Post by Richie3Jack on May 28, 2015 16:04:47 GMT -5
Stanford vs. Baylor.
Baylor is coached by a guy I was teammates with at CCU (Jay Goble) and was the underdog team while Stanford was one of the top powerhouse teams led by Mariah Stackhouse, who was a member at the golf club I belonged to in Atlanta.
Baylor has 3 freshman and didn't play all that well in the stroke play competition, but rallied hard in the match play portion and upended Duke with a win by a freshman over a Duke senior in 24 holes (there are no halved matches).
That led to the final match play portion at the Concessions Resort in Bradenton. Goble, who worked at the Leadbetter Academy in Bradenton for a while probably has tremendous course knowledge there. Personally, I thought the course was borderline ridiculous.
Anyway, I would highly suggest to try and find a recording of this match if you can. It was flat-out phenomenal. Spoilers below.
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Goble went to CCU for a year and got jerked around the by coach. All I can say is he can tell you the horror stories of how some college golf coaches act. He transferred to UNC-Charlotte and ended up marrying a girl that was good friends with my old college roommate. It doesn't surprise me he has had success because he knows golf well and really communicates well with young female golfers. I don't think I would quite have the patience for that.
Stackhouse was the phenom out of Atlanta. Her own high school held some special day for her once with Christina Kim showing up and GMA and ESPN being there. She used to compete with Sloan Shanahan who now plays for Clemson. A lot of people thought Sloan was better, but I generally believe that Mariah was better although I think Sloan was a better athlete. Either way, I actually thought Rachel Dai (now a senior in high school, heading to Penn) was more talented and had a better swing than both of them. Mariah's dad is a cop and wanted to get her into tennis, but she gravitated towards golf and the company that owns the golf courses I used to belong to paid for her membership, lessons and I believe some travel to events.
I was surprised and disappointed to see that Mariah has fallen to 27th in the World Amateur Rankings. Hayley Davis has a really good swing. Some things I would like to see tweaked a little, but it was no surprise to me that she hit it longer than Mariah. Unfortunately, I think that lack of length may do Mariah in when she goes pro. I don't recall her ever being thought of as short off the tee when she was in high school, but her swing doesn't look like it has transformed much either. IIRC, she works with an instructor out of Atlanta Athletic Club and he's not a Leadbetter guy.
Anyway, I had read about how difficult they were making Concessions before the event. Put it this way, the greens looked slicker than GREASED OWL SHIT. Personally, I would not care as long as it made for exciting golf. But, the 13th hole with that pin placement was horseshit. Anytime you hit the middle of the green and it not only spins off the green, but is now 25 yards off the green...there's just something wrong about that. I have never seen a match play where both players do not hit the green and 1 player submits simply because they cannot get the ball on the green. I would have liked to have seen if Davis could have chipped her ball onto the green, but we may still be here if Stackhouse insisted in playing out the hole.
Of course the big story is the shot by Davis on 16. To me, that's about as compelling as it gets. Sometimes people make miraculous shots, but in reality make a bad decision and just get lucky. But, I think Davis' decision was sound since it was match play. The problem I would have hitting that shot is I bet her feet were continuing to sink into the ground and of course...ALLIGATORS.
For Stackhouse, I debated that decision to go for the middle of the green back and forth. I think Stackhouse had the shot if she just took a 'decent' swing at it. But, it's match play and you don't want to make bogey and give up the hole when your opponent is in jail. It's one of the things I hate about golf is where a golfer starts to make decisions based on what the perception *will* *be* after they hit the shot instead of playing the best odds for them. It's still different in match play, but if this was stroke play and it was down to Davis and Stackhouse, I think the odds are better to play the shot you should be able to instead of playing safe.
However, as great of a shot that Davis hit on #16, she really hit a weak shot on her 2nd to 17. She out-drove Stackhouse by a good margin. Stackhouse actually got a bit lucky as she didn't take a good swing on that drive. And Davis had what looked like a 5-iron into the green and missed the green. Then Stackhouse hit that clutch putt on 18 to square the match.
Stackhouse was the perfect player to serve as the anchor here. I thought it was incredibly perceptive of her when she said that she treated it from the onset that it was going to come down to her match. But, she's a big name player that has played in some big events and even though she was not the #1 player at Stanford, she was the perfect person for the anchor spot. However, I think at this point Davis will make the better pro.
I have to say, I'm really starting to love this as an event regardless of the fact it is golf. Lots of high drama and athletes dying to win.
