Freshman men 's golfer Alika Bell quqlified for
USF's first two tournaments of the 2010-11 season at the
GolfWeek Conference Challenge and the Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf
Classic. The Hawaiian chronicled his experiences of the Dons in
competition in South Bend at the Fighting Irish event.
We stayed in Portage, Indiana, but decided it was cheaper to stay
there and make the commute to Notre Dame in an hour or so
drive. I thought it was pretty cool how every time we would
drive from Portage to Notre Dame, we would lose an hour because of
the time zone. I remember texting my friends in the car and
all of a sudden my phone would lose service, and a second later an
hour would be added to the time. We all joked around with
each other, wondering what would happen if someone actually lived
on a time zone. Would it be an hour later at one end of the
house, an hour earlier at the other end? It was all fun and
games.
We had a couple of days to kill before the actually tournament
started at Notre Dame. The first day of practice was
comprised of hitting balls and playing the front 9 only. We
thought it would be easier to focus more on practice and getting
the feel of the front nine. That day it was kind of cold, but
the wind made it even worse. It seemed like there were
constant 20-30mph winds. On some holes I hit Driver then
3iron into Par 4's…crazy long! I thought the
course was playing pretty tough because of the small greens and the
long rough. Good thing the strong wind was only in the
practice round!
The next day was one of the best. We had a little practice
sesh then went out to play the back nine. I thought that side
was a little tougher then the front, but I knew there were some
scoring holes. Anyway, at the end of the round we had the
opportunity to go down the road to watch a football game between
Notre Dame and Stanford. I was very excited because I
haven't been to another college stadium other then the one
back home in Hawaii. I was amazed how big the stadium was and
how SOLD OUT it was. I remember how crazy the student section
was with all their cheers, jumping up and down with various hand
and body motions, it was ecstatic. The game turned out to be
kind of boring, partially because the home team got their butts
whooped.
The next day we played the front nine, then chipped and putted on
the back nine. FINALLY, the tournament day arrived. We
were going to play 36 holes. This was all new to me because I
haven't really played that much in one day…I was
nervous. It was the coldest round I ever played in, literally
frozen while warming up. Thank God the sun came out later in
the round. The first 18 went okay…shooting 73, but the
second time around wasn't too good. I had a couple bad
holes resulting in a 77. I felt like I was striking the ball
so well, yet my aggressiveness and bad breaks unfortunately played
against me. I was so disappointed that I didn't say a
word until half way through dinner. I knew if I wanted
qualify for our next tournament in Nevada I would have to focus on
the little things and grind it out.
The final round was a steady, yet exciting round. The
mistakes I made were backed up with birdies and I thought I had a
very good chance at making top 30% of the field, qualifying me for
the next tournament. I ended the round with a
double…proving to be the deciding factor in my fate. I
missed the qualifier by a single stroke. On a brighter note,
USF finished one shot out of second place, a great finish. I
was so proud of the team, especially with the co-medalist being two
of my teammates! I felt like it was a great tournament, a
great trip, and an overall amazing experience. This team
started on good note, I hope it only goes up from here.
Go Dons!
Alika Bell, Freshman
