Team vans are an unmistakable symbol of college golf. At any event – be it an NCAA Championship on national television or a Division III tournament in the middle of nowhere – vans line the parking lot.
To the players and coaches who have spent time in them, those vans are a lot more than transport vehicles shuttling them between campus, hotels and the course. It’s a sacred bonding space. Jokes are told, card games are played, meals are sometimes consumed and unofficial coach-player therapy sessions are held.
When their eligibility is over and they look back on their college career, players remember being in the van because they remember the friendships cemented there. With each passing year, they are reminded that the 81 they shot in the final round of that one tournament didn’t really matter. What endures is the relationships.
That’s a major reason why the golf world has collectively shuddered after hearing the devastating news that came to light earlier this week. The University of the Southwest men’s and women’s golf teams, which compete at the NAIA level, played 36 holes on Tuesday at the TankLogix Invitational in Midland, Texas, which is about 100 miles from USW’s campus in Hobbs, New Mexico. As is often the case in lower levels of college golf, the team was returning home after the first day of competition with the intention of driving back to Ranchland Hills Golf Club on Wednesday for the final 18 holes. Many schools of that echelon are granted only one “overnight tournament” during which the team is allowed to stay in a hotel, so such an arrangement is common.
Traveling in Andrews County, about 30 miles east of the New Mexico-Texas border, a Dodge pickup truck crossed the dividing line of the darkened, two-lane asphalt highway, according to Sgt. Steven Blanco of the Texas Department of Public Safety. A head-on collision ensued between the pickup and the USW team van, a 17-passenger Ford Transit van towing a box trailer.
Nine people were killed, six of them Mustangs golfers.
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