Q&A with Kit Grove
Sept. 24, 2010
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Head Coach Kit Grove has devoted the last four years to the men’s golf program at the University of Kansas. This past Monday and Tuesday, KU hosted the Jayhawk Invitational at Alvamar Country Club Public Course in Lawrence. The team played fairly well and was in a good position, but unfortunately could not bring the title home, as the Jayhawks finished tied for sixth place. KU Athletics recently had a chance to sit down with Coach Grove to talk about his expectations for the 2010-11 team and what it means to him to coach at his alma mater.
Head Coach Kit Grove
On the Jayhawk Invitational exposing the team:
“You know, I don’t think so. We are really young; seven out of the 10 (on our squad) are sophomores and freshmen. You are going to have some growing pains there and this week we got off to a pretty decent start, had three pretty solid rounds and just couldn’t quite get a fourth round in that first 18. Then in the second 18 they all struggled. Yesterday (Sept. 21) we actually got off to a really fast start and what I thought was the meat of the golf course on the back nine just couldn’t quite get her in the house, but I think that has a lot to do with age as well.”
On team maturation:
“It’s one of those deals where you got to crawl before you walk, and it’s the same in golf. Golf is like any other sport; you kind of have to have a few good rounds before you can start feeding off of that, the positives and everything else.”
On senior Nate Barbee:
“He’s been struggling a little bit. He takes it quite personally. It’s one of those deals where it’s not from a lack of effort or lack of work. If you look at guys on tour, the game is very cyclical. He just kind of happens to be in a down turn right now and I was really happy with his 70 yesterday (Sept. 21). Hopefully that will kind of get him moving back in the right direction and get him back to shooting those type of scores on a regular basis, which is what he is used to doing.”
On preparing the team for each competition:
“We do different things in each practice. Right now we are trying to get them to relax a little bit. I think more than anything they are all getting a little too geeked up on what number is going on the scoreboard versus the process of getting it there.”
On finishing the season:
“Obviously we need to get better and we need to get better in a hurry. There is no secret there. I kind of almost wish we had a week off a little sooner, but we are headed to Colorado on Saturday and (it will be) a pretty decent field out there, so we don’t really know quite what to expect. We’ve got a couple weeks off after that, before we finish the season at UMKC and then at New Mexico State. Then we have about five or six events in the spring and the Big 12’s. What we are trying to do is get as much experience as we can with these young guys this fall and kind of point out this is what you need to work on and this is what definitely needs improvement.”
On his personal favorite course:
“Pasatiempo is definitely up there out on the west coast in Santa Cruz. Actually, I had my worst collegiate round there and my worst competitive round there, but it’s a neat place. I am a big fan of Prairie Dunes as well. Prairie Dunes is really, really unique. It’s hard, but you can play the holes a couple different ways. You can attack that golf course a little bit, but if you do, it can bite you back.”
