Future Appears Bright for Trojan Golf Teams

Its football history is the stuff of legends and its success on the baseball field is unmatched. Now USC appears ready to become one of the nation’s premier golf schools.

The women’s team is ranked third in the nation and poised to make a run at the national championship. The men’s team looks ready to return to the NCAA tournament after two years away, and with the nation’s top recruit coming in next season, a national championship may not be far off.

Those are things Kurt Schuette envisioned when he took over as director of golf five seasons ago.

“When I first came in, USC had all the potential and resources to be a national power,” Schuette said. “It just needed to be organized. I thought it would take three to five years.”

This is his sixth year with the Trojans, and he has already had plenty of success. In his first three seasons, the men’s team, which he coaches, finished fifth, ninth and 14th at the NCAA tournament. The women’s team, under Coach Andrea Gaston, finished seventh in the tournament each of the last two seasons. USC has had eight All-Americans under Schuette, one of them Jennifer Rosales, 1998 NCAA individual champion and ’99 NCAA golfer of the year.

Rosales is on the LPGA Tour now, but Gaston may already have found a replacement. Freshman Candie Kung is the reigning American Junior Golf Assn. champion and the top-ranked female amateur golfer. In her first semester at USC, Kung led the team in scoring with a 72.7 average, playing in all four tournaments in the fall. She’s helping fill a void that Gaston wasn’t sure could be filled before the season.

“Last year, I could see sometimes that we would slack off and we’d still make it into the top five. We could always count on Jennifer to bring in a low score,” said Gaston, now in her fourth season. “I think this year we’re a little bit more together. All of our golfers have a good game. With Candie, you can’t lose there.”

Also helping to fill the void are junior Nicole Dalkas, who missed most of last season because of a back injury, and Linda Ishii, the team’s only senior and its captain. In the fall, the Trojan women had a first-place finish and two seconds in their four tournaments.

And in their first tournament of the spring last week, the Trojans finished second at the TRW Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes, 10 strokes behind top-ranked Arizona. Kung shot a career-low 213 over three rounds, finishing a shot out of first, and Dalkas had a career-low with a 216.

And Kung won’t be the only AJGA champion at USC next season.

Schuette’s top signing on the men’s side to date, Hunter Mahan, is a high school senior in Texas and will bring with him quite a resume.

Like Kung, Mahan was the 1999 AJGA player of the year. And like Kung, he is the nation’s top-ranked amateur.

Before Mahan gets to Los Angeles, though, Schuette wants the men’s team back in the NCAA tournament. Three players qualified for the U.S. Amateur in August. And on Feb. 1, the Trojan men defeated Arizona by seven strokes in the Ping Arizona tournament for their first tournament victory since April 1997.

Led by junior Nick Jones’ career-best 208 and senior Nick Webb’s career-best 211, the Trojans’ 848 was their best score since October 1996.

Things are going as well off the course as on it. Under construction is an on-campus short-game practice facility. It’s expected to be ready in the fall.

It’s just another step in Schuette’s plan to build the nation’s top golf program. And with only two of his golfers having left school before graduating--one is Rosales, who turned pro early--Schuette says he’s well on his way.

“One of the things I try to instill is development in golf, in school and in life in general,” he said. “We try to provide an environment that fosters learning growth. If we add quality people, we can only make the program better.”

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After beginning the season 9-0, the UCLA men’s volleyball team dropped two consecutive five-game matches to local rivals earlier this month, losing to USC in the 23rd annual Kilgour Cup on Feb. 4 then losing to Pepperdine last Thursday. . . . On Feb. 1, the Bruin men’s tennis team was handed its first loss of the season, 5-2, by Pepperdine, which was led by the third-ranked doubles team of Sebastien Graeff and Anthony Ross. The Wave women completed the sweep with a victory over the Bruins on Feb. 8. . . . Another top-ranked UCLA team, women’s softball, opened defense of its national championship in amazing fashion, getting a no-hitter from pitcher Courtney Dale Feb. 4 against Maryland.

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The UCLA women’s swimming team defeated Stanford for the first time in the program’s history Jan. 28, 154-145. But the Bruins couldn’t upset USC on Saturday, losing a close one, 158-142, in the final dual meet of the season. The Pacific 10 championships are scheduled late this month.

The USC women’s volleyball team signed perhaps the nation’s top recruiting class last week, highlighted by 6-foot-3 middle blocker Katie Olsovsky, a two-time Southern Section player of the year from Bishop Montgomery High, and 6-1 outside hitter April Ross, the Gatorade national player of the year in 1999 while at Newport Harbor High.

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The top-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team stretched its winning streak to nine with a 3-0 victory over UC Irvine on Feb. 8, and takes one of the toughest trips in the nation, playing at Hawaii on Wednesday and Friday. . . . UCLA, Washington, Oregon State, Stanford and California broke off from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in men’s soccer last weekend to form their own conference. NCAA rules require six teams for a conference to get an automatic tournament berth, so they will compete for at-large bids. The move is geared toward improving the teams’ strength of schedule, which the NCAA has held against the teams in tournament selection and seeding.

COLLEGE DIVISION

Cal State Dominguez Hills’ Kevin Halamicek threw the school’s first no-hitter in nearly six years Friday when he struck out four and walked three in an 8-0 victory over Cal Baptist. . . . Redlands third baseman Tommy Simanek tied a Division III record with four doubles Friday against Whittier. The last player to do that, Tyson Brackett, also played at Redlands, in 1997. Simanek also had a triple and drove in four runs.

Four Biola players scored in double figures Thursday as the Eagles defeated Azusa Pacific, 79-73, in a meeting of teams tied at the time for the men’s basketball lead in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The teams are once again tied at 10-2 in the conference, however, as Christian Heritage defeated Biola on Saturday, 87-79. On Feb. 1, Azusa’s Jerome Joseph had 38 points against Vanguard. In three games last week, Joseph had 72 points and 24 rebounds.