WEBVTT - USC Golf Coach Justin Silverstein 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.680 All right, we're back for another episode of the Friday Podcast. 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.560 It's been a while since we last recorded one, but 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.080 we are excited today to talk a little bit off 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.600 the beaten mainstream PGA tour talk path and get into 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.720 some college golf. And with us, we've got Justin Silverstein, 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:26.440 the associate head coach of the Southern California Trojans so 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.440 USC is one of the top teams in the country, 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.040 and Justin's been with the program. He started with the 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.720 program as a women's associates coach and has moved over 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:40.400 to the men's side this year. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.960 So we're excited to have Justin on and thanks for coming. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.600 On, Justin, no prop many thanks for having me. Excited 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.479 to get on here and talk some college golf and 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.560 hopefully get people fired up for the spring season that 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:52.199 I'll be here before we know it. 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.720 Yeah, Yeah, we're excited. With the national championship here in Chicago, 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.680 we're going to be doing a lot of coverage on 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:02.480 the Frida Egg and we're happy to have you on 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.600 as the first college. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:07.560 You know guests, So you. 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.640 Know, first off, we'd love to hear a little bit 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:14.000 about you, you know, to give a quick background. Justin 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.920 was a great junior player down in San Diego, won 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.640 a couple of state championships at Torrey Pines, playing with 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.000 Jamie Lovemark for a couple of years there, and then 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.520 he went on to Arizona to play there. So I'd 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.520 love to hear about kind of your playing days and 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.400 then how you got into coaching, and we'll take it 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:36.000 from there. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.360 Yeah. Absolutely, So I started playing junior golf in San Diego. 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.759 Was really lucky to be on a great high school team. 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.160 We had I think six guys on my junior year 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.040 team ended up going to play Division one golf, one 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.840 of which is Jamie Lovemark, who's making a big pilot 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.160 dough playing on with the big boys out on tour. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.320 And from there went and played at the University of Arizona. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.640 I used to turn play very loosely. I practiced a 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:02.559 lot and spent a lot of time in the training room. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.280 I ended up having five wrist surgeries when I was 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.320 at Universe Arizona, which was good and bad. Kind of 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.280 let me see a whole different side of golf. Where 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.400 about my junior year, my redshirt junior year, I was 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.600 no longer cleared to play golf because of an injury 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.280 I had, so I kind of make a decision of 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.600 what I want to do with my life, whether it's 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.760 hit the books a little harder or maybe try to 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.560 do something else in golf. And luckily I had a 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.440 great college coach, Rick Larrose, who was at Universe Arizona 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:32.840 for over thirty years, and a really good assistant coach 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.280 in John Knauer who was there for ten and I 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.079 really admired the work they did and kind of the 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:38.720 difference they made in our lives. So at that point 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.760 I kind of decided that I wanted to turn my 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.359 attention to getting into college coaching and kind of learned 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:45.880 the business and I tried my hand at that. So 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.600 I helped out with the team while I was still 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.120 in school, went to practice every day, traveled to tournaments, 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.280 kind of shadowed coach Larrose, and he was great and 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.320 let me do that. And that turned into a volunteer 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.959 assistant job with the men's golf team at Arizona the 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.679 year after I graduated, and then just by sheer luck, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.200 the women's assistant job opened up that next year, so 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:07.600 as a twenty three year old, I kind of fell 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.600 into the women's assistant coaching job at Arizona, which had 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.600 just come off a PAC ten championship and was a 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:14.920 top five program, and that kind of got me going. 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.840 And it was quite an eye opening experience being a 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.160 twenty three year old coaching women's college golf and coaching 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.440 kids that were about the same age I was, So 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:25.480 I had to learn pretty quick on that job. 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:31.080 Yeah, I can imagine that's that's kind of one of 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.680 those things where you had bad luck with the wrist. 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.720 I mean, I've never even it is kind of crazy. 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.040 Five surgeries in less than three years. So you have 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.000 the bad luck there and then you have you know, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.640 kind of design intervention and you get the great walk 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.680 of coming up on a job right in your backyard. 