May 30, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Head coach J.T. Higgins and the Texas A&M men's golf team make their fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship beginning Tuesday at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Okla. A brief Q&A with the 10th-year coach is posted below.
Talk about the excitement of getting back to nationals...
"We're really excited. It's excitement and relief. Our sport's really tough in that your whole season comes down to one tournament, regionals, on whether you make it to nationals or not--regardless of what kind of year you've had. So you've got to play good at that time, or your season comes to an end. So we're very excited that's behind us and are really looking forward to playing Karsten Creek."
Give a preview of the golf course and what challenges it will present...
"It's a great test of golf. You've got to play great golf to play well there, to put a good score up. I think there's going to be some separation between the better teams. Hopefully that's good for us, because I think we belong in that group. If you can hit the ball well and if you have a good short game, then you're probably going to be able to keep it close to par. If you hit it crooked at all, or you struggle with your putter, or you're not a good chipper, whatever--if any part of your game is weak--it is going to get exposed on that golf course, and you're not going to play well."
One of the many benefits of being one of the top programs in the country is getting invited to the PING/Golfweek Preview each fall, which was at Karsten. How much will having played the course this season help?
"It should help. It doesn't change the fact that you have to play well this week, but the thing I think it did for us is give us some confidence. The fairways are huge, and we got to actually see that. So it's not just me telling them things about the golf course, they actually experienced it and got to realize that there is a lot of room out there, more than it looks like. It's a very intimidating golf course to the eye, but when you get out there you realize that they are big fairways, you have a little room to miss and you don't have to be perfect. I think from that standpoint it's going to help a lot that we were there."
How much can the team draw from both the experiences of 2009 (national championship) and 2010 (missing out on match play)?
"Everyone wants to experience '09 over again. You sure hope that's not a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and I think we're good enough to have that happen again. Last year we've used as a motivator all season, every time we start to slip up. Every time we give shots away, it's easy to remind them that, hey, we came up three shots short last year. We can't afford to make those kinds of mistakes. It speaks to just how precious every shot is and how focused you have to stay the whole time. They know that and I think they went through that a little bit last week at regionals, which is good. I was glad it happened early. Other than Cameron (Peck) and Nacho (Elvira), everyone had a bad round. Hopefully that's out of their system and they realize that it almost cost us there and we're not going to let it cost us again. And I think they're in the right frame of mind for that."
How's the team playing heading in to nationals?
"With those top four guys--Nacho (Elvira), Conrad (Shindler), Jordan (Russell) and Cameron (Peck)--they're almost interchangeable. We really don't have a superstar on our team but we've got four guys who could be in any lineup in the country. Without a doubt in my mind they could play for anybody. Because of that, it takes a lot of pressure off. When you make a bogey, it's not the end of the world. You know your teammates are picking you up. You think, 'You know what, that's probably not going to count'. And that frees you up to get that shot back instead of pressing and thinking, 'Oh, my gosh'. Jordan doesn't feel that if he shoots a 75, that that score is counting. He feels the other four guys are going to shoot better than that. I think that just allows us to play a lot freer golf. We're playing well. We've had a great week and a lot of fun. We've gone and played some really good golf courses in preparation for trying to get ready for Karsten Creek. We've still got a couple more to play over the weekend. I think the guys are ready, loose and feel good. I think it's going to be a good week."
You've played in so many strong tournaments this year. Is your tough scheduling philosophy to prepare you for what you'll see next week?
"Yeah. Everything we do is in preparation for the national championship. We're trying to get something out of every tournament. Sometimes, if the field's not as strong, maybe it's confidence. Or maybe it's getting used to making lots of birdies and feeling good about your score going low. But most of the time we're trying to play tough golf courses against really tough fields of teams because we know that's what we're going to see in the postseason. You can't be in awe when you get there. You can't be scared when you get there. You just have to be comfortable, and I think we're really comfortable in these situations."
You've been a big proponent of match play, even before the championship in 2009. Even looking at it as a fan of the game, how much fun is the match-play format?
"It's way more fun to watch match play than it is to watch stroke play. Stroke play can be boring, unless you're just a guy that loves to watch golf. Watching the PGA Tour, unless you're watching the guy who has a chance to win the tournament, the rest of it is pretty boring. Especially when you start watching guys who are just barely making the cut or just trying to get out of there, you see a lot of guys hitting it into the middle of the green, taking their par and getting out of there. In match play, every bad break, every bad shot can swing a match one way or the other. Every great shot forces the other guy to hit a great shot. It's just unbelievable. The knock on match play is that you could make a triple bogey and it will only cost you one hole. Well, what you really see is quite the opposite. You see guys step their game up. Everyone's games get elevated in match play. It doesn't go the other way. You don't see guys making a bunch of doubles and triples and guys winning a lot of holes with bogeys. What you see is that it takes a birdie to win a hole. It takes an eagle to win a hole. You've got to play great golf if you want to win a hole, not the other way around. So I've been really impressed the last two years with the caliber of golf that's been played in match play. It's the best eight teams in the country, when you really get down to it. They've gotten through a grueling test, in three rounds at regionals and three rounds of stroke play at nationals. Now they've got to win three head-to-head matches. There are no flukes. You've got to play good golf to win it."