Winning a sports championship as either a fan or a player is what everyone dreams about. The fairy tale ending to a long season of work. Champagne bottles, a trophy celebration, pre-printed hats and t shirts waiting to be busted out to players and coaches riding the high of that win… The hats and shirts for the losers probably get shipped off as a donation somewhere that the NFL doesn’t matter. Clothes for needy people and a tax write off for the multibillion dollar corporation, just a good ole fashioned Win/Win. Maybe just once the losers get all the swag too, yanno? Kind of like the movie BASEketball. Just to really rub it in and give them something to fuel their next season.

But not all celebrations get the fanfare that requires the plastic tarps and ski goggles in the locker rooms… No skating around hoisting the Stanley Cup up to the crowd 1 by 1, giving it a smooch before handing it off to the next guy… No Disney ads, no city parades, and honestly some with not even very many fans… And while I originally sought out to find several of the most underwhelming Championship wins, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

I even went to the NCAA website and clicked sport by sport through the website looking for a video of a smaller celebration. Anything running related was at a large and crowded track and field event, even men’s water polo had bleachers of fans that erupted with each goal. I thought surely women’s bowling wouldn’t be too crazy, but they had a whole production and crowd worthy of a Pete Weber Championship.

But one of the most physically precise and impressive sports being played at the highest level does not get the proper fanfare that it deserves. Golf.

The NCAA Golf Championships Deserve More

As a certified 12 handicap myself, I think that there is no greater accomplishment than winning a golf tournament. Hitting a golf ball with accuracy and consistency at the level of those at the top of the sport has got to be the toughest challenge in sports to me, both mentally and physically. To put this into perspective, my handicap trend of 11.6 is better than 60% of registered players per the USGA. But these NCAA golfers all must be scratch or plus handicaps at least, making them better than 99% of USGA golfers. And most of the college golfers will never make a meaningful golf career on the PGA Tour where you actually start to make big money playing golf.

All of that is to say, if you are a college golfer you are already within the elite of the elite in that sport in the entire world probably. Surely, they should be lauded for winning at a sport that requires such precision each and every shot over multiple days while hiking for miles and carrying your own bag, right? Wrong. Just some high fives, tucked in polos, and tan lines like your bachelor party just won a cornhole tournament in Hilton Head.

With a crowd that could be rivaled by the one who followed me around in the shootout of the member member tournament a couple of weeks ago. (We lost on the last putt on the last hole… Absolute heat breaker but we will be back I just know it.)

They don’t even get the same treatment as the air rifle champions…

This is an injustice that needs to be addressed at once, no offense to air rifle or anything, but the top levels of golf can’t exactly be compared to a carnival game and they deserve better.

Golf is Hard, but the Noles Practice Harder

On a side note, the NCAA golf championships are going on right now as I finish writing this blog and I’m about to watch my alma mater, the FSU Seminoles take on our rival Florida Gators in about an hour in the Semifinals. Hopefully they can do me proud and now I have something I can get invested in while I ride out the rest of my 7 hour layover in Miami.

That member member tournament that I mentioned earlier was actually at FSU’s home course, Seminole Legacy, and let me tell you what that track is a BEAST. For example, I play the Garnet tees which plays 6800 yards and brings my 11.2 handicap trend up to a 14… The FSU team tees aren’t listed on the scorecard, but it plays the even harder than the Black tees (the tips).

7240 yards from the tips and it would bring my 11.2 handicap trend up to a 17. But while its not listed on this card, the USGA app’s handicap calculator has the Team tees listed, and I would get 19 strokes (19!!! and I’m not *that* bad of a golfer) I have always looked at the and wondered when I might be bold enough to try and play them… And this takes it 2 strokes further, probably playing at least 7500 yards and each green has a unique go-zone. It’s a truly special track and I have no doubt that it has prepared our boys well. (For example, when I used the handicap calculator for the Mark Bostick Golf Course at UF, the “Gator” tees for their team only brought my handicap up to a 16.)

So, while I’m sure its probably amazing to win it and celebrate it as long as your teammates are there. But, with all of the other sports getting the love, why not Golf too? They deserve a better venue and celebration for what it really means to close out a Championship in a sport that is so under-appreciated for its physical and mental demands.