If this week has taught us anything, it’s that female college athletes are capable of amazing and inspiring things. It also has reminded us that the men who run the NCAA could screw up a one-car parade.
Let’s start with the good. On Monday, history was made in Ormond Beach, Florida, when 22-year-old Amy Bockerstette became the first person with Down Syndrome to compete in a college championship in any sport. Bockerstette first burst into the public consciousness in February 2019 when she played the 16th hole of TPC Scottsdale with Gary Woodland during a practice round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Bockerstette got up and down from the bunker for par, saying to herself, “I got this.” Video of that moment received millions of views and Bockerstette’s story was picked up around the world.
At 11:50 on Monday at Plantation Bay Golf Club, the third-year player for Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona, teed off in the National Junior College Athletic Association Championship in front of a much smaller crowd. She ran to the tee after being announced and hit a drive up the right side of the 10th fairway, launching herself further into history and inspiring us all.
GO PUMAS!🥰 pic.twitter.com/LSuK1SOAH8
— Puma Athletics (@PVCCPumas) May 10, 2021
That should have been the feel-good college golf story of the week, the thing that left everyone nodding and smiling and looking forward to the two-week televised stretch of NCAA Championship golf to come.
Then, as if on cue, fools rushed in.
All women’s NCAA regional championships were contested early this week. It was supposed to be a deep breath, a “whew” moment after having all spring sports canceled in 2020 and many fall golf schedules canceled due to COVID-19. This was a chance to reset, to get back to normal.
So, off they went, 384 competitors to four sites – Louisville, Kentucky; Stanford, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana – with the top six teams and three individuals (not on qualifying teams) from each site advancing to the finals at Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona May 21-26.
Yes, there were questions about which teams did and did not get selected. When conferences debated canceling fall competition, the NCAA assured everyone that such decisions would not be held against them. Safety first, they all said. But, of course, those teams that didn’t play in the fall were penalized. One Division II school that was ranked 14th in the country didn’t get a postseason bid because of a canceled fall season and missing one event in the spring because of a positive COVID-19 test.
But never mind all that. With regionals underway, college golf was back. Time to put on the school colors and root for your favorite team. No more administrative controversies. Just on-course drama. Until, lo and behold, a couple of days of rain led to the most extraordinary, extreme, and all-too-expected buffoonery in recent NCAA golf history.
There were screams and tears all captured on video. Players went to their knees. Coaches stood in stunned silence.
On Wednesday, the Baton Rouge event was canceled. Teams were sent home without hitting a single shot. The top six seeds coming into the event, which included host school LSU, Ole Miss, Baylor, Oregon, Maryland and Alabama, advanced without playing a hole.
NCAA committee representative Brad Hurlbut walked down the stairs outside the LSU University Club on Wednesday and said, “Even though the course is playable, it’s not playable at a championship level. Therefore, the top six teams that were seeded will advance, along with the top three individuals that were not on those six teams.”
There were screams and tears all captured on video. Players went to their knees. Coaches stood in stunned silence. For the second year in a row, college athletes had their championship dreams, the moments they had been working for since they were young junior golfers, snatched away from them without ever hitting a shot.
“The thing is, no coaches were consulted,” Houston women’s coach Gerrod Chadwell told me on Thursday morning as he was unpacking. “The first time the coaches were together (with the committee) was when you saw that announcement from the stairs. It was complete incompetence.”
The NCAA put out a formal statement late on Wednesday that read: “The NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee regrets that the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships regional in Baton Rouge could not be conducted as scheduled this week. The University Club has taken on over 7 inches of rain in the past several days. The Division I Women’s Golf Committee, NCAA staff and the Games Committee in Baton Rouge have been in constant communication throughout the past several days about the course conditions that have led to this unprecedented and most difficult decision.”
As is always the case with NCAA statements, the devil was in the details. That seven inches of rain, indeed, came over “several days.” But Sunday, the day all the teams played practice rounds, was chamber-of-commerce beautiful. It poured on Monday but, according to Mississippi State coach Charlie Ewing, “by 1 p.m. on Monday, it was 80 degrees and sun-shining.”
Tuesday, the rain stopped by 11 a.m. And Wednesday, according to Chadwell, “After 8 a.m. when we arrived at the course, there was no rain at all.”
Coaches walked the golf course on Tuesday and Wednesday and saw no reason that golf wasn’t being played. Sure, bunkers had standing water and the fairways were wet, but the lack of effort to squeegee or pump water from low-lying areas astonished almost everyone.
