The RoundHouse | 9/18/2020 10:29:00 AM
Megan Lucas appreciates coaching on the golf course, as long as the conversation ends in a timely manner.
"I like short and sweet instruction," she said.
How a golfer best receives information is one of the many items Wichita State women's coach
Tom McCurdy looked for this week during the Shocker Cup. With the COViD-19 pandemic canceling the fall schedule, the men's and women's team and coaches played a three-day, three-course tournament, styled after the Ryder Cup.
On Tuesday, the co-ed teams played two-on-two match play at Wellington Golf Club. Wednesday, Tallgrass Country Club hosted a best-ball format.
Lucas and men's coach
Judd Easterling defeated McCurdy and
Sarah Lawson 1 up on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Lucas and men's assistant
Matt Walton defeated McCurdy and
Aufa Rachmadya 4 & 3.
"She's stomped my tushy two days in a row," McCurdy said. "She's lit it up."
The Shocker Cup ended Thursday with one-on-one match play at Willowbend Golf Club. Team Walton defeated Team McCurdy by winning Tuesday and Wednesday and splitting 11 matches (5-5-1) on Thursday.
The Shocker Cup gives coaches an opportunity to coach in a different manner – as teammate or partner instead of observer. On Tuesday and Wednesday, McCurdy chatted with Lucas, a sophomore who transferred to Wichita State from UMKC, about her thoughts and stance while preparing for tee shots.
"It's a friendlier relationship than feeling like he's sitting on the side, critiquing everything," Lucas said. "Instead, he's playing alongside me, asking me questions, trying to learn about my game, so that way he knows how to approach coaching me."
Playing with a golfer allows McCurdy to move instruction into a more casual, conversational area that might produce feedback a more formal coaching session doesn't.
"I'm looking at a lot of physical things – how they swing the club, all of the basics before they hit the ball," McCurdy said. "If something is not going well with their game, I want to know what I'm looking at with each person. Mentally, it's how they think, where they're trying to hit the ball, what shots they're trying to hit."
This isn't the first time the men's and women's programs mixed for a tournament. It is the first time in a pandemic, which added some importance to the three days.
Coaches wanted to break up the routine of practice and inject competition into the fall.
"It's a team atmosphere," Easterling said. "We're competing. They're competing. Our points matter. We're playing for a trophy and, obviously, bragging rights."
They also see benefits to bringing the teams together. During normal times, they often go separate ways to practice and tournaments. The coaches met in Easterling's office to draft teams. They held a team meeting to seed opponents, similar to how the Ryder Cup captains set matchups.
The pandemic limited the tournament schedule for both sophomore
Dawson Lewis, from Texas, and sophomore
Zac Owens, from Oklahoma, over the summer. Owens fished for bass. Both enjoyed a break from golf. They spent time with their families.
"I fished and then I fished some more," Owens said. "It gave me a break from golf. I feel like every time you take a break, a big break, you come back and you always play well."
Back in Wichita, the Shocker Cup helps return them to a tournament mind-set. The different formats add to the value.
"It's giving us competition we haven't had in a while," Lewis said. "The match play, it's a completely different format and a completely different level of nerves and competitiveness. It's hole by hole by hole and you're never really out of it. It's a way more competitive format than stroke play."
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
