Northwestern University Athletics
"Dublin Duo" Focused On A Championship
5/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 31, 2006
(Written by Kyle Adams, Media Services student intern)
EVANSTON, Ill. -- As the 17th-ranked Northwestern men's golf team prepares to do battle for the national championship on the pristine grounds of the Crosswater Golf Course at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore., the "Dublin Duo" that helped lead the team to a second-place showing in the NCAA Central Regional Championship refuses to get dreamy.
"We still haven't played our best golf," junior Chris Wilson said.
Wilson and sophomore Kyle Moore make up the "Dublin Duo", a title that suggests stone fences, green fields and vintage golf lore, but with a closer look only points to a romance-depraved Middle American town in Ohio. The title may be a contrived media construction, but the two have made strides together in Northwestern's historic season.
They tied for fourth at the NCAA Central Regional Championship with a 1-over 214. Wilson earned Big Ten Co-Golfer of the Week on April 25, a week after Moore won it alone. Still, in an individual team sport like golf, team camaraderie is tougher to measure than in sports where every nuance of the game has to be orchestrated.
Even though Wilson went to Dublin Coffman High School and Moore went to Dublin Scioto High School, both played in the top position on their respective teams. Moore nevertheless insists that Wilson had the upper hand early on.
"He was always a lot better than me," he said. "I started playing later than him."
Like many contingent young relationships, it developed at first through the parents. They traveled to tournaments together and Moore says both their parents led them down the path of competitive junior golf together.
When it came time to head to school, Wilson encouraged Moore to come to Northwestern, and helped ease him into the rigors of major collegiate golf.
Maybe it's in the confidence they have in each other. In a game like golf where mental fortitude and focus represent as much as training and endurance in football, a connection that spans years can mean everything.
"We're good friends now outside of golf," Moore said. "It was really good for my freshman year. I was coming to school and I had someone I knew. I wasn't coming in blindly. He told me what to expect. It was nice to have someone to show me the ropes."
But on the eve of the start of the national championship tournament, neither was willing to succumb to sentimentalism. They've each had their individual moments this year. Moore won the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate on his own turf at Dublin's Muirfield Village Golf Club and participated in the Nationwide Tour's Virginia Beach Open while Wilson earned first-team All-Big Ten honors and won the individual Big Ten title. Throughout it all, though, they've been defined by a serene focus that they'll carry into the National Championship.
"I'm going to try to be as patient as I can," Wilson said. "I don't really have expectations individually. I don't really believe in them or like having them before tournaments. I'm just going to go out and try to play the best golf I possibly can."
It's a focus that has been reinforced by their relationship and maybe it's a focus that will help the "Dublin Duo" create their own golf lore in Oregon this week.
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Northwestern tees off at 9:30 a.m. CT on Wednesday and then 2:42 p.m. CT on Thursday. Tee times for Friday and Saturday will be determined by the team's standing.
Live scoring for the event is available at NCAA Men's Golf National Championships.
