Sept. 10, 2010
VUCommodores.com sat down with Vanderbilt head men’s golf coach Tom Shaw for a Q&A before the team heads out to their first tournament next week in Charleston, S.C. This is the first of a two-part feature on the men’s golf team and their prospects for the 2010-11 campaign.
It’s your first tournament next week. Talk about the excitement that goes with that – not only for your players, but for you and your staff:
“It’s always exciting to put some fresh faces out there in the lineup who haven’t seen college golf or haven’t come together as a team in months. We are excited about the pieces of the puzzle we’ve put in this year. We have great leadership up top and some really good quality freshmen that are going to see some action. To go to a course like the Ocean Course at Kiawah, which has hosted a Ryder Cup and will hold a PGA Championship in a couple of years. I think the guys are pumped about that because they know it’s a course that will reward good shots and really punish bad shots. I think with this tournament we will really identify the best team.”
Talk about the schedule and its highlights:
“It’s a tough schedule but I think we have the team to handle that this year. It was a concern in years past and maybe we overloaded the guys too much. We’ve got the guys that can handle it and I think you have to reward that by playing against quality opponents and quality golf courses and venues. I think that you are either going to play up to your competition or down to your competition, and this year we are going to make a point of scheduling tournaments against tough competition and rise to the challenge.”
What about the experience of the team?:
“I don’t think we are short on experience. I think the chemistry aspect is better this year. The freshmen have been integrated into the team environment so easily that you don’t really think of them as freshmen. I don’t even think of them as senior, junior, sophomore, and freshmen – I think of them as a group of nine. I think we’re going to move forward as one unit and not necessarily think of one guy as an upperclassmen or a lowerclassmen. It’s progressing through the year as a unit of nine instead of nine individuals.”
On the leadership:
“They have been exposed to some great players of Vanderbilt golf like Luke List and Jon Curran. Ryan Haselden has seen those guys and knows what to expect and has kind of taken bits and pieces of each one of them, but he has also put his own stamp on the program. He and Adam Hoffman have added their own little twist on things and ideas of leadership and organization. I think this team will have a different look from years past, but I think it is a better look. We will be more unified and hopefully that will translate into better performance on the golf course.”
