Context.
Journaling I've been told is important. The habit for me not so easy. Reading my own handwriting can be tough. So why not Substack!
Numbers as they relate to sport has always been fun for me. For someone who loves numbers, I consider myself to be poor at simple math. After moving to the United States from the Netherlands my Grandpa (Joe Reehoorn) taught himself accounting and passed the CPA exam without attending college. An appreciation for numbers must be in the genes, but numbers are only a part of the story. As a fan of everything sports I despise analytics in baseball and football. The shift has ruined baseball. Thankfully it will be no longer next season. And the ‘chart’ each football coach seems to be falling in love with, I wish it would somehow go missing.
Context matters to me. It’s needed to answer questions and helps provide added confidence in moving forward with a decision. Statistics in golf provide a roadmap for how to continue to improve and in competition how to attack a golf course. But, one needs to match analytics with a feel for the game. The use of statistics won’t help anyone without a high level of self-awareness and Golf IQ.
“You look back. You look back because that is where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present…As you look back, you begin to see these blueprints emerge.” - Gallup Clifton Strength Finders
So how does all of that get me to writing a substack? I’m not sure, context I guess. As I return home from the Golf Coaches Convention in Las Vegas I seem to have the urge to write and get thoughts out of me. I’ve been told journaling is good. My team at Oregon State has been keeping a journal this fall as a way of trying to help continue increasing our own levels of self-awareness.
Blogging seemed to explode in the early 2000’s. I gave it a shot a couple times, but never could keep the momentum. I’m hopeful I’ll continue to view this substack as an extension of my journal. How did I get to Oregon State and become a golf coach for almost 20 years?
In August 1997, I attended Washington State University with aspirations of becoming an ESPN anchor. These aspirations were born during my 10th grade English class. Each week our homework included writing in a Blue Book1 about anything we wanted. To fulfill the assignment I watched Sportscenter, took notes on highlights from a few games, and then wrote a script as if I were in Dan Patrick’s seat. Filling up my Blue Book each week ended up being one of the most important classes of my life; right behind my 8th grade typing class. Writing every few days allowed me the opportunity to practice putting pen to paper. Since then the message I want to convey usually comes out much cleaner via ‘paper.’ Although it usually takes forever as I seem to edit non-stop. Thank you, Mrs. Taylor.
Twenty-five years after walking into Bryan Hall at WSU for my first college class - COM101, I’ve never stepped foot in the state of Connecticut. Instead, I’m in my 12th year as the men’s golf coach at Oregon State University and 18th as a coach. Thanks to a made putt in a sudden-death playoff for a spot in the 1998 US Amateur against Stanford golfer, Dusty Brett, the newly minted coach at WSU, Walt Williams, was willing to give a kid from Burlington, Wash., a chance to play Pac-10 golf.
I’ll never forget meeting with Coach for the first time. On a hot August day I returned to Pullman to move into my fraternity (I had joined the fraternity the previous semester…not knowing I’d be playing college golf) and asked to meet with Coach before heading to Rochester, N.Y. and the US Amateur. Due to renovations at Bohler Gym, the WSU athletic offices were temporarily located across the street in the Streit-Perham dorms (think cement jail). Streit-Perham was where I stayed the night during Kelvin Sampson’s Cougar Cage Camp in 5th or 6th grade, and now I was meeting a coach hoping to just get a chance to join a team at WSU. I’ll never forget what Walt told me as he offered me a spot on his team, “if you are good enough to qualify for the US Amateur, you are good enough for my team.”
The opportunity provided to me by Coach Williams changed my life. Golf became my life and dreams of ESPN quickly became an after thought. I finished my degree in Communications from the Edward R. Murrow School Of Communication, but avoided all TV/broadcasting classes because they were in the afternoon. Afternoons were for practice.
As a COM major at WSU, every student is required to pass COM2952 - media writing. Everyone said it was (maybe still is) the most failed class in the Communications school at WSU. The class was stressful. If memory serves me correctly it lasted just shy of two hours. The professor provided the class with facts of a story and it was our job to write a news story and meet deadline (the end of class). What made it stressful? The clock was ticking. If you misspelled a name, screwed up a date or any of the major facts given the assignment was an automatic F. Thankfully I passed in my first attempt. How much does it mean to an Edward R Murrow grad to pass COM295? A few weeks ago my wife (Meghan) and I were clearing out some books. Twenty years later the text book from my wife Meghan’s COM295 class remains in our home.
Meghan has always encouraged me to journal. While at the Univerrsity of Idaho she introduced me to blogger, which resulted in a short lived blog for our program. The blog was doomed when Meghan introduced me to Twitter and it became much easier to get info about our program to donors, alumni, and recruits. With my brain racing with thoughts, ideas, and To Do’s, I would struggle to sleep. Meghan would bring home Moleskin journals for me to keep along side our bed. It definitely helped me.
If you are looking to improve in anything, it seems everywhere I look people are advocating for journaling. When I began coaching at the University of Washington, Meghan worked as an assistant to Jeff Bezos. Yes, Jeff Bezos. Jeff’s office in the Amazon headquarters on Beacon Hill in Seattle was lined with pocket sized moleskin journals organized by month and year. I’ve never gotten to this level.
During our book clean out a few weeks ago, a couple of blank moleskin journals didn’t survive while the COM295 text book remains in our for the foreseeable future. Tough to part with an item with so much meaning.
I’m not sure where this Substack will go. I’m making an effort to be better at journaling with my team, but it is tough. Putting my fingers to a keyboard once a week seems easier. Writing with a pen or pencil is painful. It hurts my hand and my handwriting progressively gets sloppy making it tough to go back and read at a later date. Likely my topics will be centered around the game of golf, coaching, perhaps my own quest to return to being a decent golfer and potentially some of the podcasts I listen to weekly.
If you stumble upon this Substack and are interested in seeing what I have to write each week, please subscribe below. Also, if you would like to request a topic as it relates to anything I might know, coaching / recruiting, etc please send an email or leave a comment. I’ll do the best to provide some context.
Blue Books from what I can tell are rarely (if ever) used in college now. The student-athletes on my team at Oregon State had never heard of them. What a shame. I’m sure they could use the writing help.
COM295 - which is now referred to as COM300 still looks to be the one class every COM major at WSU looks forward to least, which makes me happy the struggle still exists.