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There's something therapeutic about a perfect day in May with all the golf balls flying straight and the course wide open. It's a day that suggests all is well with the world and life goes on and on.

The golf team at Guilford College lined up along the practice tee at the Cardinal Golf & Country Club on a beautiful afternoon and hit balls into an achingly blue sky and tried to understand how that's possible.

Korky Kemp stood by and watched as the fourth-ranked team in the nation prepared for the NCAA Division III golf tournament with the weight of the world on its shoulders.

"Everybody's still grieving," he said. "They still have a lot of questions."

Their coach died suddenly on April 28 after returning home from a match, and life for the guys who played for Jack Jensen hasn't been the same since. Somehow, they have to play for a national championship this week.

Kemp, a Greensboro native who played at N.C. State, already had a relationship with the players. Jensen had invited him to come talk to the team many times as a member of the College Golf Fellowship, a faith-based outreach program for college golfers. In the days after Jensen's death, the players decided to approach Kemp to ask him to travel with the team the rest of the year.

"It was an honor," Kemp said.

The role of golf coach is one of the least understood in all of coaching, and Jensen was the perfect example. He liked to say his main job was to make sure they all had a ride to and from the tournaments and that they had plenty of water when they got there.

Of course it's much more complicated, and most college golfers will tell you that much of the coaching is done during the long trips to and from the tournaments. Kemp remembers those trips from his days at State, and he can relate to what the players need in a coach and a mentor.

"It's good just to be there for them, to love on the guys and answer their questions about golf or life or whatever," he said. "It's been a good experience, and we're excited about this week. It's always fun to play for a national championship."

Jensen's teams won three national titles at Guilford, and Kemp arranged for a teleconference call Thursday night with players from those teams to give the current players an idea of what they're getting ready to face. But it's doubtful any team in America is facing what this team is up against right now.

"It's been tough," senior Peter Latimer said. "It was so hard, but we have to do this. Some things you don't have a choice about. We have to go on to the next golf tournament because that's what Coach would want us to do. You don't particularly feel like being there when you get there."

He's the No. 1-ranked player in Division III golf, and Kemp knows the key to winning a fourth national golf title for Guilford will likely depend on how Latimer plays and how well he carries the team with him in Hershey, Pa.

Kemp's role is to just be there for the team for anything they might need.

"The golf part is just to get them mentally prepared to play their best, not to change their golf swings or anything," he said.

He'll take a copy of one of Jensen's hall-of-fame speeches and read it to the team before the tournament. He'll ride up with them and be there on the course and make sure they have plenty of water and hope all the golf balls fly straight.

"There's more to this than golf," he said. "We're talking about life and death issues. We're talking about how we can all get through this, what it all means, how we deal with death. I feel like I'm here for a reason, and I hope I can give them some guidance or wisdom, let them know they're loved and that we'll get through this together."

It was Latimer who went to Kemp and asked him to stay with the team the remainder of the year.

It was what Jensen would've wanted, Latimer said.

They'll play this week with the initials "J.J." on their golf bags and the heavy memory of their coach weighing on their minds. Between now and then, Kemp will try to clear their minds of any added pressure.

On a perfect spring Thursday with the wide expanse of green before them, the Guilford golf team practiced together one more time, trying to get ready for the biggest match of their lives while trying to understand that life will go on and on after this week and beyond.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com