3JACK
Baylor is coached by a guy I was teammates with at CCU (Jay Goble) and was the underdog team while Stanford was one of the top powerhouse teams led by Mariah Stackhouse, who was a member at the golf club I belonged to in Atlanta.
Baylor has 3 freshman and didn't play all that well in the stroke play competition, but rallied hard in the match play portion and upended Duke with a win by a freshman over a Duke senior in 24 holes (there are no halved matches).
That led to the final match play portion at the Concessions Resort in Bradenton. Goble, who worked at the Leadbetter Academy in Bradenton for a while probably has tremendous course knowledge there. Personally, I thought the course was borderline ridiculous.
Anyway, I would highly suggest to try and find a recording of this match if you can. It was flat-out phenomenal. Spoilers below.
*************************************
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Goble went to CCU for a year and got jerked around the by coach. All I can say is he can tell you the horror stories of how some college golf coaches act. He transferred to UNC-Charlotte and ended up marrying a girl that was good friends with my old college roommate. It doesn't surprise me he has had success because he knows golf well and really communicates well with young female golfers. I don't think I would quite have the patience for that.
Stackhouse was the phenom out of Atlanta. Her own high school held some special day for her once with Christina Kim showing up and GMA and ESPN being there. She used to compete with Sloan Shanahan who now plays for Clemson. A lot of people thought Sloan was better, but I generally believe that Mariah was better although I think Sloan was a better athlete. Either way, I actually thought Rachel Dai (now a senior in high school, heading to Penn) was more talented and had a better swing than both of them. Mariah's dad is a cop and wanted to get her into tennis, but she gravitated towards golf and the company that owns the golf courses I used to belong to paid for her membership, lessons and I believe some travel to events.
I was surprised and disappointed to see that Mariah has fallen to 27th in the World Amateur Rankings. Hayley Davis has a really good swing. Some things I would like to see tweaked a little, but it was no surprise to me that she hit it longer than Mariah. Unfortunately, I think that lack of length may do Mariah in when she goes pro. I don't recall her ever being thought of as short off the tee when she was in high school, but her swing doesn't look like it has transformed much either. IIRC, she works with an instructor out of Atlanta Athletic Club and he's not a Leadbetter guy.
Anyway, I had read about how difficult they were making Concessions before the event. Put it this way, the greens looked slicker than GREASED OWL SHIT. Personally, I would not care as long as it made for exciting golf. But, the 13th hole with that pin placement was horseshit. Anytime you hit the middle of the green and it not only spins off the green, but is now 25 yards off the green...there's just something wrong about that. I have never seen a match play where both players do not hit the green and 1 player submits simply because they cannot get the ball on the green. I would have liked to have seen if Davis could have chipped her ball onto the green, but we may still be here if Stackhouse insisted in playing out the hole.
Of course the big story is the shot by Davis on 16. To me, that's about as compelling as it gets. Sometimes people make miraculous shots, but in reality make a bad decision and just get lucky. But, I think Davis' decision was sound since it was match play. The problem I would have hitting that shot is I bet her feet were continuing to sink into the ground and of course...ALLIGATORS.
For Stackhouse, I debated that decision to go for the middle of the green back and forth. I think Stackhouse had the shot if she just took a 'decent' swing at it. But, it's match play and you don't want to make bogey and give up the hole when your opponent is in jail. It's one of the things I hate about golf is where a golfer starts to make decisions based on what the perception *will* *be* after they hit the shot instead of playing the best odds for them. It's still different in match play, but if this was stroke play and it was down to Davis and Stackhouse, I think the odds are better to play the shot you should be able to instead of playing safe.
However, as great of a shot that Davis hit on #16, she really hit a weak shot on her 2nd to 17. She out-drove Stackhouse by a good margin. Stackhouse actually got a bit lucky as she didn't take a good swing on that drive. And Davis had what looked like a 5-iron into the green and missed the green. Then Stackhouse hit that clutch putt on 18 to square the match.
Stackhouse was the perfect player to serve as the anchor here. I thought it was incredibly perceptive of her when she said that she treated it from the onset that it was going to come down to her match. But, she's a big name player that has played in some big events and even though she was not the #1 player at Stanford, she was the perfect person for the anchor spot. However, I think at this point Davis will make the better pro.
I have to say, I'm really starting to love this as an event regardless of the fact it is golf. Lots of high drama and athletes dying to win.
3JACK
