JC Deacon Reviews SEC Championship
Monday, April 20, 2015 | Men's Golf
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida men's golf head coach JC Deacon met with the media on Monday to recap the Gators' tie for seventh place at the SEC Championship on Sunday and discuss the upcoming NCAA Regional Championship.
Florida placed three Gators in the top 25 and shot +2 (842) at the Sea Island Golf Club's Seaside Course to share seventh place with Georgia at the conference tournament.
Up next on the schedule for the Orange and Blue is the NCAA Regional Championship, which will be held May 14-16 at six sites around the country. The Golf Channel will air a live show announcing the regional site selections on May 4 at 10 a.m.
Head Coach JC Deacon:
Opening Statement:
“It was an awesome weekend – a dream come true for me. Coaching in the SEC is obviously the highest level, and it was really on display this weekend, with 14 great teams. The guys fought hard. We've really come so far since the start of the year. I always think back to that tournament in September and where we were after that first round. The guys really competed against an elite field. J.D. Tomlinson has shown his strength as a senior all year. His 66 in the second round was just massive for us, and we were the only team in the field on the second day to get it to 10-under par. That's pretty special in my eyes. I know we didn't finish it out exactly the way we wanted to. We ended up finishing seventh, but I think the guys showed themselves that they're capable of competing with the best teams in the country. To get it to 10 under and be the only team to do that on a second round was really pretty special. We have lots of work to do. We have three weeks until (NCAA) Regionals, and I think these guys will be fine. They've all got their priorities straight, and this team knows that they can start to accomplish some things. I'm very happy with the weekend, and it's truly an honor for me as a coach to be a part of it.”
At some point in the season, does it get to a point when the guys are playing against themselves and trying to get a certain score to move on to the championship team?
“No, I think especially this team now, we're so much a team. Alejandro (Tosti) is a great example. He's never been a part of a team in his life, and he was asking this weekend a bunch of times how everyone else was doing. That's how I know we've really come a long way because these guys care about each other, they're fighting for each other, they're playing for each other, and it's really all about the team right now. It's really, really fun to be a part of.”
Can you speak about Alejandro's five top-25 finishes in six tournaments? What is it like knowing you're still going to have him for three more years?
“A dream – a dream come true. He's just scratching the surface of where he could be, and he'll tell you the same thing if you ask him. He is so good. He's got all the shots. He just needs to grow up a little bit and be able to stay calm when things get tough. In the second round, things got tough, and he got off to a bad start, and he just let it get away from him a little bit. It was his only round out of the 60s this week, so once we can get him 100 percent calm and reacting the right way, then he's just going to be unstoppable. His first round of 67 was amazing, and I think that's what we're going to start seeing a lot of out of him.”
Some of the other guys have been on and off as far as scores go. What does Ryan Orr and players like him have to do to be able to compete every week?
“I think Ryan would tell you he's pretty disappointed in the weekend, especially the first two rounds. He's worked really hard. I think work ethic was probably something that was holding him a back a little bit when I first got here, but I've seen him out at the golf course a lot. He's been working on the specific parts of his game that he needs to get better, so I had high hopes for him this weekend. I know it's not the way that he wanted to play, but I see him coming back and getting to work and having a good attitude and helping us in any way he can. The biggest thing with these guys now is when they're not playing well, they don't hurt us anymore. It's not about them – it's about the team. Ryan didn't have his best week, but he was a heck of a teammate and pushed the other guys, pumped them up, stayed positive, and he helped us yesterday. He bogeyed two out of his last three holes, but his 72 helped our team score, and he was very close to a round where very few people shot under par yesterday.”
With the two seniors, does this season start to get sentimental, with it being your first season and their last?
“Yeah, it does. I wish I could have four years with J.D. and Eric (Banks), for sure. I think we've seen a huge growth in Eric's scores the last month and a half since the Schenkel (Invitational). We had a little sit down and had a long chat about how he was approaching the game and what he was doing. I don't know his scoring average since then, but it's a drastic improvement, and he's really growing up. We got done the second round, and I said, 'How'd it go out there, Banksie?' and he said, 'Coach, I hit 17 greens.' Just to hear that answer, that's such a growth for me because he would have been so score-focused before, and he's starting to get process-focused, and that's what our goal is. For him to say 17 greens was a judgment of his round, that's what we've been working on, and it was kind of a proud moment for me and him. It's definitely sentimental, but, like I said yesterday, the season's a long way from over, with the two biggest tournaments left. I think we're probably looking at a No. 6 or 7 seed, and we should be a pretty tough one of those.”
For them, do these two postseason tournaments last year and then going into it this year, do you think they have any added pressure to perform well?
“No, and definitely no added pressure – just excitement. These guys are so fired up, and they know how good they can be, and I think that second round this week, we were the only team that hit double digits under par that second round. The SEC – Vanderbilt, LSU, South Carolina – these are the best teams in the country, and they didn't get to that benchmark. We did, and I think the guys were like. 'Wow. We do belong here.' I definitely felt that, and it's just not me telling them anymore that they belong. They saw it, and I think we have a chance to do something down the line, but we have to take care of the little things. We have to work hard, we have to finish up school here and clear our plates so that we can really get to May and focus on golf and see how good we can really be.”
Coach, how tough is it having those three weeks off before Regionals to make sure the guys stay focused but also are taking care of things outside of the golf course as well?
“Yeah, that's a great question. It is tough, and at the SEC meetings, a lot of the coaches tried to talk about moving it back a little bit because all of the programs are dealing with that issue. It's such a long time to be between competitive rounds, but, saying that, I think the SEC had 10 teams in the national championship last year, so it didn't hurt anyone last year, and I don't see it hurting anyone this year. The conference is so strong, and a couple of the guys have some tournaments they're going to play in between. I think the biggest thing is getting school over with and getting a clean plate so that they can just focus on golf and make sure they're getting their rest to be prepared, but we'll be ready to go. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve.”
What's the biggest thing that needs to improve? Maybe more of the consistency –you guys know you can do it, but just to do it in every round?
“I can't put my finger on exactly what it is. We had it 10 under with three holes to go, and A.J. (Crouch) had a tough finish, Ryan had a tough finish and J.D. bogeyed the last hole. It was just a couple of little things that got us. That was really the first time we've been to an elite spot as a team. We've had a couple of good rounds here and there, but that's the first time we really beat the best, and so we were definitely out of our comfort zone, but we'll get there. I think hard work and Alejandro being comfortable really helps us. I'm so proud of these guys talking about this stuff. It's amazing to think of having a round where we got to 10 under at SECs from where we came from. I have no clue what these guys are going to do, but it's probably going to be something pretty special.”
In Case You Missed It: The SEC Network will air a recap show for the SEC men's golf championship tournament on April 29 at 10 p.m.
Follow the Gators: For complete coverage of the Gators' men's golf program, visit GatorZone.com, follow @GatorZoneGolf on Twitter and 'like' the University of Florida Men's Golf page on Facebook.
