- Slug: Cardinals golf, 520 words
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By MARK HARRIS
Cronkite News
CHANDLER — It was a normal Wednesday morning at the Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass, except for one small detail: The Arizona Cardinals were in attendance.
Cardinals players, coaches and team personnel hit the course to connect with fans and for a charitable cause in conjunction with Dignity Health and Cardinals Charities.
And although golf was what brought the Cardinals together, it wasn’t the only focus. Before the event started, Cardinals management admitted it had the 2017 NFL Draft on its mind.
“We have not collected more information than this year on the players that are going to be drafted next week,” Cardinals president Michael Bidwill said. “The scouts, the coaches have been all over the country collecting information, meeting with coaches, trainers, high school coaches, anybody that we could gather more information to help us make the best decisions possible for the team next week.”
Soon after, Bidwill and coach Bruce Arians left the course via helicopter for what they said was for one last player visit.
After a disappointing 7-8-1 season in 2016, the draft will play a key role in the team’s quest to improve.
Defensive end Frostee Rucker, one of the veteran leaders on the Cardinals roster, thinks tampering expectations could help his team.
“I think we just have got to hit the reset button and not really have as many expectations as we had. We can have them personally,” Rucker said. “We’ll get where we want to be. As far as expectations and saying stuff like that, you’re not going to hear them from me this year. It’s just going to be about grinding and coming together and starting from the root of it.”
Following a 2015 campaign when Arizona went 13-3 in the regular season and advanced to the NFC Championship game, it was understandable why expectations were high for the Cardinals in 2016.
But that’s in the past, and now the Cardinals can only look to the future, one that involves a completely new schedule and includes a game against the Los Angeles Rams in London. The team opens with road games in Detroit and Indianapolis.
The schedule has the attention of Cardinals offensive lineman A.Q. Shipley.
“I always look at what D-Lines we’re going against,” he said. “In this league, there’s few and far that aren’t very good, but most of them are really good.”
Along with a career in the NFL, Shipley is an avid golfer and was happy to be on the course for a good cause.
“I was in Scotland for the last week playing golf,” said. “It went pretty good. I was in the mid-80s the whole week in the courses over there.
“I think Ireland’s next. I want to do Ireland.”
And while the Whirlwind Golf Club isn’t in the British Isles, Shipley still seems to enjoy it.
“You know you’re back when you get to this golf tournament,” he said about the offseason workouts that began Monday.
For Rucker, the event is more than a club and a golf ball.
“Today is about hanging out with the boys and just having a good time,” he said.
