Jordan Cox shares an experience "I will remember for the rest of my life"

Hi, my name is Jordan Cox and I am a junior. It is hard for me to believe that three years have already passed by because it seems like just yesterday that I was signing my letter of intent to come to Stanford.

I would like to share with you one of my experiences from this quarter that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was 7:00am on Sunday morning (Sunday is typically the teams day to relax or practice on our own or catch up in school) and the team rallied for an all-day practice session. This was not official team practice organized by Coach Ray and Coach Tight. This was a collective group of 8 men showing their passion for golf and dedication to each other.

The weather that day was terrible. It was freezing outside, raining, and extremely windy. Yes, the team could have been sleeping in the warm comfort of their beds that day, but instead we were out in the elements trying to improve our games on a day where most other teams around the country are probably doing nothing. We practiced from sun up to sun down, but there was a moment around 4 o'clock when I stopped what I was doing to take a breather. All 8 guys were on or around a single putting green on the new facility. The rain was coming down harder than it had been all day and wind was blowing so hard that it was making the rain come down sideways.

It was that very moment when I looked up to see 8 guys grinding on their games, continuing to push through the elements, and refusing to give up. This was a day that sets Stanford golf apart from every other school around the country and made me even more proud to wear that Stanford "S" on my chest. I feel like the team has really come together and all 8 guys are collectively working together to achieve the goal of winning that NCAA championship. It was a day like this that reaffirms my decision that coming to Stanford and playing on the golf team was one of the best decisions I have ever made in
my life.

The team is working harder than ever and I am excited to see what happens as our season progresses and NCAA's get closer. Go Cardinal!
Jordan Cox

Dodge Kemmer provides a unique perspective on the team's Big Island adventures

Here's a photo of co-captains Dodge and Daniel with Hal Gogger and Sukey Grousbeck.

Senior co-captain Dodge Kemmer's Hawaii blog:

When Coach pulled out about 20 yards of yellow nylon cord from his travel bag, we knew we were in trouble. Luckily, he didn’t make us pull the mini-van to the house to save money on gas because “the budget is tight boys.” But we did leave the fate of our week up to friction and the trust that Coach wouldn’t hit the brakes as hard as he is known to do. After some brainstorming, stacking, roping, securing, and unnecessary manly displays of force from coach and Ziegler, not to mention stares of disbelief from our Korean core and the rest of the airport traffic, we managed to load 6 golf carry bags on top of a sans-luggage rack minivan. We were off. During our pre-week Costco run, Coach, Sihwan, and I debated whether we should get any protein shakes or not; we compromised and got two 30-packs.

It wasn’t long after we arrived at the Grousbeck’s beautiful house overlooking the ocean that we were on our way to the beach. Ziegler gave everyone football throwing lessons but then was sidelined when he lost his contact in the ocean and somehow couldn’t find it even an hour later. Sihwan and I were afraid to tell him that he probably wouldn’t find it, but enjoyed witnessing the search. (It turned out that he lost his sunglasses, not his contact.) This trip also marked the inaugural ocean-football game, in which Lim and I dominated Sihwan and Chung by some ungodly margin. It wasn’t the last we would see of that pair though. After the final round, Coach joined the losing team and we got Ziegler. Ignoring the rush count, Coach barreled toward the endzone as soon as he hiked the ball. It took Steve on one leg, me on an arm, and Lim jumping on his back to take him down.

We also played golf during our stay. The tournament wasn’t much to write home about save the strongest wind I’ve ever played in (which is usually significant in Kansas), a good showing by Steve (t7) and a great last round by our freshman Chung. I must admit, it is hard to not enjoy yourself when you are looking around on every green trying to determine where the ocean is in relation to the Mauna Kea volcano; I’ve had less spectacular landmarks to note.

And so we returned, our skin a few shades darker, our spirits a few pegs higher, and our grades a few points lower, dreading the return to real life.
Dodge Kemmer