5/12/11
Looking back to the past season, ART U's Womens Golf Team traveled from near-by Monterey to the far-out "Aloha State," Hawaii. We almost crossed the entire United States! (Not just the past Spring season for which I had started writing for the school but including the Fall semester as well, completing the entire school year.) And we did not just play, we played well. This is the breakdown of our traveling for eight months:

FALL 2010
Sonoma, California
Phoenix, Arizona
Bellingham, Washington
Monterey, California
Big Island, Hawaii

Spring 2011
Austin, Texas
East Bay - SF, California
Monterey, California
Goodyear, Arizona
Monterey, California
Granbury, Texas

From Texas to Hawaii, our experiences involved a 20-hr one-way trip, tears, screams, jumps, goodbyes, dancing, penalties, and flood. This year we had amazing food, played great games, and had met new friends, but also suffered regrets, failures, and goodbyes.

I'd like to take this moment to say goodbye and thanks to one of our own, Laura Huertas. She decided to transfer to Florida to take up Criminology, so this is her last semester at ART U. Laura is the clown of our team - she makes us laugh, lightens every moment, and is a great teammate. Even from afar, you could tell who Laura is. Laura, thanks for making us chuckle and keeping us all happy in moments of stress. I will never forget that you're the first person I kept hugging during my freshman year - so thanks for being so huggable and good to us. We'll see you in Florida soon!

This Spring season, ART U finished 11th in the Region. Coach Michele reminds us that, although we aren't eligible yet for post-season yet, we just missed the Regionals by one team. This is a big deal because it measures up to how close we are. This a team of sheer grit - not only being one of the top teams in all of Academy of Art's Athletics  -  the women's golf team also has the highest GPA of members combined. As straight-A students and good athletes, we forget that even our bad is still okay. Striving for excellence naturally comes with a struggle. During our final season meeting, Coach Michele confirmed that we are, indeed, now Top 23 in the nation... not too shabby for a program that only started two years ago. Again, really well done to all my teammates, the coaching staff, and our supporters.

Looking forward to this next season, we are sure of an even more intense experience -- and expectations. As an example: For next semester, I am taking up classes in producing, advertising, acting, and physics. No other student-athlete in the nation can attest to that kind of subject diversity. We are also welcoming new players both on the men's and women's side. With that being said, most of us will be upperclassmen next semester and will become legitimate standard-bearers of ART U golf. Two years done; last two more years to go.

Now, this is my last blog for the site. I loved writing here and I'll miss you guys (hopefully, I will be back in Spring 2012.) I'll leave you with a beautiful photograph of Waikaloa's Hole #7 in Hawaii, as a reminder of why we do what we do.

Go Urban Knights!

-C. Superal



4/18/11

I usually put the game results at the end of the article, but this time will be different. I'm very proud; we played so well in the Tarleton tournament! Out of 22 teams, ART U finished tied for 5th. If I'm not mistaken, this is our team's best finish in a high-stakes tourney. Job well done!



Remember my previous article on the Chico tournament? I described Canyon Oaks as the hardest course I've seen in collegiate golf so far. I take that back - Tarleton's home course, Harbor Lakes, is, in my definition, the craziest. Perhaps it's just the way the course sits, the bright sunlight, or harsh weather, I didn't like the course or think I could score well there.


The practice round was so hot, it turned Laura's skin to bright red. In the first round of the tournament, the wind howled so hard that it knocked golf bags and even people off. My tiny frame barely survived the wind's gust. But we kind of anticipated that anyway, because Texas had tornado warnings the night before. Some days you're just glad to survive; this is one. In our case, we survived it with much gusto, putting ourselves at 6th place after a rough Day 1.

