New SAU golf coach Englund hopeful for successful season with young team

LAURINBURG — First-year St. Andrews head golf coach Greg Englund knows the mental fortitude and persistence needed to play the game of golf.

As a former amateur player in Portland, Oregon, he knows the toll it can take on one’s confidence.

“Golf is really hard,” Englund said. “Kids expect to be really good. Sometimes, you’re not. You have a bad day. Instead of getting all angry about it, you just have to accept that it’s part of the game, and it just wasn’t my day today. But it could be tomorrow.”

Englund has aimed to enforce that balanced mindset in his young players leading up to the opening of the 2024 season.

“I tell them that there are players that will go on the PGA Tour and win two tournaments in a month and then never win again … it’s not easy, but it’s also not the end of the world. … I try to put it into perspective to the big picture.”

To reinforce that, the Oregon native has been using a wide variety of game simulations to help his players prepare for their competitions.

During their four-day-a-week practices, the 12-man squad splits into “pods” to compete against each other, has short game competitions and competes directly on the course. The goal in doing so is that, by the time tournament time hits, they will be ready to simply repeat what they have done in practice.

Englund sees considerable potential for the young team that will compete with six freshmen, three sophomores and only three upperclassmen.

“They are starting to bond as a team more,” Englund said. “Ball striking-wise, there’s some pretty strong performers. So, I think they’re pretty good with the longer irons. They’re pretty strong; we just need to fine-tune mentally and work on (our) short game.”

Their first litmus test to see how their practice simulations have influenced their skills will be at the Columbia International University Spring Invitational on Feb. 25-26 in Columbia, South Carolina. After that, they will compete in the three-day Lawrence Tech University Spring Invitational starting on March 6 in Opelika, Alabama. It will all lead up to the Appalachian Athletic Conference Championship on April 22-23 at Barnsley Gardens Resort in Adairsville, Georgia. The first- and second-place finishers would then move on to play in the NAIA National Championship at the Dalton Golf and Country Club in Georgia on May 21-24.