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:52.640 Yeah. I kind of look it back at it like 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.800 it probably. I know, it saved me a bunch of 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.680 money from going to try to play professionally because I 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.760 know I've I've definitely was not good enough to compete 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.120 with guys like Jamie and especially these guys we have 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:02.760 on our roster now. So it's saved me money in 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:04.920 that regard, and they kind of got me kickstarted on 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.080 a career path that's turned out to be, you know, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.640 a lot of fun and I love it, wake up 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.720 every day and get to come in and coach these 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:13.720 eighteen to twenty two year olds. It's really good stuff. 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:15.640 So can you play. 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.599 Golf now or are you you know? 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:18.440 Do you do you get? 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:20.320 Do you play with the team much as do you 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.160 have limitations with the wrists? 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.600 Yeah, I've still got pretty big time limitations. I need 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:26.320 one more surgery and it's kind of a major one, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.960 so I'm really hesitant to do it and don't want 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.280 to really go through the rehab, and I don't really 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:32.760 know if it's worth it, so I don't play much 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:34.960 at all, to be honest with you. The last time 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.640 I played was I believe it'll be three years ago 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.720 this January, and I played at Augusta National with our 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.600 women's golf team. We just come off a national championship 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.960 and our athletics director Pat Hayden surprised us and took 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.520 us down to Augusta for three days. So I ramped 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.320 up all winter, practiced every day, taking a bunch of 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.320 pain medication, fighting through it. Figured getting to walk the 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.000 fairways of the gust it was probably worth it, and 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.599 went down there and played in thirty six a day 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.280 in about thirty two degree weather and it was maybe 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.640 the three greatest days of my life. So since then, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.640 my clubs are still in the travel case in a 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.839 closet in my house, and I have not been on 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:17.440 a golf course to play since. 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.719 You know, I guess that's probably one of the best 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.280 ways that, you know, you could go out for a 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.880 long period of time. Yeah, nothing, I'll compete with that. 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:29.400 No, I tell the team all the time because I 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:30.880 always try to get me to play, and Coach Ambury 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:32.520 plays with them all the time. I mean, Coach Ambrey 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.800 was a phenomenal player. He played a Nike tour for 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.920 I think over ten years. It was really really good player. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:40.240 So he plays with them all the time. The kids 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:41.839 are always trying to get me to play, and I'm like, guys, 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.360 it's one it wouldn't be very impressive right now, and 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.320 two it would hurt too much. Is probably not even 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.520 worth it. So I let Coach Dembury deal with all 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:51.920 the playing and kind of beating our guys into the 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:52.800 ground when he has to. 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.279 So, you know, how does coaching at a college level. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:05:59.960 You know a lot of these kids have you know, strings, 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.880 the swing instructors that they work with. You know what, 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.479 what do you guys do in terms of coaching, is 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.040 it is a lot of you know, course management stuff, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:14.120 practice thrills, you know, practicing the right way. How does 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.719 it how does it kind of differ from that traditional teaching. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:21.480 Yeah, this is kind of a It took me a 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.960 long time to learn this. So when I got into coaching, 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.679 I was really fired out to get you know, hands 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.599 on with the kids, get to work with some really 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:33.240 good players because I've always had a crazy interest in teaching. 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.320 And I got there and I tried to dive in 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:37.520 with all these kids, and in about two months they 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.520 were all fed up with me, and I was like, what, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.479 you know, what is going on here? And it took 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.080 me some time to realize that they've all got their 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:46.919 own theories on how things should be done. And not 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.000 only do they have their theories, whether it swing theories 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.520 or just how to play golf, their instructor has one, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.239 and their parents have one, and you know they're sports 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.880 psychologists that they have has one. So when I got 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.760 to know Chris Dambury, who's our men's that coach really well, 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.160 when I came over to USC five years ago to 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.640 work on the women's side, he had this whole system 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.080 of how to practice that he developed, and it's about 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.840 and it's become now eleven tests that we do every 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.960 Tuesday and Thursday when we practice on campus, and these 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.720 tests are to find out where your strengths and weaknesses 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.720 are in your game. And what the tests do is 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.120 they protect the players from us as coaches, the players 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.280 from themselves, and the players from their instructors. Because what 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.760 we found out after