Day 2, as the stranger said at the airport, is "the best golfing day Texas has had for months." The course was calm and gorgeous. My teammate Lyra led the team with a cool 74, shooting a 2-under par 34 in the treacherous back nine. (I'm proud of you, roomie!) I had a 77, which is not so bad I think, after a blah 4-putt on the second hole. After putting it so strong that I ended up 15 yards behind the green, I remember mumbling to myself, "Wow, first time I've ever done that." I was so bewildered that I found it funny. Staying in the present, I guess, is the key. Anyway, Andrea posted her season low 76 and Laura finished with an 81. As earlier mentioned, team ART U finished tied for 5th out of 22 teams.

As for the travel: After a cruel 10-hour trip that crossed Texas - Albuquerque - Las Vegas - San Francisco, we finally arrived home. This particular three-airport trip can be a separate blog in and itself, but maybe for some other time. As a tradition, Coach Michele gave us markers and reminded us that, indeed, we are one of the top teams in the nation. This strong performance for our season-ender proved just that.

-C. Superal

4/11/11
Super bad and super good. This tournament is filled with superlatives indeed: super good new golf shoes (four of us got new ones), super bad golf course, super good weather, super bad first round, super good second round, super annoying scoring mistake, and super good Mexican food. More on that later.

The golf course Palm Valley (Phoenix, Arizona) will always be close to my heart for no other reason but because I haven't broken 85 there. I was so looking forward to take my revenge, until I shot an 84 on the first day - wait - 86. For the first time in my ten years of golfing, I made a mistake on my scorecard. In one hole I got a 4, but instead told my scorer to write a 6. The story is a lot more complicated than I can ever explain, but bottom-line is, it was my fault (and I promise I won't do it again.) In the scoreboard, I shot an 86 - I didn't realize that two strokes can hurt so bad until today.

Now on to the good stuff. After a super bad team score on the first day (except, kudos to Laura Huertas shooting 75), we turned that all the way around and had an incredible evening. My teammate Sierra and her family invited us to sumptuous Mexican dinner at their home. We had Honey Bear bread, chicken and/or beef mixed with a special barbecue sauce - just an all-around homemade treat for all of us international student-golfers. We even indulged in some Wii dancing. Crazy! As Mariana succinctly said, "I feel like I just did one full week of abs just laughing at Coach Michele's dance." Definitely one of the best, most fun moments in ART U women's golf team history.

It was either the nachos or the dancing - the next day, we shot our best-ever team score! I had a cool 73, Laura 74, Lyra 75 and Andrea 80 for a total of 302. We ended up at 10th place out of 13 teams, even after improving so many strokes from the first round.



In the end, the good prevailed over the bad. I think that says so much about my team - working hard, improving, having fun and being there for each other no matter what. I could easily tell the difference compared to the other teams, and I mean that. Next week is our last event for the Spring semester. The Tarleton tournament in Texas is our last hurrah of the season. I have a feeling that it will be as eventful as this one. I'll keep you posted!














-C. Superal



4/1/11
After weeks of playing in soggy courses, rainy, and cold weather, we finally found sunshine at Monterey this week. This is will the first time in a long time that my golf shoes remained pristine after a six-hour round. More importantly, the team felt happy to play under "normal" conditions in gorgeous Black Horse - a  challenge we always look forward to.



Let me talk about the golf course a little bit more. Black Horse Bayonet is regarded as one of the most beautiful golf courses in Monterey Bay. What sets it apart from typical beautiful courses though, are the greens. These are the most distinguished greens I've ever seen in my life. I even call it crazy if you ever dared be in a wrong spot. But it's just gorgeous in Seaside this week, and it's exciting to play golf in that state.



This Monterey tournament is one of the biggest fields we will face for the whole year. It comprised of 21 teams from all over the nation. As for me, I shot 165. At one point, I had to go in the trees, surrounded by branches and leaves (I'm tiny, I can fit) and hit my ball from there. I had to kneel in bunkers, hit sand shots that are inches away from the edge, and putt from unreal corners of the green. It was tough, to say the least. Suffice to say, the team was beyond drained after the round, even involving tears from some players. Academy of Art finished at 15th place, with Laura Huertas leading the team with a total score of 160. Not bad per team effort, but definitely shows more room for improvement.

