Wrapped around the wrist of every member of the Redlands Community College golf team was a red rubber band with one simple word printed in bold letters – adversity.
What turned out as a way for head coach Gerrod Chadwell to remind his team to overcome hurdles on the golf course during the regular season, turned out to be the Cougars battle cry for the 2009 NJCAA Women's National Golf Championships.
“As it turned out, it was the theme for nationals and it was very fitting,” Chadwell said. “Adversity is what we faced every day.”
Redlands, the defending national champion, sat through three days of rain delays as the Dayton Beach, Fla., area was hammered by thunderstorms.
After the Legends Course at the LPGA International Golf Club was flooded by over 20 inches of rain, the 72-hole national championship was whittled down to 18 holes and moved some 50 miles south to the Orlando suburb of Davenport.
The new home was the Providence Golf Course, a par-72 course filled with sand bunkers, natural grasses and wooded wetlands.
“The girls were ready at that point to get a shot, even it was on a putt-putt course,” Chadwell said. “It was tough switching courses. All your yardage books were set for the other course and then you get blindsided and have to prepare for a course you have never seen.”
Holding true to the word around their wrists, Redlands faced the adversity of the course change and horse race title format to shoot a sub-300 round and claim the school's third national championship in the sport by 15 strokes.
“When you play a one-day tournament, it really equalizes the playing field,” Chadwell said. “I thought the course was a little easier than the LPGA, but it worked out to our advantage.”
Redlands carded a 297, which was 9-over-par, to best tournament host Daytona State College's 312. Seminole Community College out of Florida was third with a 313, followed by Texas' McLennan Community College (322) and Illinois' Rend Lake College (326).
“I told the girls to go out and play it safe. I wanted them to hit fairways and greens and that is what they did.
“It was some boring golf but the girls went out and made a lot of pars and that really put the pressure on the two teams we were grouped with (Dayton State and McLennan),” Chadwell said.
Fifteen teams made up the national field, which had a total of 106 golfers, but only nine schools were within 50 strokes of the Cougars. RCC won national titles in 2006 and last season and was runner-up in 2007.
Redlands was led by sophomore Nicola Race, who won the individual medalist title with a 2-under-par 72 – including a 31 in the back nine. She was 5-under through 15 holes before settling with the tourney's low round.
A native of Witham Essex, England, Race was the defending national champion. She becomes the first female golfer to ever win back-to-back medalist titles.
“That was a huge honor and a milestone for both Nicole and our program,” Chadwell said. “That will put her straight into the Junior College Hall of Fame.”
All five golfers for Redlands broke 80, with Florida native Andrea Kaelin shooting a 75 (39-36) to tie for third place in the medalist chase. Both her and Race earned first-team All-American honors for their top 10 finish.
Manchester, England's Kelly MacPhail (37-39), a freshman, and sophomore Emily Kwak (37-39) tied for fifth place with rounds of 76. The pair was named second team All-Americans.
Kaitlin Higginbotham, a freshman from Norman, rounded out the Cougars effort with a round of 79 (39-40), which landed her in a two-way tie for 15th place. She picked up honorable mention All-American status.