When It Starts Going Bad...

It's happened to all of us. We've got a good round going but something goes wrong. Suddenly it all goes spinning wildly out of control and all we can do is panic as the round goes to hell.

That's what happened to Dylan Perry in the finals of the British Amateur on Saturday. Although Harry Ellis played a steady back nine, Perry had roughly five chances to put Ellis away but simply couldn't do it.



Here's the deal: When they stepped onto the 34th tee, Perry was three up with three to play. I couldn't find the scorecards online but, as best I can tell, Perry went bogey-bogey-bogey in regulation, then bogey-double to lose on the 38th hole. On those same holes Ellis made five pars... and walked away with the British Amateur trophy.

I'm not going to criticize Dylan Perry. As I said, we've all been there, and Perry is just 22 years old and was trying to become only the third Australian to ever win this title. I agree with Golf Digest's article when they said "...he handled what had to have been a tough defeat with a grace beyond his tender years." As Perry said (also quoted in Golfweek's article):

“I’m pretty bummed, but at the end of the day you’ve got to take the positives out of the week. I played well all day, and down the stretch that’s what pressure does to some people. It just wasn’t meant to be, but congratulations to Harry. He played well down the stretch so good on him.”

Hopefully he'll be able to put this behind him quickly and get some more positive results under his belt. Because even though he lost, a lot of players would have been thrilled just to be runner-up in the British Amateur.

When it starts going bad, sometimes you just suck it up and remember that life goes on. That's something we all need to remember.

Just a Reminder about the East Lake Cup (Video)

Just a reminder that the match play portion of the East Lake Cup starts today at 3pm ET on GC, with a one-hour Pre-Game Show starting at 2pm ET.



Today they play the semi-finals. For the men, Vanderbilt plays Oregon and Texas plays Illinois. For the women, Stanford will play Washington (a rematch of the NCAA Finals) and Duke will play UCLA. I've included a GC video of the pairings, in case you want the details before you watch.


And in case you didn't hear, Scottie Scheffler and Andrea Lee won the men's and women's individual titles on Monday. GC will be rerunning some of Monday's coverage today starting at 11am ET.

I know a lot of you aren't interested in the college teams, but this is great if you want to see some good match play.

The Ducks Paddle Their Way to Victory

Congrats to the University of Oregon Ducks on their victory in the NCAA Division 1 Men’s National Championship! Look at the photo -- do you think Oregon Coach (and former PGA Tour player) Casey Martin is a bit excited?



This is the first-ever golf championship for the Ducks, who join the University of Washington women as first-time winners. (Remember, the Huskies took the women's title last week.) And the Ducks doubled up when their top player, Aaron Wise, won the Individual title on Monday -- another first for the school.

Sometimes fairy tales do come true...

The photo came from this page at golfchannel.com.

A Big Howl for the Huskies' Victory!

Today is just a shout-out to the Washington Huskies for winning the NCAA Women's National Golf Championship for the very first time in the school's history. Way to go, gals!



And also a late shout-out to Duke freshman Virginia Elena Carta, who won the 2016 NCAA Individual title on Monday. (Duke, of course, is a college here in North Carolina.)

The photo came from the Huskies' women's golf page.

Planning a Golf Outing or Charity Event

I'm not going to pretend that this post will appeal to most of you... but for those of you who need it, it could be a lifesaver.

Golf Digest has just posted a guide on how to organize and host a golf outing, be it just a fun event or a full-blown charity event. I knew such guides existed but I'd never seen one before, and this one breaks things down into small manageable steps.



For example, you may not realize that most of the money for a charity event comes not from entrance fees but from sponsors. This guide tells you some of the basic ways to attract sponsors and how they create a cash stream for an event.

It gives you some tips on how many people you need to have on your event-running team and what sort of tasks they should do to make sure the event runs smoothly and successfully.

The guide even gives you some direction on how to choose a suitable golf course and a tournament format that will match the skill levels of your intended attendees.

