CARLSBAD, Calif. – Texas A&M head coach Gerrod Chadwell calls Adela Cernousek, his junior from Antibes, France, by the nickname “Fish.” It’s a time period, Chadwell says, used for freshmen, and since Cernousek was Chadwell’s first when he took the Aggies’ job three years in the past, the moniker caught.
Chadwell remembers when he picked Cernousek up from the airport the summer time earlier than her freshman season. She had signed below the earlier coach, Andrea Gaston, and Chadwell, barely figuring out the child, sensed some reluctance from Cernousek.
“I didn’t know if she actually needed to be there,” Chadwell recalled.
However below Chadwell’s steering, Cernousek stored swimming.
And on Monday night at Omni La Costa, each she and Chadwell fought again tears as Cernousek polished off her first collegiate victory, a three-shot win over Florida State’s Lottie Woad on the NCAA Division I Girls’s Golf Championship.
“I don’t assume I used to be respiration in any respect throughout the entire day right now,” Cernousek mentioned. “Yeah, I’m identical to – I don’t imagine it. It’s loopy.”
Her youthful self absolutely wouldn’t have believed it.
Cernousek was ranked No. 231 on the planet when she inked her nationwide letter of intent to play for the Aggies in November 2020. She was a uncooked expertise with a ton of energy and athleticism – her dad, Ludek, performed volleyball for the Czech nationwide crew. However when Cernousek arrived in Faculty Station, Chadwell observed that her golf equipment resembled extra of what you’d see in freshmen’ baggage – inventory specs, graphite shafts, aqua grips.
“You couldn’t get extra off-the-rack,” Chadwell mentioned.
Cernousek shortly obtained fitted for brand spanking new golf equipment, however acclimating to life within the Lonestar State proved harder. For the primary few months, she battled homesickness; the meals actually didn’t assist issues. Chadwell mentioned he and Cernousek “butted heads loads,” and there have been some powerful conversations. He subbed her out for the second spherical of her first SEC Championship, even after she had posted 5 top-20s in her first eight school begins.
“We let her study the arduous manner,” Chadwell mentioned. “However we stayed constant, and there was plenty of belief constructed that 12 months.”
With assurance from Chadwell that every part can be OK, as long as she stayed the course, Cernousek capped her debut season by tying for twenty first in her first NCAA Championship after which going 2-0 in match play because the Aggies made a shock run to the semifinals at Grayhawk. As a sophomore, she solely posted one top-10 but additionally completed exterior the highest 30 as soon as – and that was a T-31. She was T-14 in her second journey to nationals whereas going 1-0-1 in match play as Texas A&M once more made the Closing Fore.
This season was Cernousek’s greatest but, her win Monday marking her seventh top-6 end of the season. In eight spring begins alone, Cernousek by no means positioned worse than T-13.
“This isn’t by simply luck, both,” Chadwell mentioned. “She trains extraordinarily arduous.”
Chadwell raves about Cernousek’s work ethic. She couldn’t dwell any nearer to the Aggies’ house course, Traditions Golf Membership, renting an residence that’s a couple of 15-minute stroll to the crew’s facility. She is also ruthless within the health club. And that preliminary tradition shock? Cernousek purchased her first pair of cowboy boots this 12 months.
Extra not too long ago, she busted down the door by successful her U.S. Girls’s Open qualifier, carding rounds of 65-73 at Golfcrest Nation Membership in Pearland, Texas. It was an odd victory, too, as thunderstorms pushed play right into a second day; Cernousek needed to drive the almost two hours again house to pack for the NCAA Championship after which drive again to wrap up her closing spherical.
“I believe that gave her the arrogance that she looks like she belongs on this stage,” Chadwell mentioned.
This week bolstered that self-belief. Cernousek constructed a six-shot lead over Woad, the current Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Newbie winner who additionally contended finally month’s Chevron Championship, after 54 holes. She birdied her first gap Monday and solely carded two bogeys in capturing 72, her worst rating of the championship by 4 photographs.
As Cernousek stepped out of scoring, she instantly FaceTime’d her dad and mom, who had been watching the published from again in France, the place it was already nicely previous 3 a.m. Whereas one hand-held the telephone, Cernousek’s different hand coated her mouth; she was speechless, as had been he dad and mom.
“They couldn’t imagine it, both,” Cernousek mentioned.
Chadwell was additionally on his telephone, dialing up his spouse, LPGA participant Stacy Lewis. Throughout Cernousek’s freshman 12 months, she was the one Aggie to not go house for the vacations, spending each Thanksgiving and Christmas with Chadwell, Lewis and their then-3-year-old daughter, Chesnee.
Lower than three years later, Cernousek has turn into Texas A&M’s first NCAA particular person champion – and her stellar play additionally has the Aggies in match play for a 3rd straight 12 months; they’ll face UCLA in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
“It’s simply superb to see the expansion in a younger girl, and that’s all you’ll be able to ask for as a coach,” Chadwell mentioned, choking up. “Wins are nice, however simply to see her have this, she’s so deserving.”
Chadwell then added, after gathering himself, “I want I had 5 of her.”
He solely will get one.
However his little fish, nicely, she simply stored swimming, all the way in which to a nationwide championship.