dealing with hundreds of really good 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.880 college golfers is a lot of them don't know where 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:44.840 they need work to get to the next level, and 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:46.960 they kind of just go off of opinion and how 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:48.960 they feel, and that's a really dangerous way to go 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.360 about it. And we've been lucky enough to have some 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.720 advanced analytics coming to golf lately, which I'm sure you've 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.480 you know all about, you know, with Mark Brody's book 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.600 and Strokes Gain, and we've really dove into Strokes Gain 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.480 and kind of now it's we do we take a 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.200 different approach with every player. Some players need more help, 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.119 more hands on help, some players need more course management stuff, 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.520 and some players just need to be pointed in the 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.720 right direction as to what to approve. And they're pretty 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:14.360 bright and they work with really good instructors and they 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.760 can figure out a way to improve it. So I 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:18.960 would tell you it's a lot more hands off than 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:24.960 I originally thought it was. But we are constantly evaluating 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.840 and re evaluating ranking their games based against each other 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:30.960 to find out where everybody needs to improve. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.040 Yeah, and that makes a ton of sense because you 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.360 can essentially take the strokes gained, you know, you know, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.959 for people a little less known. Strokes gained isn't a 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.640 statistic that a common golfer can really use because you 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:50.600 need a field to have the strokes gained against statistic work. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.720 So do you guys use the team as the field 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.480 or is it historical data as to create the field 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.760 score so you can see who's for warming above. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.600 So we've been doing strokes gain putting based on tour 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.920 average for the year for about three or four years now. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.040 I was doing it with our women's team, and coach 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.480 Samery's been doing it with our men's team. So we've 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.960 been keeping just a constant log of that for our players, 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.760 and our incoming recruits are sending us data because they're 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.040 kind of get diving into it, and we've really found 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.280 that that's the one measurement in the strokeskin capacity to 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.760 see if stroke skin driving, strokeskin approach, strokeskin short game, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.120 and strokes skin putting. We figured out that if we 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.640 can get the putting number, we can kind of we 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.439 can pretty much figure out how you played that day. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.400 You know, if you shot seventy two, shot even par 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.600 and you gained two and a half, well, you hit 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.320 it like a dog. I mean, it's pretty obvious that 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:43.840 you just didn't hit it very well. Well. If you 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.880 lost you know, three and shot even par, you know, 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.360 we can then figure out how you hit it. So 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.360 that was the big metric that we started collecting where 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.280 we really thought we had an advantage because we could 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.560 then kind of cipher what was going on with the 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.520 rest of your game. So we're starting to dabble in 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.200 strokes gain driving. That's another one that's becoming easier to collect, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:06.600 as long as you have the whole distance in your 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.280 second shot distance and where you hit it from. It's 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.760 been a little more difficult than we thought to collect, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.720 and we've got a couple guys doing it. We're really 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.040 trying to We're gonna try to ramp that up in 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.480 the spring. I know, there's a couple big time programs 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:20.720 that are doing it full time, so we've got a 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:22.679 little bit of catching up to do, but we feel 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:24.439 like we're at the leading edge of our strokes gain 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.160 putting data, and we've got some tests in our practice 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.600 that can coincide with that data that have hopefully given 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.520 us a way to improve our players putting, because what 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.520 we've seen from the data we've collected is our kids 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.960 are not quite tour average putters. We've got a couple 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.640 of players that are right on the edge, but right 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.160 now we have no positive strokes gain putters on our roster. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.480 Sean Crocker was for most of the season, but we're 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.040 hoving right around zero and losing strokes. So that's really 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.320 a place where the tour players have a big advantage 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.959 over really good college players. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.400 That's very interesting. 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:05.400 So would Crocker be the guy that you would want 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.520 with a ten foot pot on the eighteenth hole at 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.040 Rich Harvest to win this year's national championship based off. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.679 Of stats, Based off of the numbers so far, actually, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.360 he I probably have to go right now with Andrew Levitt, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.079 who's been in our lineup all semester. He's a fifth 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.520 year senior, he's been our best putter. I'm actually looking 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.480 our data right now he's losing about point three round 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.200 trokes gain sean wo gaining most of the semester, and 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.640 then kind of had a rough couple last tournaments. We've 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.800 played some places with some gnarly greens. I mean, Cyprus 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:41.280 was otherworldly how difficult those greens were. But all of 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.680 our guys I feel pretty confident with. And if you 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:45.280 give me any of our guys with a ten footer 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.400 win national championship, I'd be really happy because that means 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.960 we've got a pretty good chance to win the national championship. 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.080 But right now I'm probably gonna have to go with 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.320 Andrew Levitt. And you can see from our match play 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.520 lineups in the past couple of tournaments, he's been our anchor, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:01.880 and that's as he's Uh, he's one of, if not 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:02.559 our best putter. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.920 So yeah, we've gotten a little bit into the team, 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.720 but UH love to jump in a little further. So 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.480 USC you guys this year entered uh with the you 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.680 know you had the that preseason number one ranking from 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:18.280 Golf Week. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:18.920 Uh. 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.760 The last two years been really close to the National championship. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.800 Last year they uh, they lost in the semi finals 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:32.320 to Texas and then the year before they lost in 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:37.240 the finals to LSU. You guys took down my Aliini 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.160 from the semis, which you know makes me a little bitter, 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:41.719 but but. 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.160 They're doing just fine. I'm not worried about him. They're 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:45.080 doing just fine. 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.240 So with that, you guys started this season a little 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.400 bit slow, but you know, it really came on at 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.120 the end. You guys won probably the. 0:12:54.080 --> 0:13:00.160 Coolest event of the year, the Cyprus Point Classic, and 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.800 that it was a match play tournament where these kids 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.600 got to play three straight days at. 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:13.880 Cypress Point and then won the Gifford Correct as your 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.480 last season event of the season. And then I saw 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.160 that justin Sue, one of your players finished second in 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.360 the Sun Bowl last week. So really strong finish to 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.920 the year for USC. I'd love it here kind of 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.000 about the team. You know, what you guys are looking 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.360 to improve on. You know, some highlights from the season, 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.000 and you know, I don't think anybody, based off of 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.160 the courses that you guys have to play this year, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.120 would you know, wouldn't want to be a college golfer. 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.440 Nowadays It's gotten pretty good, hasn't it. I mean the 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.439 courses we got to play this fall. I don't know 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:49.960 if we'll ever go through a stretch of playing that, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.520 starting an Olympia Fields and then go into Colonial and 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.480 then Golf Club at George is a fantastic track, and 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.200 then Cyprus and then Silver Or where they just hosted 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.880 the Fries was that was better than we expected. That 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.000 was a really really cool golf course. I think every 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.120 hole we stepped out in the practice on, Coach Denby's like, wow, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:08.920 this whole, this one are cool, slow as I've ever seen. 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:10.160 So if you get a chance to go up there 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.440 and play that track, I definitely would recommend it. But 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:15.600 as far as the season goes, we got to a 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.720 really slow start. No sugar coating it. Finishing eighth at 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.960 the align I Invite and then six at the the 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.720 Nike NCI event was a little rough. It's interesting our 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.240 scheduling worked out. I don't know most people probably don't 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.640 know this, but the NCAA limits how many practice days 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.520 were allowed in our playing season, and because Justin and 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.400 Rico played in the All American, it extended our playing 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.640 season about another week into the into the fall. Because 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.200 it just ended the other day so we weren't really 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:50.040 able to practice as a team and probably started I 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.360 think seven or eight days before our first event, so 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.920 we had to jump right into qualifying with no practice time. 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.840 So it was a really interesting deal. We could do 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.640 some individual stuff with our guys for two hours a week, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.120 but we hadn't had a full week of practice before 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:04.960 our first event, so I think that might have played 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.040 a little part, and our guys maybe being a little rusty, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.440 not quite as sharp as they normally are. And also 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:11.960 we just went to a golf course where we got 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.920 a lot of wind and it was really hard and 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.720 just didn't play great. And then coming off that go 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:19.080 go ahead. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.320 I played out there the day before you guys did. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:24.720 It was a course was set up. I mean, that 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.400 place is just such a bear if you're not right 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:28.040 on your game. 