I was in Germany last fall when he shot a closing 68 on a cold, wet day to lead the USA team to victory in the World Amateur Golf Championship. I was also at Duke a month later when he shot 4 under par to win the very wet and rainy men's fall preview. Some early springs are better than others, but weather is always a factor. Sometimes the whole spring season can be weather plagued. Several years ago, Nebraska coach Larry Romjue told me that every spring event they played that year had at least one round of below freezing wind chill conditions.
Bad weather can be a good friend to a coach.
It gives them a great opportunity to teach mental toughness and help identify this characteristic in their players. In a variety of temperatures, wind chills, and precipitation levels, a number of players have persevered. Ochoa backed it up sharing first-place honors with Duke's Candy Hannemann at 3 under par as Arizona won their own invitational. Kelli Kamimura fulfilled some of her great potential firing back to back 69's for an 11 shot victory as her Washington Huskies blew away the field in the Bay Area Classic. Mike Letzig shot a school-record 17 under par 199 to lead New Mexico to victory in Hawaii at the John Burns Intercollegiate.