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Wake Golf 2024 - Going Back to Cali for the NCAA Title; Women: May 17-22; Men May 24-29

wakephan09 said:
it's not about semantics; it's about perspective

try the positive outlook some time. It makes life so much more pleasant!
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I try to lean optimistic but also realistic. I played several years of team golf and still play some semi-competitive team golf. People can certainly play bad on tough holes without choking, so maybe that's too strong. Obviously, none of us can tell if the pressure of qualifying for nationals on the back 9 had a significant impact in the poor(er) performance.

So we'll just be excited of the clutch performance in the playoff and hope the team shocks the world in AZ.
 
tigerswood said:
I try to lean optimistic but also realistic. I played several years of team golf and still play some semi-competitive team golf. People can certainly play bad on tough holes without choking, so maybe that's too strong. Obviously, none of us can tell if the pressure of qualifying for nationals on the back 9 had a significant impact in the poor(er) performance.

So we'll just be excited of the clutch performance in the playoff and hope the team shocks the world in AZ.
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All good points, and I want to be clear that my response was directed not only to you. Obviously our collective message board vibes have absolutely no effect on what happens on the course or the court or the field or whatever, but I find baffling the expectations of some of our fans that if we don't win every single competition every year we have choked or failed.

You also make a good point about the necessary role of pressure in choking. Pressure comes from all sorts of places and for various reasons and can be mitigated by things like coaching, preparation, and talent. Seems like having one but not all of these sets the stage for a devastating choke

I think I'm more amenable to arguments from specificity than "wake always chokes". With your background in golf, can you speculate why wake golf has struggled historically in certain competitions? Like conference tournaments versus regionals or nationals?

Like, in a cross country, I know for certain one reason wake was for a number of years competitive in the conference and then bombed at regionals and nationals was because the training program was focused on racing 8k. In ncaa xc, men race 8k all season long and then switch for regionals and nationals to 10k. So it made sense that other elite programs started the season slowly and peaked at the right competitions while wake seemed to choke when it mattered
 
In golf it's also a bit different because you can hit one bad shot, or get unlucky and BAM you're staring down the barrel of a double. I have no idea how Kennon made an 8, but it's entirely possible he hit it a bit right and it was a close OB. To me that's not choking, that's just the nature of the sport. We certainly didn't thrive down the stretch by any means, but once again, it's hard to know without being there how the scores were made.

8 was a 237 yard par 3 and 9 was a 605 par 5, and I THINK both were in the toughest 5 holes on the course yesterday.
 
Fans always think their team chokes. Would guess BYU fans feel like their team choked. Every ranked team that failed to make the NCAAs yesterday felt like their team choked. Sports are hard. At the end, there is one winner, and everyone else walks away with at least some level of disappointment.
 
wakephan09 said:
All good points, and I want to be clear that my response was directed not only to you. Obviously our collective message board vibes have absolutely no effect on what happens on the course or the court or the field or whatever, but I find baffling the expectations of some of our fans that if we don't win every single competition every year we have choked or failed.

You also make a good point about the necessary role of pressure in choking. Pressure comes from all sorts of places and for various reasons and can be mitigated by things like coaching, preparation, and talent. Seems like having one but not all of these sets the stage for a devastating choke

I think I'm more amenable to arguments from specificity than "wake always chokes". With your background in golf, can you speculate why wake golf has struggled historically in certain competitions? Like conference tournaments versus regionals or nationals?

Like, in a cross country, I know for certain one reason wake was for a number of years competitive in the conference and then bombed at regionals and nationals was because the training program was focused on racing 8k. In ncaa xc, men race 8k all season long and then switch for regionals and nationals to 10k. So it made sense that other elite programs started the season slowly and peaked at the right competitions while wake seemed to choke when it mattered
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You mean besides the long pants??

I wish I had more insight, but really don't. And for as much as I dislike Jerry Haas, for performance and personal reasons, the role of a college golf coach is usually pretty limited in such an individual sport where a lot of guys have their own swing coaches, sports psychologists, etc. However, I'd be very curious to learn what role Jerry, and Wake's sports psychology team, play in working with our team to help prepare them for the "big moments" that occur later in the season. The pressure involved in contending for a tournament win at Old Town or in Hilton Head is a lot different than contending for a conference or national title.

I also think, historically, Wake has had a lot of good players, but not a lot approached college golf as the first step in their professional career the way guys like Webb and Bill did. It seems like that might have changed some recently with the success of Will, Cam, and Alex.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
yes, the woe is us narrative is annoying and, frankly, dumb

but the inevitability of a rafi defense of [wake, the acc, the athletic department] is also hilarious
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Yep. That narrative is dumb, which is what I pointed out. Every message board, for every team, in every sport thinks their team chokes. Duke bball, Alabama football, etc. So to comment "pulling a Wake" when we won a playoff, following a weekend of over-achieving in all sports we participated in, seemed extra dumb.

And I don't always defend the athletic department. In fact, watch this -- I think Wake should move on from Jerry Haas. Haas has a mediocre-to-poor record at Wake when you consider our history and the amount of money we put into men's golf. Then, when you compare the success of the women's team to the men's team in the past few years, the under-achieving becomes even more clear. I don't think we will move on, because there are a lot of factors that would make that challenging (such as family/legacy dynamics).

Also, if you don't think the ACC is getting screwed across the board in sports, you're not paying attention. Duke softball, with a 47-6 record, ACC champs, ranked #4 in the country, computer ranking of #3, got the 10 seed in the NCAA tournament. No clear explanation given.
 
NCAA Championships have started.
The WF Women are paired with #1 Stanford and #3 S. Carolina. First tee time is noon (PDT).

The Deacs order of players
Brooke Rivers
Mimi Rhodes
Carolina Lopez-Chacarra
Macy Pate
Rachel Kuehn
 
Pilchard said:
Fans always think their team chokes. Would guess BYU fans feel like their team choked. Every ranked team that failed to make the NCAAs yesterday felt like their team choked. Sports are hard. At the end, there is one winner, and everyone else walks away with at least some level of disappointment.
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God’s truth for us Deacon fans.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I mean, we've got our Men's Tennis Team in the Final Four, we're top ten in baseball, our women's golf team is one of the favorites to win the title at the NCAA Champs, and our men's team qualified for their 4th straight NCAA Champs.

It could be worse.
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But if we don't win each and every one of these championship competitions then we must have CHOKED
 
Pilchard said:
NCAA Championships have started.
The WF Women are paired with #1 Stanford and #3 S. Carolina. First tee time is noon (PDT).

The Deacs order of players
Brooke Rivers
Mimi Rhodes
Carolina Lopez-Chacarra
Macy Pate
Rachel Kuehn
Click to expand...
Status?
 
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