An Endless Season of Orange and Blue

PGA Professional Mike Small’s golf game is the envy of his peers. And for over a decade, he’s performed just as expertly behind the ropes as the coach of the University of Illinois men’s golf team.

It’s a winning combination—Small the player and Small the coach. When you are a three-time PGA Professional National Champion, the practices you coach have an extra spark and your messages carry more weight. In short, you command the attention of men less than half your age.

Small’s record-tying third title came on June 30 with an 8-under-par 278 total for 72 holes and a three-stroke victory at French Lick (Ind.) Resort. His success—as well as that of a left-handed member of his Big Ten Conference Champion team, senior-to-be Scott Langley of the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Mo.—has made this an Illini-themed golf season.

“It’s been a great year, not just for me personally,” says the 44-year-old Small, who makes his sixth career PGA Championship appearance on August. 9–15 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. “To see how our kids performed first by winning a Big Ten Championship, then see Scott win an NCAA Championship, go on to qualify for the U.S. Open, finish as Low Amateur at Pebble Beach—why you can’t make up a year like that.”

There’s still one more major left on Langley’s plate, too, before he returns to classes this fall. He’s exempted into his third U.S. Amateur Championship, which takes place August 23–39 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. “I’ve been there twice now, and I’d like to win it,” says Langley without hesitation, having lost a first-round match in 2008 and a second-rounder last year. “I just try to improve each day. I have been feeling pretty good about my game.”

Now the clubhouse toast of Champaign, Langley did a complete 180-degree turn in a matter of a month. He closed the Big Ten Conference Championship in Blaine, Minn., tying for 24th place after struggling to an 80. Fortunately for the Illini, they had built a 16-stroke third-round lead and held on for a three-stroke margin over Iowa on their way to a second straight conference title.

“It was not a disappointment personally, because we won the Big Ten Championship,” says Langley. “I did not perform as I wanted to, but we got what we came to do—win a title. It was a team effort, and there are a lot of good players in the conference.”

It was the motivation Langley needed to go on and capture the NCAA Championship at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., and be selected first-team All-American. Langley finished with a 10-under-par 206 in the 54-hole medal-play segment of the championship, becoming the first Big Ten golfer to win national-medalist honors since Northwestern’s Luke Donald in 1999. Langley finished two strokes ahead of the field and turned in scores of 70-68-68. Previously, the best individual finish by an Illinois golfer was Steve Stricker’s ninth place in 1988. (Stricker, incidentally, was Small’s teammate in 1988, and the two have been close friends since, including serving as groomsman in the other’s wedding.)

From the NCAA Championship, Langley qualified for the U.S. Open with what he called “two great rounds” in the Sectional Tournament on June 7 at the Country Club of St. Albans in Missouri. His pair of 66s boosted him into the sole qualifying spot from the site.

“From tee to green, I was as solid as I could be,” says Langley, who practiced with players who included Davis Love III, Stricker, Justin Leonard, Scott Verplank, and Tom Watson upon arriving at Pebble Beach. “I felt more pressure playing with all of them than I felt in the Open itself. What those practice rounds did was calm the nerves. I got the good advice to pace myself.”
Langley closed the Open with a 1-under-par 71 to finish tied for 16th at 292.

“To tell you the truth,” says Small, “it was an even bigger thrill for me this summer to watch what Scott did in the Open.”

Langley followed the Open experience by competing on the winning U.S. Team in the Palmer Cup in Royal Portrush, Ireland, then returned home to finish third in the Metropolitan Open in St. Louis (an event he’s won the previous two years). He concluded his hectic travel pace by dropping a 20-hole match to Chris Williams of Moscow, Idaho, in the round of eight of the U.S. Public Links Championship in Greensboro, N.C. Through it all, Langley says his coach has been invaluable to his training and preparation.

“Coach has not only helped us with technique, but with being such a good role model for me the past three years,” Langley says.

Small shares his role as Langley’s coach. The young golfer has also received instruction in his hometown the past several years from PGA Professional Brian Fogt, the director of instruction at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.

“We have worked to build a solid foundation for Scott and not change who he is,” says Small. “He’s beyond his years in maturity. We are not trying to change his game. Brian comes from the same period as I do, and we think alike. He has set the fundamentals up well for Scott and I’ve worked in course management and how to approach tournaments.”

For Small, the thrill of winning a third PGA Professional National Championship and a $75,000 check was tempered by battling tendinitis in his right elbow, the result of an injury suffered in 2003 during a pick-up basketball game. There are seven screws permanently implanted in Small’s elbow. That nagging injury aligns itself with a chronically inflamed disc in his back. He received treatment on both from a physician in Bedford, Ind., while competing in French Lick. Perhaps the physician should have had a share of the winner’s check.

“I don’t know what my game may be like from day to day, but it all has to do with pacing myself,” says Small. “I am looking forward to playing in the PGA Championship. It’s always been a lot of fun, and remembering Whistling Straits in 2004, I know that it will be another great test. It will be extreme in different ways from French Lick [The Pete Dye Course]. You can’t go into it and be intimidated. You have to try and treat it as another golf tournament and perform as you know how despite all of the crowds and distractions.”

In this historic and endlessly successful Illinois golf season, that approach has been working just fine. CG

(Bob Denney is a Senior Association Writer for the PGA of America.)