Vi i Fourball fik muligheden for at høre nærmere omkring College Golf i USA fra Head Coach Danny Bowen fra New Mexico State University, også bedre kendt som The Aggies. Herfra har vi tidligere har haft glæde af en snak med Emma Kaisa Dalgaard Bunch, som i sommers også var med i vores Podcast.
Your coaching New Mexico State University. For how long have you been a coach with the Aggies and what did you do before you became a College Golf Coach?
I’ve been with the university for 13 years now. I played for New Mexico State University on the men’s golf team. I graduated and played a bit of professional golf on the lower tours for about 1½ year and since then I stayed within the world of golf. I started as the assistant coach for the first 5 years with the team and then moved to the head coaching position after that. I learned a lot from the previous head coach who was with The Aggies for 30 years.
What sort of education & background do you have to become a college golf coach?
There is no dedicated coaching education. Typical for college sports in the US, is that either former athletes or students that take up the coaching positions. You then learn as you go by the coaching duties and very often use your own experience to provide the support to the players on the team.
How big is the Aggies Womans golf team?
This year we have 8 players on the woman’s side, 1 Freshmen, 2 sophomore 4 junior & 1 senior players. The team is made up of both new and experienced players every year.
Typically, we, as most other colleges, have somewhere between 7-9 players as part of the Women’s team. On the Men’s side they are often a bit more on the team.
What age are the players when they start attending college in the US?
US players typically 18 years when they start attending the College.
International & European players are typically a little bit older, believe in average around 18-19 years old.
What is the recruiting process for getting players to come and play for The Aggies?
We on the coaching staff typically go and watch various tournaments, where we scout the players and at this point sometimes may contact them directly. Sometimes we also see the interest comes from the players themselves, where they approach the university directly or through recruiters.
What is the process of scholarships for athletes?
With us then after initial talks with the player, possible after the first meeting with the student, where we and they get a feel if this could be a good match and see them as someone we’d like as part of our team. We then enter into the discussions on scholarship.
A scholarship can be combined as both an academic and athletic scholarship, if the student & athlete seem to do well in both areas.
Any specific process when looking for or at players outside the US?
Besides our similar approach to contacting players, we see as interesting, this is also very much from contact from the players directly or through recruiting agencies.
What sort of attributes & skill do you look for in possible future college players?
Golf technique and mechanics are key when we are scouting and watching the players we find interesting. But also, very much view the player’s mental game. We note how they go about themselves on the course during tournament play, especially when they have a bad hole or hit some bad shots. We look for those small mental keys during tough times, like when playing through rough weather conditions or difficult golf holes or courses.
Anything specific players and parents should take note of in relation to applying for college?
Players need to go through the steps of registering with the NCAA eligibility center and then off cause also have the College admission with the school of your interest, which must be filled in.
How does a typical workday look like for a College golf coach?
We as coaches attend the physical workout at 6 AM in the morning, which takes place 3 days a week. Typically, they have physical workouts every week on Monday, Wednesday & Friday morning.
We then have the golf practice sessions during the day. And we also tend to the normal ad hoc tasks, scheduling & traveling coordination. This work we typically perform when the students attend school.
What sort of practice do you set up for your womans golf team?
We put a lot of energy into performing team practices all together, where we are either in smaller or larger groups, or everyone together. We very much see the benefit of having the players practice together as a team in various performance scenarios, rather than individual practices.
Does practice differ when tournaments are scheduled?
We do have a bit more individual work with the players during the offseason. This fall season starts from Mid-October to sometime in February, where the next tournament takes place. In this time we may put more work into some physical performance and workouts, or have focus on certain areas of their game.
Where in the US does the Aggies Women’s Golf Team participate in tournaments?
One of the very beautiful things about college golf & college sports, is the College conference & divisional setup. The Aggies are part of Conference USA alongside 8 other Universities. For us as coaches the scheduling of tournaments is a big part of our job, and we try to schedule for the team to play in tournaments all over the US, so the players get to play not just locally or within one specific region.
Are you allowed to interact with the players during the tournaments?
This is one of the most fun parts of the job being a college coach. We can help the players setup their gameplan for playing that specific course and tournaments. We can interact with the players during the tournament itself. Example could be we have someone struggling or they do not seem to be fully present mentally. We can support the players fully on the course.
Are the players able to participate in tournaments outside the college golf schedule?
The players can participate during the offseason, and this is something we encourage very much. We believe this will help with their development and keep their game on point during the offseason.
What sort of team building, if any, does the team engage in to create that team feeling in an individual sport like golf?
One thing is we very much encourage the players to spend time together when they are away from the golf course, and that they participate together in other various school activities during the year.
Furthermore, we create team building exercises a couple times every semester.
What sort of mental training & mindset work do you have as part of the college Golf program?
This is an area we believe we should improve on somewhat more within our program. The mental game work is for us somewhat a bit sporadic, as we have a focus on the mental side very much during tournaments and how to recognize issues when players are on the course. We take notes on body language and if someone seem to rush a bit in their process during play, we can address the issues directly at present time.
How does the coordination between the Sports section and educational side of the College work?
Professors are used to having college athletes in their classes and quite forgiving in working with the students/players to accommodate their sometime quite busy schedule.
We always seek to have a good balance between school and athletic activities, so those activities do not compete with each other.
What sort of an advice would you give future players that may be interested in playing college golf?
Would say that recruiting can be quite overwhelming when you start talking to a lot of universities and coaches. Would advise them to enjoy the process and meet the schools, possibly some of the players on the team and the coaches. Being present and able to have that feeling that you can give it your everything when visiting the university.
Same question for the parents of future players.
Would encourage the parents to have their kids do the correspondence back and forth between them and school/coaches. Try not to get in the way of communication and have their kids themselves take the lead. This will also the kids themselves get the best feel for the university & coaches.
What would be the ultimate fourball for you to play in?
It is clearly a fourball with Tiger Woods and Jack Niclaus, though not the present-day Jack, but the Golden Bear. The 80’s jack, and then have our Danish college player Emma Bunch help me take those two on. Believe we could give them a run for their money.
Er der lyst til at vide mere om New Mexico State University og The Aggies Womans Golf Team, kan man følge dem her: Women’s Golf – New Mexico State University Athletics
