South African Andre DeDecker has transitioned well to Stanford

The first 7 months of my time at Stanford have certainly been an experience unlike any other I’ve ever had. Coming from over 10,000 miles away to a foreign land and what will be my new home for the next 4 years, I have managed to make the transition into the Stanford community with surprising ease. The intensity of this institution is incredible, and was an immediate shock to the system for me. That being said, I am relishing every opportunity to get involved in what this place has to offer and am thoroughly enjoying the challenges it presents. It’s difficult, thinking back on the past two-and-a-bit quarters, to comprehend just how quickly time has flown by, but that is the nature of a great college like Stanford.

On the golfing front, Stanford Golf has had a mixed year to date. Five top-4 positions out of six events to start with, including back-to-back victories, were followed by a few sub-par events. We will be working harder than ever to set this record straight and get on a winning streak again. Also the chance to meet Tiger Woods was also a memory to cherish, and is without a doubt one of the highlights of my golf career. The self-confidence he displays in how he goes about his business was really inspiring.

With only PAC-10s, Regionals and the NCAA Championship remaining for the year, all our energy will be channeled towards preparing for these events and hopefully walking away with a national title. The team is very eager and motivated to make the most of the next few weeks in order to achieve these goals.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support, we wouldn’t be the same team without it!

Go Cardinal!

Andre DeDecker
Freshman '13

Top frosh Andrew Yun writes about his 1st year at Stanford

When I first came to campus, I did not know what to expect. Being all by myself without the help of family for the first time really opens up your eyes and makes you take responsibility for your own actions. Doing the laundry is a real pain and I can honestly say that I have the greatest respect for all the mothers and others that do it on a daily basis. As for the golf team, I was trying to prepare myself for the duties that a freshman is entitled to have: sitting in the back of the van and having your head almost the roof of the car each time the car hits a little bump, unloading and loading all the bags, and some other personal favors from each of the upperclassmen.

But those are not the only expectations that I had when I came to Stanford. I knew that when I arrived, I would be joined by nine of my fellow teammates that are willing to dedicate their time and effort so that we can make this year a memorable one, both on and off the golf course. Day in and day out, we have been working hard towards one common goal: to win the NCAA Championship. Although we have had a strong run – winning the Cordevalle and Hawaii – our last three tournaments have been lackluster at best. With our home tournament coming up this next week, we have a chance to right the ship and gain some momentum heading into the postseason.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, the coaches, my teammates, donors, boosters, and everybody else that have been an integral part of Stanford golf for making this possible. Although it has been fun up to this point, I know the best is yet to come.

Go Stanford!

Andrew Yun (’13)

Steve Ziegler, junior All-American writes of aspirations for the Spring

Editor's Note - Written by Stanford's junior All-American Steve Ziegler.

Fortunately, many individuals from our team had competitive summers of amateur golf and GolfWeek deemed Stanford as the top ranked team in the nation at the beginning of the season. Well done everyone! As expected, the crown of being at the top of the Golfweek rankings had its gold as well as its thorns (great events along with great expectations). Rankings don’t equal championships and won’t help us much towards our goal come early June. However, rankings are the product of invitational championships and consistent performance that we strive for at Stanford; they offer us a fairly solid way to measure overall quality as a team over time. I’ll remember clearly when my Mom described a life lesson to me that made a lot of sense, “The higher you are up the ladder, the more people you have looking at your butt.” This was ‘luckily’ our situation. We had and still have good motivation to keep it going, to stay on top.

As a result of incredible play by Peter Uihlein, Morgan Hoffman, and others, Oklahoma State won twice and overtook us in the rankings roughly halfway through the fall season. Today, only days away from the beginning of the Spring Season we are ranked number two behind Oklahoma State with Florida and Florida State close behind. The good news is Oklahoma State along with many other highly ranked schools will be present at Hawaii-Hilo’s Invitational at Mauna Lani early this February, so we’ll have a chance to start off the spring in the same way the Cowboys started off the fall.

Joseph Bramlett fortunately appears healthy again, and the impact of his competitive return to this team in my mind could not be overstated. Freshmen Andre DeDecker and Steven Kearney are eager to contribute and Jordan, Graham, and Wilson are all working hard for their chance to lead Stanford to tournament titles. Qualifying for Hawaii will undoubtedly be intense as usual. After all, Hawaii does seem pretty appealing by mid-winter after a couple months without competition.

The liaison between our dreams and their reality will be having a line-up one through five where each member has a chance to win the event individually. The year prior to my freshman year, 2006-2007, Stanford without exaggeration won nearly every event they entered. It was exciting to watch. They had five All-Americans, a one through five line-up that dominated consistently. What is more exciting is I see that same potential for us this spring. It’s going to take more than words, rankings, and wishes; hopefully all the priors will also be the product of our due work. Let’s Go Card!!!
Steve Ziegler

Junior Graham Brockington on Stanford's fall season

Coming back to school this year was particularly exciting as we were preseason ranked number one. On our first team trip we were all ready to prove we deserved our number one ranking. Before our first tournament however, we were offered a golfing trip of a lifetime. We traveled to the east coast where we would play 5 courses, all ranked within the top 30 of Golfweek’s best courses list. We played the number one ranked course, Pine Valley as well as: Shinnecock, Sebonack, Friar’s Head, and National. It was a blast as all courses were great in there own way. Then we headed to Chicago where we would play our first tournament at Olympia Fields CC, the site of the 2003 U.S. Open. The course was one of the toughest I have played and we finished fourth.

