Donald and Daley, Daley and Donald. If alliteration isn’t enough to connect the duo, their near-identical domination this season does the trick.
Luke Donald and Jess Daley ruled the links this year, finishing first and third, respectively, in the final MasterCard rankings. Both were named first-team All-Americans (Donald for the third year in a row) and both finished in the top 10 at the NCAA championships.
Add to that a one-two finish at the Big Ten championships and, not surprisingly, all-conference nods, and it’s not hard to see why the Northwestern men’s golf team finished in the top 10 in both the NCAAs (eighth) and in the MasterCard rankings (fifth) for the third time in the past four years.
Head coach Pat Goss – who was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the third time in the past four years – said his team has become the top athletic-academic program in the nation.
“Over the past four years, we’ve been selling ourselves to recruits as the best place to come if you want a top-notch education and golf at the highest level,” he said.
While the Wildcats rode high all year, they missed their chance at winning an NCAA crown with the best one-two punch in college since Tiger Woods and Co. prowled the amateur circuit at Stanford.
After romping through the Big Ten championships, defeating second-place Purdue by 33 strokes at their home course, the Wildcats slid out of the NCAA East regionals by finishing sixth. The top nine teams from each regional advance to the championships.
At the NCAA championships in Opelika, Ala., Goss said the beautiful weather that would normally be conducive to golfing plagued his team’s upset hopes. With the elements in check, it was tough for the thin Cats squad to overcome the deeper field. NU finished in eighth place.
“The conditions were too easy,” Goss said. “We didn’t have the depth to sustain a win.”
At the NCAAs, Donald slipped into seventh place with Daley upstaging his British counterpart and finishing in a tie for third. Goss said that although Donald finished the season as the No. 1 golfer in the nation, he was pressing a little bit throughout the spring.
“(Donald) has had so much success, but he didn’t play great all spring,” Goss said.
The fact that Donald wasn’t at his best is a scary notion for the rest of the NCAA – he held the No. 1 ranking for the last seven weeks of the season, as well as the entire fall season.
Donald, who returns for his senior season, will be busy this summer, playing in tournaments from Rhode Island to his native isle, England. He has a first-round qualifying exemption for the British Open and also will play in the Western Open in Chicago later this summer.
Daley, who turned pro after the NCAAs, will play a slew of PGA and Buy.com (formerly the Nike Tour) events. He leaves college as the top graduating senior in the country after starting this season ranked 18th, Goss said.
Daley finished the season with a 70.98 scoring average, just above Donald’s 70.48.”I’m disappointed to see Jess go, but I’m very proud of him,” Goss said.
