Oct. 1, 2008
Junior golfer Mike Stern wrapped up his second collegiate season knowing he had to make a change. However, it was the same change he and head coach Nick Clinard both believed he needed to make the first day he arrived on the UCF campus back in the fall of 2006.
"It was putting. I knew it and coach Clinard knew it (back then)," Stern said. "We both agreed I needed to make some changes, but I've just been too inconsistent."
Stern has always been able to hit the golf ball a long way. But, he knew if he was going to improve his consistency from round-to-round, he was going to have to really zero in on fixing his short game this time around.
And this summer, he knew when he re-committed to making that change, it was not only going to benefit his individual game, but that of the Knights as well.
UCF, a team that was consistently ranked among the top-25 schools in the country a year ago, had just finished 19th out of 27 teams at the NCAA West Regional, falling short of their goal of advancing to the NCAA Championship.
"I felt like we were good enough last year, but at the conference championship and NCAA regionals, we played about as bad as we could play," Stern said.
He spent the summer working hard on his game to make sure that does not happen again. So, equipped with the confidence gained from what he called a decent sophomore campaign, Stern set out to make the change he felt his game drastically needed this summer: improved putting.
"Putting has always been my Achilles' heel," he said. "I went and saw a putting coach a couple of times this summer and that really helped. Now, I feel like what was one of the weaker areas of my game is now one of the strongest."
Stern put his new putting stroke to the test several times during the summer in numerous amateur events and came away liking the results. Those were highlighted by a second-place finish at the 36th Rice Planters Amateur Golf Tournament in Mount Pleasant, S.C. He posted a score of 272 (-16) at the four-day event, which is one of the top amateur tournaments in the country.
"Mike has grown a lot since he first arrived on campus, both mentally and physically," Clinard said. "He has the talent and desire and now I think he is ready to put it all together."
With renewed confidence in his game and one last visit late this summer to putting instructor Mike Shannon in Sea Island, Ga., Stern said he is now ready to help the Knights surpass their results from the 2007-08 season and take that next step to reaching the NCAA Championship.
"He has gone and worked twice now with Mike Shannon and I have already seen a difference in his game," Clinard added. "He has some confidence on the greens now and that will take some pressure off his ball striking, just knowing he can make some putts."
Clinard and Stern are both ready to see these new improvements make a difference for the Knights this fall.
"I know if I play like I know I can, then I am going to help this team," Stern said. "We are a better, deeper team this year. There is no reason we can not be a top 15 team, win a couple of tournaments and advance past regionals."
And with his change in putting technique, Stern is quite confident that is exactly what will happen.