There was also an incident in which Coach Michele had to call on a penalty to my teammate Andrea, as she apparently grounded her club while inside a bunker. Nobody expected or wanted this to happen, but at the end of the day, this just all serves us a good lesson. Overall, a pretty memorable week for us indeed. As the saying goes, "if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't teach." Perhaps Arizona will be better for us next week? One thing's for sure: we are looking forward to the heat. See you soon!



-C. Superal













3/28/11
I consider the women's golf team my second family - Coach Michele, Andrea, Laura, Lyra, Sierra, Mariana, Khadija, and Carolina. I've been part of many teams in my ten years of playing golf, but our mutual closeness with each other is what I found unique in this group. First of all, we're all international players, coming from six out of the seven continents in the world. Second, we're an exclusive list of golfers-artists. In fact, the Urban Knights are the one and only athlete-artists in all of the NCAA. So I took up this offer to write, because I love this family, and I believe it's worthwhile to share the stories of our adventures, our long journey of improving and winning. Not many are gifted with this opportunity of a lifetime, so it's truly an honor for us to represent Academy of Art University in a way that was never done before.

Welcome to my first ever post!

For our third tournament in the season, the team drove up to Chico, California. Already doubtful of the stormy weather haunting the Bay Area lately, my Coach Michele had to confirm several times if the tournament was on. Nevertheless, we continued on the 3-hour trip, hoping that we could at least get one round of golf in.



The first thing I noticed about Canyon Oaks golf course is how narrow it is - surrounded by red and white stakes (hazards) in almost every hole, it is atypical of what I've been seeing in college golf so far. It the kind of golf course that demands precision, extra caution and mindful course management. That is challenge number one. Second - and the biggest factor for the whole event - was the weather. We started playing in the rain at about 45 degrees, which is not bad. As we continued the round, it reached to about 35 degrees plus chilly wind, to the point that many teams didn't even finish the practice round. I remember seeing only one other team, East Bay, being with us in the entire course. With that weather, it's expected to see extremely soggy fairways to which, of course, my teammates played with.

Round 1

The tournament organizers decided to delay the tee time until 1pm, allowing for the course to dry up a little bit. I teed off with three layers of shirts, three layers of long pants, a cap, an ear warmer, and a hand warmer inside my pocket. (In case you're wondering how I play golf like this, I don't really have a choice. Slowly, you get by.) At first it wasn't that cold, but I better be ready. The weather forecast predicts rain pretty much like 24/7. In the back nine, light rain showers came in, then hail, thunder, and more rain. We were ordered to pause our games and retreat to the clubhouse just in case the lightning gets worse, hits our metal golf clubs, and electrocutes us. 

So we began with heat, cold, hail, rain, thunder and even more rain. After an hour in the clubhouse, we had to go back out to the course again. I was just shaking my head at how the course looked more like a pond than flat land to me. After a cruel seven hours, we finally finished the round. Team ART U shot a total of 324, finishing tied for 4th out of 9 teams.

Round 2

Weather forecasts said it will be clear today. Still too cold, but better than yesterday. I honestly thought that if we survived yesterday's conditions, we could survive anything. I hoped for a lot lower score on the second day. I did end up shooting better, but apparently not enough. During the round, I acquired four calluses - at one point, my hand burned when I held my club. I figured that happens when I tighten my grip too much because of the cold. With my 80, Lyra's 81, Laura's 82, and Carolina's 85, team ART U finished the tournament tied for 4th place. Coach's parting words were, "We did beat a team ranked higher than us, and that is always good. But looking forward, we know we can get better, so we will improve on par 3 and par 5 statistics. We will keep working harder on that. This semester, we HAVE to win." We have this tradition in which Coach Michele gives us markers every time we play well. Before driving back home to San Francisco, she did hand them out to us, and that's always nice.

In spite of the extreme conditions, we managed to get home in one piece, knowing that we gave it our all. And that's always the most important thing in a fickle game like golf.

I am looking forward to our next battle in Monterey next week. See you guys soon!

-C. Superal