3. Opportunity to play the Ray Tompkins Memorial on a daily basis, including fall and spring home events.

4. Fall season ends in mid-October around the time of mid-terms. Students dedicate the remainder of that semester to academics. Spring season doesn't begin until spring break in March so students have the first half of the spring semester to dedicate exclusively to academics.

5. Only program in US to make a quadrennial trip to the UK to play matches against the university golf teams of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews and Edinburgh along with fixtures with many other clubs like Royal Cinque Ports among others.

6. Play the top courses in the world. See below.

7. Team achieves one of the highest gpa in college golf. Last year they had a 3.64. One of half-dozen teams to break the 3.5 threshold. Team also has two or three Academic All-Americans each year.

8. 100% graduation rate for the program. Following graduation, players move on to variety of options, including med school, law school, wall street, Washington DC, etc.
 
9. Fantastic indoor facility with Trackman.

10. Opportunity to represent one of the oldest and most decorated program in college golf history. While not contenders for a national championship these days, this past year the players finished ranked 72 in the country ahead of Florida, Duke and Chapel Hill among others. Still capable of playing to very high standard: Team had -20 at St. John's even at Bethpage Red, -17 at Princeton Invitational, -8 at Macdonald Cup.

Today is graduation for the seniors. Here's a list of some of the courses they have played since they began as freshmen: Augusta National, Pine Valley, Merion, Seminole, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, National Golf Links of America, St. Andrews Old Course, Turnberry, Royal St. Georges, Muirfield, Kingsbarns, North Berwick, Prestwick, Royal Worlington, Rye (England), Swinley Forest, Elie, Riviera, Bel Air, Maidstone, The Bridge, Los Angeles Country Club, Newport, Baltusrol, Torrey Pines, Quaker Ridge, Stanwich, Piping Rock, Caves Valley, Aronimink, The Creek, Mountain Lake, Chechessee Creek, Cherokee Plantation, The Dunes Club, Sakonnet, Yeamans Hall, Friar's Head, Peachtree, Sebonack, Rancho Santa Fe, Century, Old Oaks, Medalist, Indian Creek, Palmetto, Streamsong Blue & Red, and more.

Niall Hay

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #44 on: May 20, 2014, 10:28:13 PM »
1.  Yale
2.  Michigan

1) Ohio State
2) Stanford
3) Yale
4) Michigan
5) Oklahoma State

Niall Hay

  • Karma: +0/-0

Mike Sweeney

Re: College Golf - Where would you play?
« Reply #46 on: May 20, 2014, 11:00:08 PM »
Here's one biased point of view that believes the best choice (certainly worthy of debate) is Yale. Here's a variety of reasons why you would want to attend yourself (if you could do it over again) or send your son or daughter to play for the programs:

1. True amateur athletics. Academics are the top priority, ahead of golf. Students athletes are not given any special treatment or compromised expectations.

2. Opportunity to receive world class education with diverse and interesting classmates from every state in the country and along with many countries from around the world.

3. Opportunity to play the Ray Tompkins Memorial on a daily basis, including fall and spring home events.

4. Fall season ends in mid-October around the time of mid-terms. Students dedicate the remainder of that semester to academics. Spring season doesn't begin until spring break in March so students have the first half of the spring semester to dedicate exclusively to academics.

5. Only program in US to make a quadrennial trip to the UK to play matches against the university golf teams of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews and Edinburgh along with fixtures with many other clubs like Royal Cinque Ports among others.

6. Play the top courses in the US and the UK. See below.

7. Team achieves one of the highest gpa in college golf. Last year they had a 3.64. One of half-dozen teams to break the 3.5 threshold. Team also has an average of two Academic All-Americans each year. (Award only eligible to juniors and seniors.)

8. 100% graduation rate for the program. Following graduation, players move on to variety of options, including med school, law school, Wall Street, Washington DC, etc....even pursuit of professional golf.
 
9. Fantastic indoor facility with Trackman.

10. Opportunity to represent one of the oldest and most decorated program in college golf history that remains one of the best teams in the northeast. While not in the peer group of national championship contenders, the team is capable of very high benchmarks, and finished the 2014 season ranked 72 in the country ahead of Florida, Duke and Chapel Hill among others. Notable recent results included -20 at St. John's event at Bethpage Red, -17 at Princeton Invitational, -8 at Macdonald Cup.

Today is graduation for the seniors. Here's a list of some of the courses they have played since they began as freshmen: Augusta National, Pine Valley, Merion, Seminole, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, National Golf Links of America, St. Andrews Old Course, Turnberry, Royal St. Georges, Muirfield, Kingsbarns, North Berwick, Prestwick, Royal Worlington, Rye (England), Swinley Forest, Elie, Riviera, Bel Air, Maidstone, The Bridge, Los Angeles Country Club, Newport, Baltusrol, Torrey Pines, Quaker Ridge, Stanwich, Piping Rock, Caves Valley, Aronimink, The Creek, Mountain Lake, Chechessee Creek, Cherokee Plantation, The Dunes Club, Sakonnet, Yeamans Hall, Friar's Head, Peachtree, Sebonack, Rancho Santa Fe, Century, Old Oaks, Medalist, Indian Creek, Palmetto, Streamsong Blue & Red, and more.

Colin,

I just got back from a parent party for my son's senior class from high school, and I complimented one of the Mom's how great it is that her son got into Yale. Great kid at a great school.

As a graduate of two fancy schools in the Northeast who married a classmate, I sometimes wonder about the road not taken :)






Go Gators!  :D