Episode #160: Scott Fjelstul

 ⛳  Scott Fjelstul: Building People, Not Just Golfers 

What does it take to lead a program for nearly four decades—and do it with consistency, humility, and purpose?

On this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Matt Rogers sits down with Scott Fjelstul, the longtime Head Men’s Golf Coach at Luther College and Director of Golf, to explore what it really means to build a program that lasts.

For 39 years, Coach Fjelstul has developed not just elite golfers, but high-level people—earning 13 Conference Coach of the Year awards, leading his teams to 12 conference championships and 8 NCAA Division III National Tournament appearances, while coaching All-Americans and Academic All-Americans along the way.

But this conversation goes far beyond wins and accolades.

It’s about:

• Understanding what athletes need—and when they need it
• Building trust in an individual sport like golf
• Creating a culture of consistency and accountability
• Leading with humility and longevity in mind
• Why Division III athletics offers a powerful developmental experience

This episode is a masterclass in coaching, leadership, and building teams that stand the test of time.

🔗 Learn more about Coach Fjelstul: https://luthernorse.com/staff-directory/scott-fjelstul/143

🌐 Explore more resources, books, and speaking opportunities: coachmattrogers.com

Transcript

0:09

On the latest edition of The Significant Coaching Podcast, a presentation of the coach Matt Rogers YouTube channel, available audio only everywhere you get your favorite podcast. I'm your host Matt Rogers. When I talk to student athletes and families about finding the right coach, we always come back to one key question. What kind of coach do you need to be at your best? Do you need someone who will push you every single day? A disciplinarian who holds you accountable? A best buddy who keeps things light, or someone who will truly nurture you and meet you where you are, because the truth is there's no one right answer. There's only the right fit for you and our guest today, Scott Tuol, the head men's golf coach at Luther College for the past 39 years is the kind of coach I always wished I had. He's kind, he's thoughtful, he listens, he advises, he understands golfers, and more importantly, he understands people. He knows what they need, and just as importantly, when they need it, he cares deeply about the human being long before he ever worries about their swing. And oh yeah, he's also one heck of a coach. 13 time conference coach of the year 12 conference championships, eight NCAA national tournament appearances, seven all Americans and 36 academic All Americans, which speaks to the core of his values, but what stands out most isn't the resume, it's the way he's built it. This is a conversation about longevity, leadership, and what it really means to coach with purpose. And if you're finding value in these conversations every week, I'd encourage you to follow the podcast on your favorite platform. Leave us a comment and subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next, because we've got some incredible college coaches coming and some fantastic conversations coming your way. So let's get into it. Here's my conversation with the incomparable Scott Festo. Coach fell still so great to see you. You and I have had an opportunity to have a couple of great conversations. One of the young men I work with, you've recruited and is coming into your program next year. Thank you for doing this. Hi Matt. Thank you very much for asking me. I am humbled that you asked me. But nice to see you. I can't imagine a better person to put on the podcast and interview. We talk about significance a lot in my world, about it's not just about success. It's not just about winning. It's everything in between. It's learning how to do it the right way and learning and premier level helping people become adults and really figure out who they wanna be in this world. Is that why you got into it? Is that why you got into coaching? Passionate about golf. We're a golfing family since I was born and raised, but I love helping people and I have my whole life. And coaching is about helping young people, finding their path giving them direction and helping them hopefully explain some things about life. And so I like to be part of their lives and hopefully I help them. When you got into this, we just talked, both of us were about the same age when we got into college coaching. Did you know that's what you wanted to do or was it opportunity that you took advantage?'cause it was because it was golf. Where was your brain at that point? Do you remember? Probably both sides of it. Yeah. But I. Played at Luther, graduated from Luther and then Luther called and said, would you like to be the golf coach? Five, five years after I graduated. I was successful in my junior in college career, but I am unique in a lot of ways. My dad played at Luther and Dad was a player coach his junior and senior year. Wow. What a legacy. Our family has been connected to Luther for many generations, but then when I was asked to be the golf coach, I'd played here. My dad had coached here, and I thought this was a good opportunity to help the college, but to try and build something significant. And so it's, it was exciting and it still is exciting today. That's great. That's so fantastic. When you look at your whole life, you've been on Luther's campus, right? Basically, yeah. For me, it was co college. My brother and sister are 14, 15 years older than me, and they went to co. So that's why I went to co sure. I knew it from the time I was a baby co college. I had pajamas that I wore out the knees from crawling the hallways at co college. What does that mean to you? To be at a place that it's your alma mater, but it's really, it's part of your soul. What does that mean to you as you've done this for 39 years? It's a great feeling because I understand the place so well, but I lived it my whole life. Through our family all the way back to my grandma and grandpa's and uncle and dad and mom and, but I have a great passion for the place, a feeling about the place. And I think I understand what the place stands for and there's a lot of great colleges in the world. Yeah. I just really Luther and what we do for our students. Yeah. And our athletes. And I like my little part of it. Yeah. I know you want more se 70 degree days and so you can get out and get the guys and gals out playing this week. Yeah. I gotta talk about the snow at Luther. Is there a prettier campus when it snows in the country than Luther? I don't think so. I think we're very lucky. Yeah. Because not everybody likes four Seasons. Yeah. But Decora, Northeast Iowa is a really pretty place. We've got rolling bluffs and the scenic area and the snow is very pretty. I don't like it some days when I'm thinking about golf, but it's part of where we live. But a fresh snowfall on all the trees is just gorgeous. It is just like the fall colors of the trees changing, The