Nov. 13, 2007
The following story appears in the November edition of KnightVision. Produced 10 times per year, KnightVision is the official publication of the UCF Athletics Asssociation. Each issue includes stories about UCF teams, student-athletes and coaches. To order 10 exciting issues from August through June, call 1-888-877-4373 (ext. 121) or 336-768-3400 (ext. 121).
Junior May Tomimbang is starting to turn it on. The `it' in this case is her golf game. After two campaigns with the Knights where her stroke average hovered around 79 as she transitioned to collegiate golf, Tomimbang finished the 2007 fall season with a team-low stroke average of 74.83.
"I think her first couple of years, she was learning what it takes to be a student-athlete combined," UCF women's golf head coach Emilee Klein said. "She didn't play up to what I think she would think were her capabilities.
"All of sudden this year she has really blossomed. I still think she has a lot in there that is ready to come out, but she has put in a lot of work and you can really see the progress that she has made. It has been fun to watch."
Tomimbang, who has been playing golf since the age of nine, credits a renewed discipline and a lot of mental training over the summer to her resurgence on the course.
"My course management has improved," Tomimbang said. "Instead of taking an aggressive shot, I have been more conservative and given myself more options. I have ended up making the right decisions on the course."
Part of that stems from some time on the course with the man who introduced her to the game as a young girl, her father Wendell. "We go out about once a month and he challenges me with different types of shots," Tomimbang said. "I am trying to be more creative on the course and those types of challenges really help me."
This was no more apparent than the opening round of the UA-Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate in late October when she posted her low 18-hole score as a collegian with a 71 (E).
Low scores are not something new to Tomimbang, who once carded a nine-under 63 in a junior event, but her 71 was a tell-tell sign for both her and Klein that she was returning to the form that made her a highly-touted recruit out of Kissimmee's Gateway High School. She was a four-time all-state performer as a prep standout.
"It is just easy (for her) right now," Klein said. "It is not even that she is playing her best golf, it is just easy golf. When she starts getting to where she is playing great golf, you are going to see her scores go really low."
Tomimbang's hard work over the summer not only helped her mental approach, but she is also driving the ball 20-30 yards further off the tee, which she says has given her more chances to attack holes and thus implement her new creative approach into her shot-making.
The Knights will be off for the next few months from team competition before returning to the course in Puerto Rico in February, but Tomimbang will be continuing to work hard at taking her momentum from the fall with her into the spring season, which is the one that really counts in women's collegiate golf. "I really see a fighter in her," Klein said. "She really wants to play well. She is trying her hardest. She has always tried her hardest. May has always wanted to play well, but for some reason this year she has blossomed and come back to that player I always knew she was."
- Ryan Powell