Back Nine With Brad McMakin: Part 3

What is the size of your staff?

I have one full time assistant.  We have eight players and two coaches. This is fairly standard among our competitors.

Please share the details of an in-season, non-tournament day.

The players have class from 8:00-11:00, three classes a day.  We get them from 1:30-4:30.  We alternate between practice days and qualifying days.  On practice days we typically begin with short game and putting drills, followed by hitting balls with hands on instruction.  In addition, there is a one hour workout session three days a week, all followed by dinner and study hall.

Each player is provided a weekly planner, letting them know where they need to be and the times they will be practicing or playing, so they can plan their week.

Please define “in-season”

We leave for our first tournament on August 27^th and the season ends June 3^rd.  We finish the fall session on November 1^st.  Our players are off during the months of November and December, allowing them time to catch up on their school work.  They head home for Christmas break and return on January 15^th.   The first tournament is February 2^nd.  During the summer, they will play in three to four amateur tournaments.  So in reality, it is year round, non-stop.

How do you keep all of your players engaged when you have eight and only play five?

As you suggested, we play five, carry eight players on the roster and take six to the majority of our events.  We will work with the other two players and may redshirt a player for a year.  The players have five years to play four years of competitive golf.

We have a small squad and they all get plenty of playing time.  Playing time is critical to their development.  My philosophy is to keep a smaller group, get them a lot of playing time and allow them to develop through playing time.

When you set a lineup for a specific event, do the players qualify for the event and if so, do you have some flexibility?

Our players qualify for four spots and we select one spot.  We make them earn it and hold them accountable.  We hold one spot to allow for circumstances that might impact a player during the week (i.e. academic pressures).

Austin Cook is a great example.  He was pre-med and carried a very challenging course load.  There were weeks when school was very stressful and qualifying might not have gone the way he wanted.  I was aware of the situation and if he didn’t qualify, I wasn’t going to leave my All-American on the sideline.

In 2019, the University of Arkansas will be hosting the NCAA Championships.  How did the championship land in Fayetteville?

Schools are able to bid on the event, a much different situation than in the past when the NCAA would select a site.

Mr. Tyson (Tyson Foods) has been wanting to host a big event (i.e. US Junior Amateur, US Amateur) at the Blessings Golf Club and has spent a bunch of time and effort improving our course for the NCAA National Championship.  His commitment and excitement about collegiate and amateur golf was the difference.

Do you have any additional responsibilities with the event?

I do not.  The University of Arkansas has hired a firm to manage the event, allowing me to coach my team.  The firm will do a first class job.

You have been in the business for a number of years, how has your coaching style evolved since your days at Lamar?

It has certainly evolved!  The players have evolved and the equipment has changed.  There is far more technology (i.e. TrackMan) available to the coaches and the players.  Prior to this new technology, we were simply digging it out of the dirt.

With the way the equipment and technology has changed, we spend more of our time embracing these products.  We can learn more about our players faster, so it really speeds up the process.  As the game has changed, all of the coaches have evolved and that is why you see college sophomores ready to compete on the Tour.  The players are getting so much better so much faster.

Final question…What makes you the most proud of your affiliation with the University of Arkansas’s Men’s Golf Program?

Our student-athletes commitment to success off of the course.

I am fortunate to be in a position to change a player’s life on and off the golf course.  It is so fulfilling to see a young man that comes to the University of Arkansas with Tour aspirations, then, for whatever reason, things do not go according to plan and the same young man winds up being a huge success off of the golf course.  I do love following our guys who are competing on Tour.  Their success makes me very proud however, there are very few.

I have been coaching for twenty-five years and have coached a couple of hundred players.  The percentages of players that are successful at professional golf are low however the percentage of players that are successful in life, due to their golf game and their experiences at Lamar University and the University of Arkansas are quite high.

When I receive a letter or a phone call from a parent, thanking me for my contributions to their son’s growth, it is incredibly rewarding.

Brad, thank you so much for your contribution to Bad Golf Guy, hope to see you and your team at the NCAA National Championships at your home course in Fayetteville, Arkansas in late May.

If you are enjoying our weekly posts, we’d be eternally grateful if you’d spread the word.  Thank you for following Bad Golf Guy and be sure to check us out on Instagram.

The back nine can only get better!