It isn’t at all times attainable to place a finger on the place, precisely, a profitable staff discovered its edge. Within the case of Pomona-Pitzer, nonetheless, connecting the dots is comparatively simple.
After profitable the Golfweek D3 October Basic on Tuesday, what head coach John Wurzer calls the largest regular-season victory in program historical past, Wurzer may fairly confidently level to the lengthy holes at Baytowne Golf Hyperlinks in Sandestin, Florida. He coaches a staff of longer-than-average gamers, and so Wurzer had been chewing on par-5 scoring for some time.
“The primary day, they have been 9 underneath on the par 5s,” Wurzer mentioned. “It was, for us, a extremely superb efficiency on these holes and it actually form of separated us the primary day.”
For the week, Pomona-Pitzer performed the par 5s in 11 underneath. Carnegie Melon, which completed runner-up to the Sagehens, performed them in 4 over. Pomona-Pitzer completed 54 holes at 15 over, 18 pictures forward of Carnegie Melon, the staff that had topped Pomona-Pitzer two weeks in the past on the Fall Preview.
That’s simple math, and it’s not like Wurzer had intricate, detailed plans for his gamers – although they may have simply adopted them if he did.
Wurzer, in his sixth season as the pinnacle coach of Pomona-Pitzer, notes that his program attracts an Ivy League-kind of athlete. “They should be superb college students, in order that they’re poised, they’re sensible, they’re conscious, they’re very coachable,” he mentioned.
It’s a novel setup again residence in Claremont, California, the place Pomona Faculty and Pitzer Faculty, two separate establishments that mix into one athletic program, assist comprise the “5Cs” that additionally embody Scripps Faculty, Claremont McKenna Faculty and Harvey Mudd Faculty. The latter three compete within the mixed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic program.
Pomona-Pitzer competes within the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Convention together with perennial powerhouse applications Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The realm is loaded with expertise, to the purpose that Wurzer mentioned his staff by no means competes in a match the place there isn’t not less than a top-8 college within the discipline. The proverbial bar is not any additional than two stout par 5s away. That’s the gap to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, which gained the 2018 D3 girls’s golf title.
“Our most important rival for golf is 1,000 yards away, on the identical campus,” Wurzer mentioned.
When Wurzer arrived in Claremont six years in the past, Pomona-Pitzer was a gifted program that had by no means gained the convention title. The Sagehens gained it the previous two years. He has orchestrated a gradual construct, and thus far this season, his staff has gained twice and completed runner-up twice.
“For us, it was actually about getting competitors,” he mentioned of two journeys east to begin the autumn. “We needed to return to this occasion as a result of it was actually one of many two greatest regular-season occasions within the nation – within the fall for certain.”
On the Golfweek occasion, Pomona-Pitzer drew senior management from Katelyn Vo, who led the staff with a runner-up end individually. Vo, at 1 over, was three behind particular person medalist Sydney Kuo of Washington College-St. Louis.
Sydney Kuo, Washington College-St. Louis
Jessica Mason (fourth) and Emily Chang (T5) additionally convey again expertise, whereas freshmen Eunice Yi and Rachel LeMay have performed the entire fall season with the Sagehens.
“We’ve simply constructed towards rising to the extent of competitors that’s in our convention and so they set the bar and we’ve simply tried to form of attain it and surpass it,” Wurzer mentioned. “Wins like this simply present that we’ve gamers which have purchased in and so they’re exceptionally gifted. The groups in our convention have pushed us to be nice as a result of the one manner we accomplish targets that we set is to beat them firstly.”
Wurzer is aware of in addition to any school coach that success doesn’t occur in a single day. A local of Southern California, his historical past within the recreation is layered with educating, program-building and easily observing at each degree.
Wurzer based the Torrance Excessive College women golf program in 2000 and coached the staff to its first of many California Interscholastic Federation State Ladies Golf titles in 2005. Program alumni embody Angela Park, the 2007 LPGA Rookie of the Yr, plus LPGA gamers Jane Rah, Jenny Shin and Demi Runas.
Wurzer gained discover for what he was doing in highschool golf, principally as his gamers have been recruited to high faculties (or went straight to skilled golf), and he spent 4 years because the Director of Golf Operations at USC, studying underneath then-head coaches Chris Zambri and Andrea Gaston.
After an assistant teaching stint at Lengthy Seashore State, his alma mater, Wurzer discovered a head-coaching alternative at Pomona-Pitzer, the place he leads the lads’s and ladies’s groups.
After so a few years in a pocket of high-caliber golf, Wurzer’s information is deep. He has watched notable careers unfold in all instructions – from Lizette Salas, for instance, to Stewart Hagestad.
“I’ve seen rather a lot and it simply permits me to have perspective and coach these gamers, recruit very in another way however coach a really comparable manner and use numerous these classes I discovered alongside the way in which from SC and once I was at Lengthy Seashore State,” he mentioned.
As his time at Pomona-Pitzer is exhibiting, the last word success of a program comes right down to the gamers. However the identification? That’s constructed quietly, and painstakingly, by the coach.
