{"id":541,"date":"2011-08-25T21:33:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T21:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teemoore.com\/?p=541"},"modified":"2011-08-25T21:33:48","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T21:33:48","slug":"despite-losing-garber-to-georgia-u-m-coach-remains-upbeat-about-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/personalities\/541\/despite-losing-garber-to-georgia-u-m-coach-remains-upbeat-about-team","title":{"rendered":"Despite losing Garber to Georgia, U-M coach remains upbeat about team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U-M coach Chris Whitten<\/p><\/div>\n

As described by Chris Whitten, University of Michigan\u2019s head golf coach, \u201cit\u2019s not uncommon for college golfers to transfer to another school but it\u2019s uncommon for it to happen at Michigan.\u201d Still Whitten remained upbeat and optimistic about his team\u2019s future in spite of losing rising star Joey Garber to the University of Georgia. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a very good team and our goals remain the same: to win the Big Ten Championship and perform well in the post-season.\u201d Named the head coach in June after serving as an assistant to Andrew Sapp who left to coach at his alma mater North Carolina, Whitten had good things to say about Garber, the 2010 Michigan Amateur champion and the runner-up this year: \u201cJoey was open and honest with us about his evaluation process and I am very supportive of him. Obviously, I was hoping he would return to Michigan but I wish him the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reached by phone this week, Garber said it was a difficult decision to leave Michigan. \u201cThis was a tough decision about my future,\u201d said Garber, a Petoskey native. \u201cGoing to Georgia allows me to play year round and not have such a long break from the game as you do in Michigan.\u201d Garber said he noticed his spring scoring average was two or three shots higher than in the fall. The composition of Georgia\u2019s team was also a factor in his decision. Runner-up to Augusta State in the NCAA Championship, Georgia graduated three All-America golfers this year and it\u2019ll be the first time in many years where no All-America golfer is returning in the fall. \u201cI\u2019ve known some of the guys on the team from my junior golf days and it\u2019s just a good fit for me.\u201d Garber also admitted the appeal of playing Augusta National Golf Club as a team member was also a factor. \u201cGeorgia plays some wonderful courses throughout the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the overriding factor for Garber\u2019s surprising transfer was his desire to take his game to the highest stage: the PGA Tour. \u201cWhen you look at the PGA Tour there are only two or three players like Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly who live in the Midwest,\u201d said Garber. \u201cMost of the Tour players live in the Sunbelt and play year round. Also, Georgia and Coach Chris Haack have a successful track record for producing Tour players.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Garber is taking his game to Georgia<\/p><\/div>\n

One irony in the timing of Garber\u2019s departure is that Michigan will open in October a state-of-the-art indoor golf center, a 10,000 square foot facility with open hitting bays and an expansive indoor chipping and putting green. \u201cThe facility has already made a difference in our recruiting,\u201d says Whitten. \u201cIn my opinion, there are a number of factors that go into a player\u2019s improvement in the course of the year. It\u2019s not just all out on the course; there are strength and conditioning factors as well as the mental side of the game.\u201d Whitten added: \u201cThere\u2019s often a stigma that at northern colleges a player\u2019s game will worsen from fall to spring. That\u2019s not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitten says the Wolverines play 10 events per year, evenly divided between the fall and spring. Team members are committed to 20 hours per week of golf or practice with one day off as required by the NCAA. \u201cIt\u2019s like a part-time job,\u201d says Whitten. The coach is excited about the Wolverines\u2019 prospects this coming season with the return of such stalwarts as senior Matt Thompson and junior Jack Schultz. He\u2019s also keen on two highly touted incoming freshmen, Florida\u2019s Andrew Wong and Korea\u2019s Noori Hyun.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the upshot to this story? Well, Michigan obviously took a hit with Garber\u2019s departure but it still remains a strong program at an attractive institution with even better indoor facilities now. For Garber, he\u2019s relentlessly following his dream to make it on the PGA\u00a0Tour. To him, that road is routed through Athens, Georgia. Hard to quarrel with that.<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019m reminded of the example set by PGA Champion Keegan Bradley that the path to the Tour and success is often governed less by geography and more by a well-grounded mindset and a hungry heart. Like Garber, Bradley grew up in the north (Vermont) and skied in the long winters. He played his college golf at St. John\u2019s University in New York, not your hotbed college golf destination, while not foregoing his New England roots. That path to fame and fortune turned out quite well.<\/p>\n

photos courtesy of University of Michigan and AJGA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As described by Chris Whitten, University of Michigan\u2019s head golf coach, \u201cit\u2019s not uncommon for college golfers to transfer to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[88369,88370,88371,1036820,88372,2832,88373,3864,88374,159,10273,88366,88367,88368],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-personalities","tag-ncaa-golf","tag-petoskey","tag-matt-thompson","tag-golf","tag-jack-schultz","tag-terry-moore","tag-andrew-sapp","tag-university-of-michigan","tag-chris-haack","tag-augusta-national","tag-michiganamateur","tag-joey-garber","tag-chris-whitten","tag-university-of-georgia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2011\/08\/Whitten.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":549,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}