Published: May 21, 2008 09:52 pm            

Tway rides hot streak to NCAA Championships

Oklahoma State freshman Kevin Tway heads into next week’s NCAA Championships at Purdue’s Kampen Course on a hot streak, following his medalist performance at the NCAA Central Regional last weekend.

The former Edmond North standout, who is the son of PGA Tour pro Bob Tway, has hit his stride at the end of the season, taking second place at the Big 12 Tournament and The Maxwell, before earning his first win of the season on Sunday at the NCAA Central Regional held at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.

“I thought he had one good tournament in the spring. He had some good rounds, but he was not consistent,” OSU head golf coach Mike McGraw said. “But as the spring season came to an end, he found his way. It was immaturity more than anything. He came here with high expectations, and he has proved what he is capable of doing towards the end of the season, because he is more comfortable now.”

The cause of his recent success has been learning to adjust to the college life.

“I’ve been hitting the ball well all season, the biggest thing is I’ve been growing up, learning how to manage my time, basically just quit being a kid. That was tough in the beginning, because we’re on the road a lot and miss class a lot. You’re just always behind in class work, trying to catch up,” Tway said.

And as Tway heats up, so do the Cowboys, finishing no worse than second in its last four tournaments, which dates back to March 26. The Cowboys recently won its 51st conference title, and is among the front-runners to take home the NCAA title — which would give the school 11. Bob Tway was a member of OSU’s 1978 and 1980 national titles.

“We don’t talk about that, we haven’t even mentioned a national championship,” McGraw said. “But, the thing I love about this team is everyone gets along very well. They care about each other, they care about how each other does, and they care about how the team does. That is the hardest thing for golf coach to do, is get a team to think about team, in such an individual sport.”

Especially on a team that consists of some of the top individual golfers around, including Rickie Fowler, Tway’s roommate, who recently won the 2008 Ben Hogan Award, which goes to the top collegiate golfer in the nation.

“It really isn’t’ that hard, we spend so much time together in practice and in the classroom,” Tway said. “We’re (Tway and Fowler) competitive, but it’s a lot of fun living with him. It’s given me the opportunity to watch him, and learn from him.”

McGraw thinks nerves will play a big part in how Tway performs at the NCAA Championships.

“He has to handle the expectations, nerves are going to come into play. He just needs to relax and take it easy, if he can do that, the rest will take care of itself,” McGraw said.

The NCAA Championship will be played May 28-31.

        

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