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.600 Yeah, yeah, our guys were. It's kind of the pros 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.320 and cons of having most kids from southern California. We 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.680 don't see a ton of wind. We practice in the mornings, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.160 practice seven in the morning Monday to Friday, so we're 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.000 not getting nearly any wind in southern California. So we're 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.080 getting twenty to twenty five mile hour gusts you know, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.000 first tournament out. It really affected a lot of our guys, 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:52.920 especially a guy like Chang Jin who was playing in 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.560 his first collegian event, so he had some nerves, and 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.400 Rico and Sean I think struggled a little bit with 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.280 the wind. All those show ended up finishing seventh. He 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.840 put it great that week, so that really helped him. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.080 But we thought we'd rebound, you know, really well at Colonial, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.760 that to a golf course that stresses good driving. But 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.960 we got there and it was windy again, the greens 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.160 were soft, and kind of had an interesting deal. We 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.360 didn't have two of our top six players at that event. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.160 Cheng Jin was where was Ching he was at the 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:24.600 World or the Asian Amateur who was defending his Asian 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.960 amer title in Korea that week, so we didn't have him, 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.440 And then we didn't have Jonah Tascher in our lineup, 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.160 who was a semi finals at the USAM this past summer. 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.160 So we had just you know, Daniel Choa started for 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:36.520 US and he's done some good things for US in 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:41.040 the past, and we just really didn't play well that 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.720 week either. So after that event, we kind of came 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.720 back home and coach Amory and I took a couple 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:47.520 of days and kind of tried to figure out what 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.600 we needed to do and got back to work, and 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.880 then things really started to pick up. After that event. 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.080 We had a couple of individuals play in an event 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.720 in Northward's event, and Jonah Tachero was able to play 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:00.440 in that event and got a win. And he shot 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.160 sixty six, sixty eight, sixty eight, shot fourteen under that 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.440 week and got a win, so that really kind of 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.320 boosted his efforts for the fall season. And then right 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.080 off of that, we went into the Georgia at the 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.439 Golf Club at Georgia in that event, and we played 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.840 really well that week. We finished third. We actually had 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.880 a two or three shot lead going on the eighteenth hole. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:22.200 I think we had a one shot lead in the 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.119 eighteenth fairly, which is a reachable part five, and we 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.640 had two guys with five irons in their hand into 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.240 the green and another guy with a two iron and 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:30.960 ended up playing the whole one over and losing that 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.919 tournament by one. So that was a little painful, but 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.880 we really were starting to show our good stuff then, 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.960 and I think that kind of proof. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.600 That tournament somebody made it just a ridiculous comeback on 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:44.480 the last day. 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:51.480 Right, Virginia played great the last day and we shot 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.520 two seventy nine the last day we shot. We had 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.320 sixty six sixty nine, seventy two seventy two as our counters, 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.280 so we we played really really well that last day. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.920 The last two days. Actually we shot two seventy nine 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.359 the last two days. And for people who don't know, 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.520 we play, five guys count the low four scores, so 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.240 two seventy nine are really good score. If you shot 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.840 that every round, you'd win every tournament by a lot. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:14.720 But that was a good event for our guys. That 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:16.719 kind of, you know, settled them down. I think there 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.960 was a little bit of kind of looking around after 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.520 the Nike event, kind of thinking what's going on here. 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:23.880 We thought we were supposed to be the best team 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.640 in the country type deal, so that kind of sells 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.720 everyone down, and then going into two matchplay events, we 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.320 really wanted to make an impression kind on the rest 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.439 of the country. It even proved ourselves that, you know, 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.000 we're a really good match play team because I think 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.520 are the best part of our rosters are depth. We 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.280 are we are at least six deep, and we might 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.240 be seven or eight deep of really good players. I mean, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.560 we have a guy sitting at home who's a freshman, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.040 Kyle Supa, who's from Honolulu, Hawaii, who's made a cut 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.720 in a PGA tour eament. I mean, he's a really, 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.320 really good player. He's going to do a lot of 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.200 good things for us, but he hasn't even been able 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.960 to sniff our lineup yet. And he'll get in there eventually, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.960