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High Hopes
WFU women's golf team looks solid
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Published: September 1, 2008
Coach Dianne Dailey doesn't hold back her excitement for how good Wake Forest women's golf team can be this season.
With four starters back plus a hot-shot recruit who just happens to be a niece of Tiger Woods, the Deacons have a chance for their best season in history.
"We do have high expectations," said Dailey, who is entering her 21st season. "The students have played very well this summer and I think they are anxious to get started and get the year going."
The Deacons, who are ranked 12th by Golfweek, have depth, experience and a newcomer who is expected to make a big impact. Cheyenne Woods is the lone freshman on the Deacons and she has arrived with some outstanding credentials.
Woods, who is a niece of Tiger Woods, was highly recruited and was one of the top junior players in the country. She is from Phoenix and chose the Deacons for the golf program and for the academics.
"One thing we've already talked about, even in the recruiting process, was she wants to make her own way," Dailey said. "She's here because she's a good player and we wanted her on our team. It's not about her uncle or anything like that because she has the ability and can really play."
Last year Woods was named the Arizona High School Golfer of the Year by The Arizona Republic. She won more than 30 tournaments, including the Big I Junior Classic and an American Junior Golf Association tournament. She was also won the 5-A state title in Arizona two years in a row.
Woods, however, has been hit with a severe case of strep throat since arriving in Winston-Salem for classes. Dailey said that Woods has been pretty sick and didn't know if she would play in the first tournament, which is scheduled for Sunday.
"She came to our first team meeting and could hardly talk," Dailey said. "So we aren't going to push her. If she's not in this first tournament for us it's not that big of a deal because she has a great future ahead of her."
The Deacons will open their season in Owings Mills, Md., at the NCAA Preview tournament at Caves Valley Golf Club. It's the same course where the NCAA Championships will be played in the spring.
Dailey, who has a roster of nine players, said that qualifying for the five starters who will travel to Maryland is wide open. She won't know her lineup until early this week.
The four returning starters -- sophomores Allie Bodemann and Natalie Sheary, along with seniors Nannette Hill and Jean Chua -- were all in the lineup for the NCAA Championships last spring when they finished 10th. Junior Delores White also returns to the team after sitting out last season with injuries.
With Woods joining the team, the depth that Dailey will enjoy is tremendous. "We are deeper and I think more experienced because we have Delores back," Dailey said.
Hill was the top finisher in the NCAA Championships last year, finishing tied for 13th. Sheary won a tournament as a freshman and finished in the top 5 four times, and had the lowest stroke average on the team at 74.2.
The best team in Dailey's tenure was in 1995 when Laura Philo (Diaz) and Stephanie Neil led the Deacons to a third-place finish in the NCAA Championships. Dailey doesn't mind comparing that team with this one.
""I think this team has the potential to be the best we've had here," said Dailey, who is in the college-golf hall of fame. "This team is very strong and other teams have gotten stronger as well from around the country. I just know they all worked hard in the summer and that shows me they all want to be successful.
"One of the things that I like about this team is anybody can shoot under par at any time and that's what you need."
Changes at Reynolds Park
Mark Hartis and Harold Kincaid, the former owners at Grandview, have leased Reynolds Park from the city for the next five years. Hartis and Kincaid, who are both Class A professionals, will manage the day-to-day operations of the 18-hole Ellis Maples/Perry Maxwell designed course.
American Golf Corporation's contract with the city runs out on Nov. 1. When the bids were open to the city, Hartis and Kincaid went on an aggressive campaign and what helped is their knowledge of the local golf scene.
"I was at Grandview for about 20 years and have been in this business since I was about 14," said Hartis, 51. "Since Harold and I sold Grandview we missed being in the business some and we felt like this was a chance to get back into it.… We want to make the city-council members, mayor, and recreation-department staff proud that they made the right decision when they selected us."
Hartis said that they don't have major changes in store but they do plan on adding a senior set of tees and a U.S. Kids set of tees.
One trend that Hartis has seen recently is that, much like the economy, the golf business has taken a hit. Rounds are down at every public course in the area.
"We want to keep the group of core players that are faithful and play Reynolds Park a lot and we also want to make it appealing for those who occasionally play," Hartis said.
"We're looking forward to this."
Around the green
Kris Spence, an architect who has redesigned Forsyth Country Club and Sedgefield Country Club, has completed a renovation at Furman University's golf course. The course will reopen in October. The course was first designed by R.K. Webel and Walter Cosby, who was the superintendent of the famed Greenbrier in West Virginia. "We incorporated more of a Donald Ross look to the green complexes with raised fill pads, and bunkers cut tight to the greens with steep grass faces," Spence said….
Jim Correll, the tournament director of the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, said that this year's tournament will have one of its best fields in the six-year history of the tournament. There are eight of the top 10 players from last year's final money list who have committed. Some of the big names expected to play are Jay Haas, Tom Kite, Fred Funk, Loren Roberts and Scott Hoch. The tournament will be Sept. 12-14. The Greater Hickory Classic is one of the best attended tournaments on the Champions Tour. "Ticket sales have gone well," Correll said. "A lot of our tickets are tied up with our many sponsors, so that part of it has gone extremely well."
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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