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Smith Looks Ahead to Spring Season, Part 1
3/11/2019 12:59:00 PM | Men's Golf
The spring season ramps up this weekend for the Minnesota men's golf team at the Schenkel Invitational, the first of four team tournaments this spring. In advance of it, associate head coach Justin Smith sat down with GopherSports.com to talk about the team. In part one of the two-part series, he looks back on the fall slate. Tuesday, he previews what's to come in the spring for the Gophers.
Gopher Sports: What did you think of the team's performance in the fall?
Justin Smith: "It was a little up and down; we had some great performances and then we had some rounds that kind of got away from us. There's no doubt, from a passion level and buying into the team, it was at an all-time high. We played with a very young squad. With Peter Jones, Campell Fisher is a senior as well, but Peter has been in and out of the lineup every other event. He was in for two events and then someone may hop in there so we're doing it with a bunch of young guys. The reality is that we're trying to set that standard to an all-time high. Mediocrity is not okay; we're not going to settle for that. So, the idea is that with these young guys that are playing, Lincoln (Johnson), Angus (Flanagan), Evan Long, Will Grevlos, Harry (Plowman-Ollington), they're going to get their way into a lineup. Noah (Rasinski), for instance, is a junior, but this is his first division one experience. We're just saying, 'This is where we're going and we're not going to settle until we get there.'
"Just really getting that message in, and they're holding themselves to that standard, so that really was evident in a lot of ways. I think every final round, we've moved up. As a coach, it's cool to see that because you know that energy and that passion is being applied to every shot and every golf hole. In contrast to where you may see a team move down in the final round and with our schedule, every win matters. There were a ton of positives, a ton of excitement, a ton of energy, I think the future is ready to go. We always think the future is now, too. We want to win now and play great golf right now. These guys are capable, they're working their tails off right now."
GS: What did you think of the debuts of the new players like freshman Lincoln Johnson and junior transfer Noah Rasinski?
JS: "Noah just embodies consistency. He's got ability, we worked on a couple of parts of his game this winter to try to take that consistency to another level, to allow him to do more of when he shot 60 at Erin Hills. He relates to more 10-15 footers, just getting another ball up and down. It's been very short-game based for him. His ball striking is as good as we've seen come through here in quite a while, the consistency of it. So he's right there, but he's got to get his short game and scoring ability a little more elevated. It's more demanding at this level with green complexities and where the ball gets to. He's developed more shots. He's spent a ton of time.
"Lincoln is the same way, just his passion. He kind of sets the standard for not accepting mediocrity. He'll go shoot 73 and it's not the worst score in the world but it doesn't get our team to where we want to be. It's the 65's like he shot at Maui Jim. I'm not saying he has to shoot 65 every day, but how can he continue to get more rounds under par. Angus (Flanagan) does it, Tom (Longbella) does it and he's consistent. Evan (Long) did it at Big Ten Match Play and the Gopher Invite, but we just need to be more consistent. We haven't really put five guys together that have played well at the same time. Talking about the reps we're doing, the time we train for the last three and a half, four weeks is kind of built in specifically to make sure we hit the ground running in a big way coming up this spring. We've learned a lot from the fall, kind of took the data and took the stats, figured out some areas we really need to focus on and I think we've got a really good plan."
GS: Is Angus Flanagan making the steps you hoped he would make in his second year?
JS: "He's making those steps big-time right now. A lot of the conversations we've had for him is that there are a lot of parts of his game that are in a place where we don't really have to worry about it. There are some parts of his game that we have to help him manage a little bit, but it's a lot of managing his emotions and managing the mental part of it with his preparation and game, course management things. He'll come to us and say, 'Can you come spend some time with me on the course?' We make a big emphasis of that. It's amazing the stretches and the runs that he'll have because he's capable of making six birdies in a row. From the sense of our entire team, you can't say that about everybody. We want to get everyone to that point, and we'll have that ability hopefully sooner than later, but he's got that explosiveness in his game. He proved that in Alabama. He was six-under his first nine holes and that's kind of his game. Allowing him to be freed up, allowing him to play that way, and obviously the better his teammates are playing takes a little bit of that off him so he can play that way.
"But for him, what we really try to figure out is how to manage the winter time better for him. I think we didn't do a very good job of that last year. He admitted that there were some things that kind of got to him, he's done a tremendous job this year. He's one of our leaders on and off the course. Everyone looks to him. Those are the things that we've really spent a lot of time with him on and really tried to establish that he has to be really good at that. Things we talk with our team about a lot are what are the qualities that don't require any talent at all. We have to be great at these: passion, work ethic, attitude, coachability, communication. Those kind of things that don't require any talent at all. He's gotten so much better at that. Last spring he took a little bit of a step back with his scoring and performance. I don't expect that at all this year, he played great in the Big Ten Match Play and he's really put himself in that position. I think he's going to go win a tournament this spring."
