Adding a Unique Perspective. Again
Change hits men’s golf program on eve of season
Liv Sewell
A unique perspective might be all you need. Having one definitely isn’t unique to the team.
As the players of Colorado State men’s golf patiently wait for the new season to arrive, so too does the program's new coach, Jack Kennedy.
Kennedy’s position was announced on Aug. 9 when Michael Wilson, who had been the coach for two years and led the team to the first NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years, left for the position at Cal, his alma mater.
“This is a fun year for all of us because I feel like a freshman myself,” Kennedy said. “I’ve only been on campus for about a week, so we’re trying to learn the ropes and each other as fast as we can.”
With eight years of experience at San Francisco, Kennedy also had an entirely different start in college athletics, serving in many different roles for USF’s basketball program.
Basketball and golf couldn’t seem farther apart in terms of team dynamics and general play, but Kennedy sees them as assets to his coaching abilities.
“While golf is a very individual sport, college golf is very much a team sport,” Kennedy said. “My college basketball background really helps me motivate these guys from a team concept. So, we’re just trying to put everybody’s individual goals aside and bring them all together.”
He has a point. During his San Franciso tenure, the Dons reached the NCAA Tournament twice, the regionals four times, with his team winning eight tournaments.
One individual who has not only seen three different men’s golf coaches throughout his time on the team also has one of the most promising seasons yet to come playing for CSU.
Christoph Bleier, a senior from Austria, was the Mountain West’s individual champion in 2023 as a sophomore. He hopes his final collegiate run will set him up for a playing career on tour after graduation.
“I’m trying to get better at golf and trying to become a professional,” Bleier said. “If you want to become a professional, you have to win. I’m happy that I was able to (win the title), and I hope to do it again this year.”
With an incoming class of four freshmen, two being international students, all were recruited by a different coach with the change in staff only becoming apparent after moving to Fort Collins.
One such first-year, Ralf Kivi from Estonia, cited Wilson as the main reason he chose CSU.
“I loved the previous coach,” Kivi said. “He was the guy that recruited me and that’s the ultimate reason I chose CSU. But I think Coach Kennedy seems like the right guy to replace Coach Wilson, so I’m looking forward to the season.”
With the sudden change in coaching, Kennedy has things to prove, not only to his players but also to those watching on the course.
But the Tucson, Ariz. native is not short of plans for what he wishes to do in developing and hopefully making the NCAA’s, and it’s not entirely about the Rams’ form of play.
“We want to be not just considered a country club team,” Kennedy said. “We want to make an effort to get out in the city and be great stewards of the community and public golf community as well. We get to show off Fort Collins to some of the best schools in the country so that’s really special.”
Golf is a very hard sport, and sometimes the scores don’t give it all to you based on how you play. But if you have the right mindset and work ethic and drive every single day, the results tend to come.Jack Kennedy
Showing off Fort Collins golf and its many amenities starts with the first tournament on the home fairway, the Ram Master’s Invitational on Sep. 17. It serves as a way for the team to find its footing and learn how it works with the new additions to the roster and coaching staff on a comfortable course and environment.
For Bleier, the Fort Collins Country Club, where the Ram Master’s Invitational will be competed, is a home course which provides comfort. Rather than be an obvious leader, wants to lead in a less overt way like those he used to look up to on the team.
“I just try to lead by example,” Bleier said. “Just be the best and give my 100% in practice every day, give my 100% in school every day and try to be on top of things. I don’t make it a big deal that I’m the ‘leader.’ Freshmen look up to the upperclassmen and it was like that when I got here. I was looking up to Davis Bryant, Connor Jones and Oscar Teiffel; they all were on top of their things, and I’m just trying to do the same.”
The cycle of leaders continues so it seems as Bleier steps in to fill the spots of the seniors who came before him looking to be the example he saw in them. Jay Pabin is in the same shoes as a senior, while Matthew Wilkson and Jake Rodgers return as familiar faces.
As for Bleier’s upcoming season, Kennedy has more plans in mind to push him further and support his dream of competing professionally after leaving college.
“I’m his third coach in four years and I want to make sure he’s comfortable,” Kennedy said. “I want him to know that I have his best interest at heart and the only thing I want for him is to have the best senior year possible. We’re going to help him and push him while he’s here to constantly have that pro aspiration in everything he does. Our success is going to be very dependent on him and that in order for us to be good, he has to be good.”
One of two seniors on the team, the pressure is not misplaced as Bleier led the team with a stroke average of 71.89 last season. But par for the course isn’t a guarantee to make a tour.
Professional golfers aim to be in the red throughout the season. If Bleier wants a chance for a coveted spot on the tour, he will have to shoot for negative numbers consistently where minute changes make all the difference.
Kennedy looks to use the 20 hours of allocated NCAA practice time to do just that for him.
“Every coach has a different way of doing things,” Bleier said. “(But) they all want us to improve. (Kennedy’s) drills are different but their main objective is the same. They are all very performance based. They try to push your game, push your mental state, and try to keep you in it.”
Pushing further to perfection seems monotonous as improvements in a sport like golf are slight and calculating, keeping what you know works and focusing on the miniscule details which don’t.
Run a drill a thousand times, play a course a hundred, putt on the green too many times to count and it all comes down to 18 chances in a round, 56 in a tournament.
“Golf is a very hard sport, and sometimes the scores don’t give it all to you based on how you play,” Kennedy said. “But if you have the right mindset and work ethic and drive every single day, the results tend to come.”
Results like reaching the NCAA Championships are heavy on the minds of those participating especially after the appearance last year, as well as with Kennedy who has a hope to keep the streak going.
Part of how he wants to do that is to keep up with the schedule CSU men’s golf will face.
“We want to play the best competition we can,” Kennedy said. “We want to go across the country. We don’t want to be afraid of playing anybody anywhere, because we want to make NCAA regionals, and you could get sent across the country against anybody.”
For golf, it all comes down to preparing for any outcome. It could be through practice or by seeing a different point of view.
Kennedy brings an individual perspective the players on this team have yet to see, one which focuses on the big picture and how all the moving parts work together. It could be his background in basketball or his experience at USF, but all that’s apparent now is the work being put in behind the scenes.
However, as the season goes on, it will become noticeable if that unique way of coaching golf truly creates a team out of the individual—a team which can go on to win.
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