Clearly a single article like this won't tell you everything you need to know in order to run a golf event like an experienced pro. But it will point you in the right direction and give you an overview of what you're getting yourself into. Just having a clear vision of what you'll be facing might make the difference between a successful event and a disaster.

By all means, choose to make your event successful and read this guide!

And LSU Takes the Men's Title

Last week Stanford's women locked up their NCAA tournament. This week the men of Louisiana State University finished off their improbable run to victory just as impressively.



This is a team that barely made the match play portion of the event but cruised through the quarters and semis, and taking the trophy by winning the finals 4-1 over the USC Trojans.

Ben Taylor of the Tigers sealed the deal when he went eagle-par on the last two holes to come from behind and win his match against Bobby Gojuangco 1up. You can see the NCAA's wrap-up at this link to ncaa.com but you can also see that beautiful second shot at the par-5 17th in this video from GC. (The photo above is from that post as well.)



And with that the NCAA golf season ends. The Stanford women won for the first time in their school's history while the LSU men won for the first time in 60 years. I don't know if that counts as parity but it should certainly give every school program some hope going forward.

Upsets at the Men's NCAA Championship

The Women's NCAA Championship last week dealt out plenty of drama. The men dealt out upsets.

After SMU's Bryson DeChambeau won the men's individual title on Monday, almost everybody expected #1 seed Illinois to do some serious damage in the team match play. But it was not to be; the #5 USC Trojans knocked them out in the semifinals, joining the #7 LSU Tigers who ousted #3 Georgia.

While a 5th seed playing a 7th seed for the championship may sound like a bit of a letdown, bear in mind that #5 USC beat the first and fourth seeds while #7 LSU beat the 2nd and 3rd seeds... and each beat their opponents pretty soundly. LSU lost only 2 of the 10 matches while USC lost only 1 match! And just to make things worse, some of them were lopsided wins, like LSU's Zach Wright winning 7&6 over Georgia's Mookie DeMoss.

Here's GC's preview of the final round (also embedded below). I think it's hard to pick a winner in today's finals, although I'm giving the edge to LSU. Experience is not a factor here; the Tigers haven't been to the finals in 60 years and the Trojans have never been.



If you missed them, you can get the Tuesday highlights from this video at ncaa.com. GC will also be re-airing the Tuesday matches starting at 9:30am ET today.

The final round will be televised on GC starting with the Pre-Game Show at 1pm ET. The "official" coverage (we all know they'll be showing bits and pieces during the Pre-Game) starts at 3pm ET.

Stanford Takes the Prize

Yesterday I wondered if the finals of the NCAA Women's Golf could possibly match up to Tuesday's play.



As it turned out, they did. It all came down to the last match between Stanford's star Mariah Stackhouse and Baylor's star Hayley Davis. The two went after each other, making some amazing shots on their way to extra holes. Here's the wrap-up video from GC. It includes some of the big shots, including the almost miraculous shot Davis made from the hazard on 16:



It was a rough loss for Baylor, yet this is a young team whose previous best finish was 16th. Clearly they'll have a lot to be proud of, once they get over the immediate heartbreak of the loss.

One last bit of business: The Marathon LPGA Classic (formerly known as the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic) awarded two spots in their event. One went to the winner of the stroke play portion of the event; that went to Alabama's Emma Talley. The other went to one member of the winning team; Stanford decided that would go to junior Lauren Kim.

Now the men take over at Concession Golf Club -- a practice round Thursday, four days of stroke play and then two days of match play, just like the women. We'll see how they handle this tricky track!

The photo came from this article at golfchannel.com. There's also a fuller explanation of some of the great shots the two stars hit in their epic match.

How Much Better Can the Finals Be?

I'm talking about the NCAA Women's Golf Division 1 Finals today, of course. Baylor and Stanford will face off today in match play to determine the winner.

But it's hard to believe it could be much better than the semis on Tuesday.



Stanford finished off USC in fairly standard fashion... that is, if you consider falling way behind at the start and rallying in the final holes to win in a very decisive manner "fairly standard." Stanford has never won a national championship; their best finish is a runner-up in 2001.

