|
Hoey Eying LPGA Tour
by Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
April 20, 2007
LONG BEACH - Toward the end of the fall semester, Long Beach State women's
golf coach Sue Ewart decided it was time for a little heart-to-heart time
with her best golfer.
But the message to Kay Hoey was delivered straight to the gut.
"She came in to the office and I told her `I think we need to start
brushing up on your resume," ' Ewart said, a mischievous twinkle
in her eye, while sitting across an El Dorado Golf Course coffee shop
table from the 21-year-old Communication Studies major after a practice
round Wednesday morning.
Hoey has considered a career touring with the Ladies Professional Golf
Association a viable option "since I was a sophomore (at Rancho Cucamonga
High)."
It wasn't hard to read into her coach's "resume" insinuation:
"She'd always told me she wanted to play on the (LPGA) tour some
day," Ewart said, Hoey anxiously awaiting her opportunity to chime
in, being the topic of conversation and all.
"But I said, `At the rate you're going, you're not going to be ready
(to play professionally), so you might as well brush up on that resume
now and gear up toward the job market and see what you might want to end
up doing (for a living) some day."
Ewart smiled again.
"I think she might have been a little shocked," she said. "Actually,
it might have pissed her off a little bit."
Uh, huh.
"It sure did!" Hoey said, laughing.
Two years ago, Hoey had a dazzling freshman year of golf, earning Big
West Conference Golfer of the Year and second-team All-American honors
while finishing fifth in the NCAA West regionals and tied for 27th in
the NCAA championships.
Although she didn't win a tournament last year and didn't qualify for
the nationals, she did finish third in the Big West Tournament last spring
and her scoring average has dropped more than two strokes per round to
74.14.
But, after opening her junior season by winning a tournament hosted by
Colorado State, Hoey finished with ties for sixth, 21st and 15th in the
49ers' final three events of the first semester while not shooting better
than 76 over her final seven rounds.
That ego jolt was enough to jumpstart her approach to the game she'd been
playing since she was 10 years-old.
Long conversations with Ewart and her swing coach, Tom Sargent, helped,
as did a slight change of her grip that has enabled her to hit the ball
higher and straighter on drives, without as much hook.
"But I think the difference is more `mental' than `technical',"
Hoey said.
"I just try to approach things one hole at a time and try to play
each shot where I want it. I'm not thinking about my score or the next
hole."
Hoey was so good, right away, as a collegian that her freshman performance
might have moved the bar up a few notches higher than she was ready to
clear until recently.
"She was so comfortable and focused all the way through the nationals
(as a freshman)," Ewart said.
"And once she was able to look back and reflect, it was probably
something like `OK, what do I do next year (as an encore)?"' Last
year, "You could see the frustration in her face and I knew it was
because she was just pushing too hard," Ewart said. "And, in
golf, the harder you push, sometimes, the harder it gets. You have to
sit back and `just let it happen' instead of being too aggressive.
And it's just such a fine line."
With the Big West championships set for Monday and Tuesday at Tijeras
Creek in Rancho Santa Margarita, Hoey seems to be toeing that `fine line'
well enough to make a serious run at dethroning individual champion Selanee
Henderson of UC Irvine and helping the
49ers upset the Anteaters for the team title.
She opened the spring semester by winning a tournament in Fresno, then
finished in ties for fifth and sixth in events hosted by UNLV and Arizona
State.
Then, two weeks ago, she showed why those LPGA aspirations have plenty
of legitimacy.
Playing in the Peg Barnard Tournament (hosted by Stanford), she broke
her own school record of 67 by two strokes in the first round, then followed
up with a 69 the next day to win the 13-team event by three strokes.
"All of a sudden," Hoey said of that 65, "I was hitting
the drives I wanted and all of my other shots were doing what I wanted."
A double-bogey on Hole No. 11 in the second round left her two over the
par for the day "but then I said to myself, `OK, let's suck it up!"'
she said.
"I didn't want to have to come back to the clubhouse and have people
say it (the 65) was just a fluke."
As much as Hoey aspires to join the LPGA tour ("I'm a golf nerd;
I watch a lot of it on TV and I think `Yeah, I can do those things those
girls are doing!"'), she's not going to rush into it.
With that in mind, she's going to bypass matches with her Long Beach teammates
next year while spending the year as a redshirt and will play her "senior"
year in 2008-09.
"There are a lot of things she needs to do (to prepare for the LPGA)
to work on her game," Ewart said.
"She needs to spend a year fine-tuning her short (putting) game and
working on her ability to make a lot of different shots. Those are things
you can't do when you're traveling and getting ready for matches."
So, if all goes according to plan, some two years from now she will be
playing for pay.
"I just don't want to get ahead of myself because those girls (pros)
are good," Hoey said. "Really good."
Ewart thinks the redshirt approach will pay off in the long run - literally
and figuratively.
"A lot of girls turn pro too early and get smacked around a little
bit," Ewart said.
"I want Kay to have a chance to play well enough right away (on the
LPGA tour) to at least cover expenses as she moves her way up instead
of having to flounder around on the mini-tour for a couple of years and
getting frustrated."
|
