Brian Dolehide Jr.

A college player called me a year ago. Playing well in qualifying. Not traveling. Couldn’t figure out why. I asked him one question. “Does your coach trust you?” One word describes everything a coach is looking for in a recruit and a college player. Trust. Not your scoring average. Not your swing speed. Not your world ranking. Trust. Trust that you’ll handle your academics without being reminded. Trust that you’ll show up on time, every time, no exceptions. Trust that you’ll be a good teammate, especially when you’re not in the lineup. Trust that you’ll make good decisions on the course and off it. Trust that you’ll be positive, build your teammates up, add to the culture. Trust that you’ll be mentally strong when things get hard. Trust that you’ll shoot good scores when it matters. Most players never think about it this way. They grind on their game and ignore everything else. Then they wonder why a player with a lower qualifying score is on the plane. It’s almost never just about the score. Every decision you make, on the course and off it, either builds trust or erodes it. You decide whether to go to class. You decide how you handle adversity. You decide what time you show up. You decide how you treat your teammates. You decide how you handle a bad round. You decide what Saturday night looks like the weekend before a tournament. Build trust in all of those areas and your coach’s decisions stop feeling random.