A Blueprint For Success

HOW HEAD COACH MIKE SMALL TURNED THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS MEN’S GOLF TEAM INTO A PROGRAM MARKED BY CONTINUED SUCCESS.

The University of Illinois Men’s Golf Team has had quite a bit of success over the last decade. Winning the Big Ten Tournament 10 of the last 11 years, as well as advancing to the NCAA Championship each of those 11 seasons, is an impressive run. These successes did not come by chance, but rather through a well-thought-out program and culture developed by Head Coach Mike Small. Small’s commitment to a plan—a blueprint—that focuses on dramatic progress and improvement has led to a complete reinvention and sustained success for the team.

Building the Program & Facilities

Prior to Small taking over in June of 2000, the program had only won the Big Ten Tournament once since 1941. Located in the Midwest, there never was much of an expectation for the team to be successful. It had always been thought that schools that didn’t have the ability to play golf year-round would naturally be inferior to schools located in warmer climates, such as Alabama or Arizona State. When Small took the helm, that mentality changed.

"We had a game plan. This was not a fly-by-night operation. You had to recruit the talent, build the facilities, increase budgets and raise the money,” Small said. “We had to create and change the perception of a northern program—that it can’t be done."

And since day one, Small had that game plan. He knew he had to recruit the talent, but he also had to figure out how to acquire the necessary facilities to do that. After building relationships, Small was able to raise the money to build the facilities needed. And after opening in 2007, the Demirjian Indoor Facility was just the beginning to the continued success of the team.

The indoor facility and other new practice areas allowed Small to begin recruiting the talent needed to see success on the course. Players such as Scott Langley, Thomas Pieters, Zach Barlow and Chris DeForest joined the fold and excelled in the environment created by Small. From there, the program was off and running and never looked back.

This group of players had major successes, allowing the program to continue its upward trend. In 2010, Scott Langley captured the NCAA Individual Championship. This was followed by Thomas Pieters winning the Individual Championship in 2012. Invariably, successes like these allowed the program to continue to improve facilities, with the building of the Lauritsen/Wohlers Outdoor Practice Facility in 2014. And so, Small’s plan to improve and progress at every level had been realized.

Coach Small (far left) with Assistant Coach Zach Barlow (far right) and the 2018-19 University of Illinois Men's Golf Team.

Maintaining Program Success

Building new facilities, along with initial success from players, was a great start, but attention and planning couldn’t be neglected in the face of success. The collegiate athletic industry is competitive and there are always other programs making improvements, trying to recruit the best talent and prove that they have the correct blueprint for turning a young athlete into a professional.

At the University of Illinois though, Small puts a strong emphasis on building a team atmosphere and culture. It’s a focus that’s relatively unfamiliar and challenging for a lot of golf programs where golf is seen as a highly individualized sport. But it sets the U of I program apart and sets its players up for success in college and beyond.

“We have to do our best to compete and exist as a team,” Small said. “It’s very important that you get players who subscribe to that theory. In order to be a National Champion, your team must make Nationals. You have to thrive as a team. I believe players will play better when they play for someone else and not just themselves. When you figure that system out, it is a huge strength.”

So, how does Small build that team atmosphere? “It starts from the minute you meet your players in recruiting,” he said. “You have to find out if they are compatible with what you want to do. If their dreams and desires aren’t the same as yours, then who cares how talented they are? We preach every day that you are playing for someone else more than yourself. And that is a big deal.”

Looking at the program’s success, there hasn’t been one year where they have had the “top recruits” in the country coming to Illinois. Of course, top junior golfers would all like to come to a program that has had recent collegiate success and has successful alumni on the PGA Tour, but that doesn’t mean that they will necessarily be a good fit with the program culture. It takes the right type of person to fit the culture at Illinois, and Small makes it a point to weigh both skill and culture cohesion when evaluating potential incoming players.

"We use visits to get to know them better," Small said. "Once we determine that they can’t fit into our culture, it doesn’t do anyone any good to be a part of an organization if they don’t fit. We have to be more accurate in surveying personalities because more people want to get in and we can be more selective."

And looking beyond collegiate competition, Small always considers how he’s preparing his players for a potential professional career. Life on the PGA Tour can be difficult: playing somewhere different every week, traveling around the world constantly, playing in all different conditions and competing for your job every time you tee it up. Small fosters an atmosphere at Illinois that teaches players to handle those future situations, allowing them to ultimately be successful at the next level.

“You have to get the mentally tough people that don’t look for excuses and don’t have to have everything perfect to be great,” Small said. “You have to learn to make a successful career and successful business by fighting through all the adversity. If a person wants to be successful on the PGA Tour, they have to learn how to play golf when they are uncomfortable.”

Kevin R. Hildebrand (Head Golf Professional at UCC) and Coach Mike Small having a pre-round conversation before teeing off.

A Successful Leadership Team

As in sports, business and life in general, the team and players will only be as good as their leaders. Building a leadership team fitting of the program culture and standards is an enormously important piece of the puzzle. For Small, his biggest focus is on acquiring assistant coaches that fit the mold he’s created. Zach Barlow, a former player, had been an assistant for Small since 2014 but left in the summer of 2019 for the head coaching position at the University of Michigan. And so, in search of a new assistant to fit the role as a leader of the program, there are specific traits Small looks for.

“Optimism and accountability. They work hand in hand,” he said. “You can’t be so positive that you fake yourself out. You have to be encouraging, but you have to be real and truthful. That’s accountability.”

Small went on to say, “Too many coaches try to be so positive they never are accountable for what’s going wrong and they gloss over the negative things. Turning a negative into a positive is a great thing, but you still have to recognize the negative.”

First and foremost though, Small understands that the leadership standards he holds others to, he must be held to those as well. That accountability is a defining factor of his success as a coach.

"One question I ask our assistants every year in their evaluation is ‘Are you working harder than me?'" Small said. "If they’re not equal to me, then we have a problem, because I need to be working hard. As a leader you have to be accountable to yourself."

In building a successful golf program, each piece has to come together to create a plan not only realized on the course, but in day-to-day life as well. No matter the application, whether it’s on the course, in the office or in their home, the traits and skills a player learns under Coach Small will stay with them long after their competitive golf days are over. And with his eyes always on the full blueprint, Small continually makes sure those pieces come together to create sustained success year after year.