Controversial Decison Brings Abrupt Halt to Season for MSU Women's Golf
Why?
For Mississippi State women's golf coach Charlie Ewing and his team, it's a question that might never have an answer after the Bulldogs didn't get the chance to compete at the Baton Rouge Regional this week. The NCAA declared that The University Club course was "playable, but not at a championship caliber". As a result, the top six seeds at the event automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships. But as for everyone else, including State, those seasons came to an unceremonious end.
MSU came into the Baton Rouge Regional on the heels of a second-place finish at the Southeastern Conference Championships. It was the team's best-ever finish at the event. The Bulldogs went to Baton Rouge with a ton of momentum and high aspirations. They left with nothing but disappointment and questions after not getting to play any golf at all.
Their hopes of getting to the NCAA Championships? Dashed, without a State golfer getting to take a single competitive shot.
"It's really challenging to accept," Ewing said. "Especially for a team that was riding momentum and really hoping to do great things in the postseason. It's really hard to accept."
More than seven inches of rain fell at The University Club on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday just before noon, NCAA Committee representative Brad Hurlbut – the Director of Athletics at Fairleigh Dickinson – announced there would be no tournament.
“Look, this is one of the most gut-wrenching decisions and announcements that I’ve ever been a part of,” Hurlbut said. “Even though the course is playable, it’s not playable at a championship level. Therefore, the top six teams that were seeded will advance, along with the top three individuals that were not on those six teams.”
Video of Hurlbut's announcement was shared by Golfweek on Wednesday. In the recording, onlookers shouted in disbelief as Hurlbut and the committee walked away with no further comment or explanation for their decision.
The NCAA later released the following statement:
“The NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee regrets that the 2021 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships regional in Baton Rouge could not be conducted as scheduled this week. The Committee, NCAA staff and the Games Committee in Baton Rouge have been in constant communication throughout the past several days about the course conditions that have led to this unprecedented and most difficult decision.”
The words from Hurlbut and the NCAA did little to soothe the emotions of teams like Mississippi State though. After all, Hurlbut himself noted that the course was in fact playable, just not at a championship level.
So if it's playable, why not just play? No one may ever know for sure.
"It's almost impossible to define what ["a championship level"] means," Ewing said. "Nobody has really heard it before. Everyone has always been under the impression that whether it's high school golf, junior golf, college golf, LPGA Tour, PGA Tour – a playable golf course is a playable golf course...As long as nobody is going to get hurt, then you're basically playing.
"For the course to have been deemed playable but for golf to not have been played, that just makes the acceptance that much more challenging...It makes that 'Why' a lot stronger, wondering why are we not playing?"
The abrupt conclusion to State's campaign was reminiscent of 14 months prior. Ewing's team, like others around the country, didn't get to finish last season either due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts.
In that instance though, the halt made sense to Ewing. It was tough, but there were safety and health concerns that took precedent. On Wednesday, safety and health didn't seem to be an issue at all. Instead, it was an NCAA committee that, for whatever reason, thought it was best to simply advance teams on seeding than have it be decided on the course.
"The golf course does not determine the championship," Ewing said. "It's a piece of it, but the championship is determined by [the play of] the student-athletes. It's unfortunate that couldn't be celebrated this week."
So the 'Why' remains. Why couldn't golf be played on a playable course? Why couldn't something, somehow, be done to make sure NCAA Championship berths were earned and not given? Why didn't teams like MSU get the chance to keep their seasons alive? Those questions are likely to remain without a satisfactory answer.
"It's really tough to swallow and it's really hard to accept," Ewing said. "I'm sure it's something that the acceptance will be something that might take a little bit longer than other things you come across."
Mississippi State's women's golf team's season ended abruptly on Wednesday when the NCAA determined the Baton Rouge Regional could not be played. It was MSU's 10th all-time NCAA appearance and the Bulldogs were hoping to build on a second-place finish at the SEC Championships. (File photo courtesy of Mississippi State athletics)
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