Baylor drew defending champion Duke... and it all came down to the match between Duke's Lisa Maguire and Baylor's Lauren Whyte.

You need to understand: In the 4-day stroke play portion of the event that determined the eight match play teams, 84 players contended. Maguire and Whyte finished 83 and 84, respectively.

But those two players went 24 holes and played some of the most amazing recovery shots you'll see in any competition. Both women did themselves (and their schools) proud as Whyte sealed the deal for Baylor, a fairly young program whose players have never finished better than 16th in three appearances.

If Tuesday's matches were any indication, today's finals should be fantastic. GC is carrying the coverage live. Pre-game starts at 1pm ET and the official coverage begins at 3pm ET. And in case you missed the semi-finals, it looks like GC will re-air those at 9:30am ET, before the live coverage. Check it out if you missed it!

Lucy Li Is Back in the News

And so is Kathleen Scavo, the teenager that Li beat out for a spot at the 2014 US Women's Open. According to Golfweek, the two have teamed up and qualified for the USGA's inaugural US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball next month. How cool is that?



The article says the two former competitors medaled at Pasatiempo Golf Club on March 26, making them one of four teams to advance from that site. There will be 64 teams total, to be finalized this coming Monday.

When the article calls this "a delightful boost" to the event, I have to agree. This new USGA tournament has been somewhat under the radar up to this point, but Li should bring a certain amount of recognition to the event after charming the media at last year's Open.

And the teammates' ages -- 12 and 17 -- will also be somewhat newsworthy to media outlets outside of golf, although they aren't the youngest team to qualify so far. That honor belongs to a couple of 13-year-olds. (Read the article if you want the details!)

I just hope the USGA makes sure there's plenty of ice cream at the event. We all know how Lucy likes her ice cream!

About Those Amateurs Down in Argentina

Most of you are aware that the inaugural Latin America Amateur Championship-- the joint effort of the Masters Committee, the USGA, and the R&A -- is being played this week in Argentina. If nothing else, you've seen Rich Lerner's live reports during Morning Drive.

What you may NOT be aware of is that -- at least here in America -- ESPN2 has been carrying live coverage of the event. In case you haven't seen any of that, let me bring you up-to-date on what is happening.



The Latin America Amateur Championship was inspired by the success of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and, like the APAC, will award a spot in this year's Masters to the winner. In fact, it awards A LOT of spots:

• 2015 Masters Tournament
• 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship (USGA) 
• 2015 Amateur Championship (R&A)
• Spot in final-stage qualifying for the 2015 U.S. Open
• Spot in final-stage qualifying for The Open 2015

This inaugural version of the event is being played at the Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Next year it will be played on a course affectionately known as "The Teeth of the Dog" at the Casa de Campo Seaside Resort in the Dominican Republic.)

After Round 2, the leader at -8 is Andre Tourinho of Brazil (my friend Paulo in Brazil will be thrilled with that) after shooting 70-68. He's one shot ahead of both Matias Dominguez of Chile and Joaquin Bonjour of Argentina. Many of the players in this event have played at American colleges and Tourinho is no exception; he graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2012. You can read a full summary of Round 2 at this link.

The official website for the event is at this link, and you can find the leaderboards at this link. Also, Bob Harig has done some articles about the event, including this one that will give you some idea of how much Payne and Co. are investing to make this event something special.

And if you want to catch some of the live coverage, here are the times for ESPN's remaining broadcasts:

• Saturday at 10am-noon ET on ESPNEWS
• Sunday at 11am-1pm ET on ESPN2
• Sunday (highlights) at 5-5:30pm ET on ESPN2

(Please note that these times are also good on the WatchESPN app, if you have that.)

Bear in mind that the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship has given us, among others, Hideki Matsuyama who is currently #15 (and moving up) in the OWGR... and that event has only been going since 2009. We could very well be watching some of South America's future stars this week.