Sept. 11, 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 second of a two-part feature on the men’s golf team and their prospects for the 2010-11 campaign.
Do you have expectations for this team?
“We’re trying not to put result expectations out there. My only expectation is that they work hard, follow directions and support one another and be there as team members. If we take care of the process, the results will come. Sure, we want to win the SEC and the National Championship, but to do that you have to take care of the little things which is what we’re going to focus on – The process of practice and routines and doing the little things right. Any coach would tell you that doing the little things correctly lead to the big things and big successes. That’s what we are going to spend our time focusing on. My only expectations is that we come to practice each day with a plan and we stick to that plan, work that plan and I told the guys that good things will happen if we do that.”
On the strengths and weakness of the team:
“In years past, we always had a horse like Luke List or a Jon Curran who you knew tournament to tournament was going to be there and play well. We may have that, but it’s not a known factor yet. Ryan Haselden has shown signs that he may be that guy. Adam Hofmann has as well, but until we get them all out there with balls in the air at 7:30 in the morning, we just don’t know yet. That would be our only weakness. We are deeper than we ever have been and we have a lot of bodies that we can throw out there. It’s going to take a few tournaments to kind of figure out who’s the guy day in and day out I can count on to get me a good round when I need it. Justin (Emil) and I spending our time helping out the guys who are maybe having a little bit more trouble in a tournament environment.”
On the freshmen:
“We all want to be better as a team. You want the freshmen coming in to push what you currently have and I think we do. I think we are going to have one or two freshmen at this first event. They are all good friends now but they are all competitive. They all want to play in the lineup but we can only take five, so they are all vying for a spot – I think they know they are part of a team but they don’t want a freshman taking their spot. The new blood you bring into a program, you want them pushing the upperclassman. If a couple of them can make an impact right away, then that’s the icing on the cake. If there is any lollygagging from the upperclassmen then you hope the new guys will come and shake things up a little bit, which I think they have done. It can only help when you infuse the program with some good young talent because they are the future of the program and I think we have the leadership of the upperclassmen to help these guys along and help them to avoid the natural road blocks and stumbling blocks that come with being a collegiate student-athlete.”
On the SEC:
“As with any sport at Vanderbilt, the SEC is the pinnacle of collegiate competition and for golf, maybe more so. There are no bad teams in the SEC. There are no teams you can go up against and say, `as long as we take care of business we’re probably going to win.’ You can go seven or eight deep in the SEC and still not be out of the top 20 in the country. We want to be in that group right there. For too long, the SEC has been dominated by the Georgia’s and Florida’s and Alabama’s, and we want to be in that group. They tend to reload every year like big programs do, but I think I have the guys to start chipping away at the feeling of superiority and start making some waves. That’s why guys come here; they want to play against the best. We’re scheduling a lot of tournaments against the SEC. As with any sport, to measure yourself and where you are you have to play against the best and that’s what we have in the SEC. It’s not easy, but with the schedule, these guys will rise to the challenge and they get inspired by playing against the best and that’s what we are going to be day in and day out playing in the SEC.”
