Cell phones do not normally belong on the golf course, but Amanda Blumenherst can't resist checking her text messages during practice.
The texts are from Blumenhert's swing coach, Mike LaBauve, who analyzes the senior's swing all the way from Scottsdale, Ariz., 160 characters at a time.
"It will be like, 'OK now, when you're set up at address, I want you to close the club face, and when you take it back, keep feeling like it's closed and then swing down and to the left,'" Blumenherst said of the typical text. "[It's like] step-by-step instructions on my phone."
At Duke's practice facility, the Blue Devils' coaching staff uses special software and video equipment to send LaBauve video footage of Blumenherst's swing. He writes e-mails, sends text messages and makes phone calls to Duke head coach Dan Brooks to eradicate the smallest flaws in Blumenherst's otherwise natural swing.
At one point this season, the face of Blumenherst's club was slightly closed. Trying to compensate, Blumenherst over-adjusted and soon was setting up with an open club face.
"If she can just knock off half of a shot [each round], in a four-day tournament, that's four strokes," said Dave Blumenherst, Amanda Blumenherst's father. "If she can make that extra putt, get that one extra up and down around, that can win a college tournament.... I like to tell everyone that Amanda's best asset is between her ears. It's her mind that has gotten her to where she is today."
LaBauve admits that Blumenherst's swing may not win any contests for looking picture perfect, but he notes that it is still as pure as any other player's stroke.
"She's got a little bit of a dip with her body," LaBauve said. "She gets the club in a couple of positions that some people would say 'Well, that's not ideal.' But when she gets close to impact, she's got [the club] in a better position than almost anyone else. And that is the only thing that the ball cares about, where it is right before it's about to get hit."
Blumenherst may not be Duke's highest-profile athlete on campus, but she is arguably its most accomplished. She is a three-time National Player of the Year and has led her team to two national titles and three ACC championships. And she has won every major accolade in college golf, barring one: the individual national title.
But even Blumenherst is not immune from media pressure and trying to meet her own personal expectations. In the summer of 2008, Blumenherst wore down mentally, especially since she did not take any time off from tournament play after winning the U.S. Women's Amateur.
At the beginning of the season, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the senior would become the first player in NCAA history to win four straight National Player of the Year crowns.
But remaining the best player in the country is even more difficult than earning the honor once--, let alone four times in a row. This season, Blumenherst has still been one of the NCAA's elite players, but it is unlikely that she will repeat as the nation's best.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, on Tuesday, Blumenherst won an individual draw for the first time this year-the 12th individual win of her career-despite terrible weather. A win in gusty, cold and rainy conditions is fitting for a season in which Blumenherst has struggled-: The tournament was yet another test and took a score of just 222 in 54 holes to win. But winning in the difficult environment may suggest she's playing her best golf again.
"I know she's swinging well at it because in those windy conditions that she's had, you've got to be hitting the ball really, really well to be able to score," Dave Blumenherst said. "Because what's going to happen if you're not hitting the ball that well in windy conditions like they just came back from in Florida, [is that] your ball, your flight is going to be very vulnerable to the conditions. If you get a draw and it's going right to left, that ball is gone. If you hit a fade and that ball is going left to right, that ball is gone."
And if Blumenherst needs a quick fix for her swing, LaBauve will be just a text message away. When Duke is on the road, LaBauve sends Blumenherst video messages of swings he creates using his own computer software. To see them, she is forced to use Brooks' phone--her's can't receive videos.
"I have an iPhone," Blumenherst said. "You'd think they'd have it, but they don't."
Blumenhurst's phone may be just short of perfect, but if she wins an individual national title, her career would hardly be short of perfection.
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