Gopher Sports: What did you think of the team's performance in the fall?
Justin Smith: "It was a little up and down; we had some great performances and then we had some rounds that kind of got away from us. There's no doubt, from a passion level and buying into the team, it was at an all-time high. We played with a very young squad. With Peter Jones, Campell Fisher is a senior as well, but Peter has been in and out of the lineup every other event. He was in for two events and then someone may hop in there so we're doing it with a bunch of young guys. The reality is that we're trying to set that standard to an all-time high. Mediocrity is not okay; we're not going to settle for that. So, the idea is that with these young guys that are playing, Lincoln (Johnson), Angus (Flanagan), Evan Long, Will Grevlos, Harry (Plowman-Ollington), they're going to get their way into a lineup. Noah (Rasinski), for instance, is a junior, but this is his first division one experience. We're just saying, 'This is where we're going and we're not going to settle until we get there.'
"Just really getting that message in, and they're holding themselves to that standard, so that really was evident in a lot of ways. I think every final round, we've moved up. As a coach, it's cool to see that because you know that energy and that passion is being applied to every shot and every golf hole. In contrast to where you may see a team move down in the final round and with our schedule, every win matters. There were a ton of positives, a ton of excitement, a ton of energy, I think the future is ready to go. We always think the future is now, too. We want to win now and play great golf right now. These guys are capable, they're working their tails off right now."
GS: What did you think of the debuts of the new players like freshman Lincoln Johnson and junior transfer Noah Rasinski?
JS: "Noah just embodies consistency. He's got ability, we worked on a couple of parts of his game this winter to try to take that consistency to another level, to allow him to do more of when he shot 60 at Erin Hills. He relates to more 10-15 footers, just getting another ball up and down. It's been very short-game based for him. His ball striking is as good as we've seen come through here in quite a while, the consistency of it. So he's right there, but he's got to get his short game and scoring ability a little more elevated. It's more demanding at this level with green complexities and where the ball gets to. He's developed more shots. He's spent a ton of time.
"Lincoln is the same way, just his passion. He kind of sets the standard for not accepting mediocrity. He'll go shoot 73 and it's not the worst score in the world but it doesn't get our team to where we want to be. It's the 65's like he shot at Maui Jim. I'm not saying he has to shoot 65 every day, but how can he continue to get more rounds under par. Angus (Flanagan) does it, Tom (Longbella) does it and he's consistent. Evan (Long) did it at Big Ten Match Play and the Gopher Invite, but we just need to be more consistent. We haven't really put five guys together that have played well at the same time. Talking about the reps we're doing, the time we train for the last three and a half, four weeks is kind of built in specifically to make sure we hit the ground running in a big way coming up this spring. We've learned a lot from the fall, kind of took the data and took the stats, figured out some areas we really need to focus on and I think we've got a really good plan."
GS: Is Angus Flanagan making the steps you hoped he would make in his second year?
JS: "He's making those steps big-time right now. A lot of the conversations we've had for him is that there are a lot of parts of his game that are in a place where we don't really have to worry about it. There are some parts of his game that we have to help him manage a little bit, but it's a lot of managing his emotions and managing the mental part of it with his preparation and game, course management things. He'll come to us and say, 'Can you come spend some time with me on the course?' We make a big emphasis of that. It's amazing the stretches and the runs that he'll have because he's capable of making six birdies in a row. From the sense of our entire team, you can't say that about everybody. We want to get everyone to that point, and we'll have that ability hopefully sooner than later, but he's got that explosiveness in his game. He proved that in Alabama. He was six-under his first nine holes and that's kind of his game. Allowing him to be freed up, allowing him to play that way, and obviously the better his teammates are playing takes a little bit of that off him so he can play that way.
"But for him, what we really try to figure out is how to manage the winter time better for him. I think we didn't do a very good job of that last year. He admitted that there were some things that kind of got to him, he's done a tremendous job this year. He's one of our leaders on and off the course. Everyone looks to him. Those are the things that we've really spent a lot of time with him on and really tried to establish that he has to be really good at that. Things we talk with our team about a lot are what are the qualities that don't require any talent at all. We have to be great at these: passion, work ethic, attitude, coachability, communication. Those kind of things that don't require any talent at all. He's gotten so much better at that. Last spring he took a little bit of a step back with his scoring and performance. I don't expect that at all this year, he played great in the Big Ten Match Play and he's really put himself in that position. I think he's going to go win a tournament this spring."
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Monday, April 28
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Friday, April 25
Gopher Golf Facilities
Sunday, August 18
Cinematic Recap: Gopher Invitational
Monday, September 18