“When I was walking around the corner to the range on Wednesday, I saw a (maintenance crew member) trimming the trees next to the pool house,” Chadwell said.
The idea that a playable golf course was not played seemed inconceivable. According to Ewing, “there were some possibilities to get out in front of (the weather). It’s disappointing that some of the ideas (presented) weren’t taken advantage of. There were ideas early in the week that would have presented an opportunity to get in at least 36 holes.
“Then the committee said the golf course was playable. So, it’s really, really hard to accept that the golf course was playable, but no golf was played. That’s what’s most frustrating and hard to swallow, really.”
So here it is, the LSU regionals at Baton Rouge has been cancelled due to the course being “PLAYABLE BUT NOT AT A CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL”!!!!! Disgraceful how this whole week has been handled!!!! Every player worked so hard for this week and this is how we are treated!!! SHAMEFUL!!! pic.twitter.com/Z8FGrfYKLN
— Sara Byrne (@sarabyrne01) May 12, 2021
When Chadwell was asked if he thought the NCAA would have canceled a men’s regional championship under the same circumstances he said: “No chance. None.”
That is the prevailing view among almost everyone who follows the college game.
Even some professional tour players chimed in. Max Homa called the Baton Rouge cancelation, “One of the dumber things I’ve seen.” Then Homa wrote on Twitter, “Maybe ask the women if they want to play instead of making the decision for them. Sorry to all but especially to the seniors. You deserve better.”
“If we couldn’t go past Wednesday (and into Thursday or Friday), you’re bound to do everything you can to get in as many holes as possible,” Chadwell said. “You think if this was the USGA we wouldn’t have been out there on Monday as long as it took, even if we just got one hole in? You know we would have. That is your job as a committee. But there was zero effort. Zero.
“Whether it’s three holes on Monday, 12 on Tuesday and as many as you could on Wednesday, you do whatever it takes.”
This wasn’t a pop-up shower. Rain had been forecast for days. “We packed for it,” Chadwell said. “We knew it was coming.” Also, during a meeting at 4 p.m. on Sunday, coaches were informed that if at least 18 holes were not played, the top-six seeds would advance. “If you had the foresight to inform us of that, why wasn’t there any foresight into getting the golf course ready or even playing some golf on Sunday?” Chadwell asked rhetorically. “We could have walked (the course) and then played on Sunday or we could have played a practice round Sunday morning in a shotgun start and played a tournament round Sunday afternoon in a shotgun start. Why not have a plan in place?”
Sports fans may remember that the 2008 SEC basketball championship at the Georgia Dome was halted when a EFF5 tornado hit the building at 9:40 p.m. causing $1.8 million in damage to the stadium and killing one person. But within 24 hours, conference officials had moved the tournament to Georgia Tech’s arena. Play continued unabated.
“In my opinion, there were no intentions of us playing. It was the biggest middle finger I’ve ever seen.” – Gerrod Chadwell
The fact that no golf was played in Baton Rouge seems incompetent at best.
“Wednesday was a complete joke,” Chadwell said. “That (weather) system dissipated and went to the south of us and we were just sitting there at 10, warmed up and ready to go. In my opinion, there were no intentions of us playing. It was the biggest middle finger I’ve ever seen.
“We host a tournament every year,” Chadwell continued. “We go to tournaments all the time. We see coaches and staff exhaust themselves to do right by every player in the field. We hosted a tournament this year after having no electricity or running water for a week. The clubhouse was a wreck. But we got food in, we got the course as ready as possible and we played 54 holes on greens that we weren’t sure were dead or alive.
“You do what it takes. We lost two months of our season last year. We lost our fall. You make accommodations. You do what you can. The Walker Cup hasn’t had substitutions in 100 years, but they did it this year, because you make whatever adjustments are necessary to make it happen, to hold the event.
“Now, two years in a row, I’ve had to have conversations in the parking lot (with seniors) without hitting a shot.”
Adding insult to unimaginable injury, at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, a chipper young assistant pro answered the phone at the LSU University Club and told me that the golf course was open for play. “The first group went out about 7:45,” he said.
“I think we could have legitimately played 36 holes, maybe 54,” Chadwell said. “We certainly could have played 18.
“I cannot, for the life of me, believe that I’m sitting at home. I just unpacked my bag and I still can’t believe it.”