Back on Course: A.J. Crouch is Recharged as Gators Enter NCAA Championship
Thursday, May 28, 2015 | Men's Golf, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Their relationship had turned as sour as a gallon of milk left in the sun for a week.
A.J. Crouch and golf squabbled constantly. He didn't like her and she didn't like him. They were toxic when together.
Former Gators men's golf coach Buddy Alexander witnessed enough of their quarrels to offer Crouch a way out. He told Crouch to spend time away from each other to see if that helped rekindle the romance.
Crouch liked that idea as much as anything he had heard in a long time.
“I kind of got burned out,'' he said. “I just needed to get away.”
So Crouch, a former standout junior golfer who led The Bolles School in Jacksonville to a state championship, took the spring of 2014 off from golf and contemplated his future.
Should he kick the game to the curb forever? What about his dream school? Was UF, the place where his parents and their fathers graduated, the right place for him? Should he transfer? Should he stay and just focus on school?
The questions tossed around in his head over and over and over.
Crouch was so far from where he is this week – the NCAA Championship at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton – he flashes a teethy grin when thinking about it.
“A year ago today I was probably sitting on a beach somewhere,'' he said earlier this week.
There are some good beaches near Bradenton, but Crouch isn't there to get a tan. He wants to help the Gators do what they did at the NCAA Chapel Hill (N.C.) Regional two weeks ago: challenge for the title.
Crouch did his part, playing some of the best golf of his career as Florida pulled off a surprise with a final round 6-under-par to finish fourth and advance to this week's 30-team NCAA Championship. The Gators are the 29th-seed but that's fine by them.
They have a chance.
And Crouch, who shot rounds of 69-72-72—213 to finish tied for ninth, is back with his old flame and they are doing better than ever.
“I've never played in a national championship,'' said the 5-foot-10, 170-pound junior. “It's going to be a cool experience.”
To get to this place, Crouch made some serious changes. Not in his golf game, but his outlook on the game, school and life.
He credits first-year Florida head coach JC Deacon as a major influence.
Deacon took over the program last summer during Crouch's sabbatical. The first time they met about the future was at dinner at The Swamp Restaurant across from campus.
Deacon could tell Crouch was in the dumps.
“He just wasn't happy. The experience was not going well for him for whatever reason,'' Deacon said. “He didn't even know if he wanted to play golf, and that's not the sign of someone who is going to be successful.
“I knew if I could get him happier, he might have a chance to play like he did as a junior golfer. A.J.'s junior golf record is very good.”
Crouch listened to Deacon's pitch and quickly began to warm up to the idea of rejoining the Gators as a walk-on after surrendering his scholarship.
“I've got to credit him with a lot of my success,'' Crouch said. “I remember when we met I didn't know who he was. When he ordered 25 chicken wings, I knew he was going to be a good coach.”
Crouch slowly returned to the course, playing in some tournaments last summer while home and then rejoining the Gators in the fall. He was nervous in his first tournament and it showed when he shot 80 in his first two rounds of the season.
But in Florida's third tournament of the fall, he won the Florida Gulf Coast University Classic to regain much-needed confidence. He followed that up with a second-place finish in the Sea Best Invitational.
Deacon served more as mental coach than golf coach as Crouch climbed his way back. Crouch is a good ball striker and excellent on the green.
“He's an athlete and he knows how to get the ball where it needs to go,'' Deacon said. “I knew I didn't have to mess with that. I just had to get his mind right. That's the best part about it. I think we've really made a change in his life, not just his golf game.”
Crouch agrees. Sometimes a new attitude is all you need to reverse your fortunes.
As he pondered his future a year ago, Crouch didn't know where the road ahead led. It took him to Bradenton this week.
There is no place he would rather be.
