Coach Ross' Blog from the NCAA Golf Tournament

Everything is just a little nicer at the "big" tournaments. Our hotel is really nice-- our players really like the indoor pool and great exercise room. We have some diet and fitness-conscious players on our team. The golf course is fabulous-- really great. It is hilly, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. All the holes are really memorable, with three holes located on a lake on the lower side of the course. The greens are big but with lots of contours and different levels. These greens are bentgrass-- really fast and firm. If you hit your shots very far from the hole, you will have a tough time getting down in two putts. We had a great practice round on Wednesday. Our players have really bought into the purpose of a practice round-- to learn the course. We had a sheet showing the pin placements for all three rounds. We don't know which day the pins will be in which locations, but it is nice to know the locations in advance. Coach Jonathan Dismuke and I marked the locations of the planned pins, and the players try to prepare how they would play and putt to the hole locations. It really does very little good to play to the practice round hole location-- the pin will not be there anymore. When the pin is in different locations, the strategy into the green may really change. You may even play a different tee shot on some par 4 holes. Again, try to formulate a strategy for each hole location and begin to "visualize" your plan. As a coach, I have tried to keep our players calm and confident. We know this is a bigger tournament than some others as far as implications go (advancement to NCAA Finals). The other teams are filled with good players. We will have quite a few family members and fans come over to Atlanta to watch. With teams like Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn, etc. in the field, we know there will be many more spectators at this event. There are NCAA banners everywhere. You can tell this tournament is special. So how do we keep our players calm? As a coach, you attempt to "guide" our players in their thoughts. "Let's just have fun." "It's just another tournament." These are some of the more "generic" mental phrases we say to downplay the importance. I know that none of our players has ever played in an NCAA Regional, but all have played in some big tournaments in their career. We will try to recall some of the successful "pictures" each player generated in their minds on their better tournaments. All is geared towards thinking the proper thoughts and not getting too excited or thinking that "this is a big tournament-- I've got to play great." Coach Ernest Ross Ole Miss Men's Golf

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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