As we returned from our trip we were immediately shoved back into reality, as classes would begin the next day. Since then our new team has had some time to get to know each other. In my three years on the farm, I have noticed that the team dynamic is different every year. With three new freshmen coming in this year, it is hard to know beforehand how the new team will mesh. Fortunately our team has grown close through the fall as we all are united under common goals.

We would go on to finish second as the Prestige at PGA West and third at Isleworth in Florida. With one tournament left, we were hungry for a win at Cordevalle, especially since we had lost our number one ranking. With a great final two days of play we were able to pull out the victory to beat the current number one ranked team, Oklahoma State.

As the fall season has ended and we look towards the beginning of our spring season, I am filled with excitement. This year especially, I feel like we are on the right path. While we go back home for Christmas break and a few weeks of “off” time, you can rest assured that we will be working harder than ever on our games to be ready come tournament time.

Go Card!
Graham Brockington ('11)

Sihwan Kim writes about the team's strong fall season

Photo of Sihwan at Isleworth CC courtesy of Stanford photo.

Editor's Note: Stanford's All-American junior Sihwan Kim writes about the fall season. Sihwan has had an excellent fall season as he has finished 2nd, tied for 8th, tied for 28th and tied for 2nd in his 4 tournaments. He leads the team with a 71.2 scoring average. Sihwan was also just named the Pac-10 player of the month for November.

After a long summer, I was excited to play college golf once again because I knew that our team was as strong as ever. I knew that if we just play decent golf, we can win every single golf tournaments and ultimately NCAA.

We started this year with some good practice and memories. We got to play 5 great courses including Pine Valley and Shinnecock Hills. I’ve never played so many good courses in such a short period of time.

Then, we headed off to Chicago for our season opener. This fall season was the best fall season out of three years I’ve been here and I hope that it will get better. We finished 4th, 2nd, 3rd, and first place at Olympia Fields, PGA West, Isleworth, and CordeValle respectively. It felt really good to finish the fall season with the win.

And as for the spring, I hope Joe comes back and helps us out to win the NCAA.
Sihwan Kim

Senior captain Joseph Bramlett updates on the team's progresshis and rehab program

Editor's Note --- senior Captain Joseph Bramlett has fought wrist injuries for two seasons after earning 2nd team All-American honors as a freshman.

The offseason has now officially begun for our team now and I couldn’t be happier with where we are group is going. Coming off of an exciting win at the Gifford Collegiate our team can enjoy the offseason on a high note, with the confidence that comes with a victory. The victory was made even more special playing with Oklahoma State in the final round and beating them with three freshman in our lineup. I think it speaks volumes as to how talented and competitive of a group we have. For the first time since my freshman year we are able to hit the offseason in full stride and use our momentum to build on what we have for the spring.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed watching the team win last week, I cannot describe how tough it was sitting on the sideline watching instead of being in the action playing. I have been going through a very specific rehab program where I will hopefully be 100% ready to go at start of the spring season. It is always hard to predict exactly how long this will take and wrists are especially unpredictable, but I have been very encouraged about the progress I have been able to make this fall and I am more than ready to trade in my pom poms for golf clubs. I will continue to take it one day at a time and hopefully it will pay off in February and more importantly next May.

It’s amazing to me how fast my final year on the farm is going and hard for me to believe that I will be graduating soon. I have thoroughly enjoyed my three and a half years here, but I don’t think I will be ready to leave without another national championship. Thanks everyone for the support you’ve shown and were going to do everything we can to bring a 9th national championship back home.

Joseph Bramlett, Senior

Senior Jordan Cox shares the year's highlight

My senior year has finally come and I can’t believe how fast time is flying. I remember looking back to high school and thinking how many more years until I graduate. It seemed like time moved so slowly. Now, I am almost done with my fall quarter already, and I feel like time is moving so quickly that it is hard to keep up. I have always been told that college would be done before I knew it, and still to my surprise, it is almost over.

The highlight of the year thus far was getting to spend a morning with Tiger Woods on Monday during President’s Cup week. It was 7am and the team was about to have another productive morning practice session. The coaches were a little late that morning and the team knew that something had to be going on. We thought that maybe they were playing a prank on us or watching from a distance to see what our reactions were. Sure enough, Coach Ray came flying towards us from the far end of the new practice facility with someone sitting next to him in the golf cart.

To the teams’ surprise, it was the number one golfer in the world and perhaps one of the best (if not the best) athletes of all time. An experience like this would only be possible at Stanford. Tiger had a chipping contest with us and played a few holes on the facility with us. As serious golfers, getting to spend a morning with Tiger Woods is without question like a dream come true. Furthermore, this is a memory that I will remember for the rest of my life.

The team this year is quite possibly the deepest team I have played on in my years at Stanford thus far. I am very excited for the chance to compete for the national championship this year, because I promise you there is no team in the country that is more ready to take home the national championship! We are working hard, and I feel like everyone on the team is on the same page with regards to what is will take to achieve our team goals. Please be watching out for us come spring season!

Go Cardinal!

Jordan Cox --- senior