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Kinney comes in from cold, transfers to San Jose State Tai Kinney made and kept a commitment to the University of Minnesota. The school did not reciprocate. As such, Kinney, the Class 4A girls golf co-champion last year for North Medford High, will transfer to tradition-rich San Jose State University next fall. Kinney honored her commitment to Minnesota by fashioning the best scoring average in school history for a first-year player and finishing tied for 24th at the Big Ten Conference championships last weekend. After leading the Gophers at the Big Ten with rounds of 75, 79, 82 and 83 for a 319 at Urbana, Ill., she ended the season with a 78.28 average per round, the 14th best in school history. Her steady play contrasted sharply with the shaky state of the program. It was during a tournament three weeks earlier that Kinney and her teammates learned, via a newspaper article, that women's and men's golf and men's gymnastics would be discontinued, effective June 30, for budget reasons. "We didn't' hear about it through the president's office or the athletic department," says Kinney. "It was released through the press, and they said it was all speculation and that there was no hard evidence." A week later, administrators divulged the plans. A week after that - in the wake of financial commitments from boosters to fund the sports in the short term - school officials did an about-face and put off dropping the programs until at least 2003. But the damage was done. Before too long, the women's team will likely have lost all four of its scholarship players and its two recruits. Third-year coach Melissa Arthur-Ringler is also job hunting. "I think it's very understandable," Arthur-Ringler says of the exodus, adding that the university released athletes from their commitments and she made calls on behalf of players looking for other schools. In Kinney's case, she called the University of Washington, among others, but Kinney's father, Rob, had already been exploring options. He called San Jose State, says Spartan director of golf Nancy Lewis, and after Kinney was released from Minnesota, Lewis spoke with the Kinneys and brought Tai in the fold. Kinney was caught off-guard by the severity of Minnesota's winter but says she was excited about the team's prospects and would have returned to the school were it not for the budget issue. Arthur-Ringler isn't so sure. "I think there might have been that inclination (to transfer), no matter what," says the coach, citing the weather and the distance from home. "I think this gives Tai a good excuse to figure out what her options are. This might be one of the best things for her. She has very high goals, and this is not a situation she needs to be in." Because of the weather, the Gophers did most of their practicing in a golf dome in which the ball only traveled about 60 yards before being collected by a net. It was like monitoring ball flight on a radar screen the size of a wristwatch. One blip and it was gone. "Winter came as a little bit of a shock to me," says Kinney, who takes her last exam May 13, then will return to Medford. "I didn't realize that come March, there would still be snow on the ground. Then March passed, and it wasn't until April 9 that we got on the course. That was a little tough to take." On the one hand, going from "the frozen tundra," says Kinney, to other locales for tournaments was a hindrance against teams that regularly practice outside. On the other hand, the Gophers were ranked 14th in the Central Region a month ago and the men's team is ranked 23rd in the country. Most telling, perhaps, is that once word of the cuts leaked, the Gopher women averaged 10 shots more per round over their final three tournaments and plummeted in the rankings. Kinney ended the season feeling as though she had a decent campaign. Her short game, which was a strength in high school, divorced her, and that will give her something to focus on this summer. "I definitely need to step it up there," she says. "I'd say my putting has hurt me the most. Around the greens, I haven't had my touch." There were high points, to be sure, and none greater than a return to her home state the last week in March for a tournament hosted by the University of Oregon. At Mallard Creek in Lebanon, Kinney shot 2-under-par 70 in the third and final round to tie for fourth place individually and lead Minnesota to fifth place. She was 5 over for the event. It was gratifying to play well in front of her family, to break par and to "get a glimpse of my potential," she says. Another who took notice was Lewis, whose San Jose State team placed third and was paired with Minnesota in the final round. Lewis knew of Kinney in high school but didn't recruit her because she already had commitments from the two players she needed. At the Oregon tournament, she didn't follow Kinney's group but "was very aware of her skill level." Now Kinney - who plans to eventually give pro golf a shot and, if that doesn't work out, to teach the game - is coming in from the cold. She'll join a San Jose State program that has won three national titles and has been a fixture in the rankings for the last quarter-century. Among its alumna are LPGA stars Juli Inkster, Janice Moodie, Pat Hurst and Tracy Hanson. The Spartans, who will lose three seniors, play in the NCAA Western Regional next week at Stanford in hopes of qualifying for nationals. "We're thrilled," Lewis says of landing Kinney. "I think she'll be a super, super asset to our program. I try not to bring anyone in unless I think they'll have immediate success on the course and in school. Tai will have an immediate impact for us." That's something to which both coach and player are committed. 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