campus and the community is just a very neat place to be, and decor and Luther's kind of a destination. It really is. It's really neat here. I remember being 18, 19 years old and being on the basketball team at CO and pulling up the hill on a bus for one of our first road trips of my freshman year, and it just snowed eight, 10 inches. And I was like, oh my gosh. I felt like I was in a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful. I was like, why didn't I look at Luther? Why didn't I check this place out? Yeah it's very pretty. It is. Let's talk about golf. I could spend the next hour just. You to help me with my pull and my swing so I can hit it straight. But I won't do that. I won't waste people's time. No problem. No. With your expertise, but I do wanna talk about teaching the game. Yeah. What is your approach?'cause there's a lot of different approaches for golf. Just open up Instagram and Facebook and you'll see everybody in their mother's got a, a way to help you with your swing. What is your approach to teaching the game? You're exactly right that there's a lot of great tips in every. Every tip is the best tip in the world to make you the next superstar or play scratch golf. But my approach is to help our young guys get better. Yeah. And I am not a PGA pro, but I know a lot about the swing, right? And I've got a lot of knowledge and a lot of expertise, and I was fortunate to play really good golf. So I understand the golf swing, but I think also part of it is a mentality. The correct type of practice habits to help guide young people. I do not want to change anybody's swing, but we might fine tune a few things when we look okay. We're gonna get very analytical. What are we doing wrong or where are we missing shots? If you are pulling it all the time, there's a couple things that you could look at. That may be causing you to pull it. Okay. So I think there's ways to analyze the game of golf and you don't have to make massive swing changes, but make sure we're in the correct setup, alignment and all those types of things. But I think I have a good eye Yeah. To help out people and I love helping the guys. I think you've got a really unique. World of coaching. That's different. It's a big reason I wanted to have you on is because you have so many kids that have been playing their entire life. They're coming in with scratch 2, 3, 4 handicaps and they've played really good golf. So you, you've gotta almost walk a fine line. In terms of how you develop and when you speak up how do you deal with that when kids are coming in with great experience and talent already and you've gotta, you gotta get them one, two strokes better. You're exactly right. You've gotta know when to say something Yeah. And when not to, and there's a point in time for everything in coaching and every young man or every athlete handles that differently.'cause they all have different personalities of course, but you get to know your player and it just is you find the right time in the right moment that some insights, some coaching, just some tender loving care sometimes is important too. But. I just see a little thing, let's work on this. I think that might be causing this situation today'cause I didn't see it last week at the tournament. Even. Things like that. So I think golf is always analyzing your swing, analyzing what you're doing, but we wanna have the right process and the right setup. Yeah, you what's the old adage? Golf is played 99% above the shoulders, right? Yeah. Those six inches between your ears. And so we work really hard on those six inches, and sometimes that's hard. For an 18 to 20-year-old because they're maturing. They're going through a lot of things in life. They're away from home. They're living on their own and so all those experiences of a college student play into it when you have an athlete Yeah. That's trying to perform at a high level. Are you amazed at. What's changed with golf in the last 30 years in terms of the type of talent that's now playing at the Division three level? Oh it's amazing. I think all division three athletes and there was a thought years ago that division three isn't very good. And yeah there are many steps below Division two or even division one. But I think there's really good division three teams in every sport, and they're very successful and they shoot good scores, both individually and as a team. And they're all around the country. They're in the upper Midwest, they're out West Texas, the southeast. It doesn't matter the weather or the location. There's just really good players and really good coaches and. I think a lot of division three teams compete, can compete or be very competitive. Even beat Yeah. At a higher level. Yeah. I just think there's really good talent everywhere. The talent is amazing. It just blows me away. Because these young people work so hard and they have great families and great opportunities, and travel to tournaments around the country and go onto a vacation, and that's a golf vacation for a week. That's a good opportunity to learn to improve your game and the young players today are just so good. You've had an amazing career so many times, conference coach, year 13 times, and you're on this great streak of, you had three straight national tournaments. Have you found that you've changed over the years? Are you a different coach than you were in the early aughts in the nineties? Are you the same guy or do you feel like you've really adapted and changed? Oh, I think I've adapted and changed. I think that's just part of life. We all change, we all adapt. I think. We have circumstances, we grow, we mature. I'm still learning, I admit that. But I love to learn. I love to study other successful coaches. And I think a big part of college athletics is the mindset, and that's a really big part of golf with those six inches between the ears. That's that, the truth. So we work really hard on that and. I probably didn't 30 years ago. I think you can say the right thing at the right time and the right words click with a player that maybe settles him down or finds his balance again, or finds his confidence again after a bad hole. But I think we always change. Yeah. And I certainly think I have. Yeah, it is so funny. I always go back, I don't If you watch the movie Tin Cup with Kevin Costner, have you seen that? Oh, sure. Yeah, sure. You, there's that seed where he is chili dipping and he's, yeah. He can't get the club where he wants it. And Cheech Marin has him change his change into the other pocket and turn his hat around and Yeah. Yeah. You talked about working hard. On that mental side of the game. Talk a little bit, if you don't mind, give us some specifics on some of the things that you do with your team to get them to calm down in those pressure moments when you've hit a bad shot or you had a bad hole. What are some of the things you work on to prepare them for those opportunities and experiences? I will get to that point in a minute. If you don't mind. Let me explain something. What I love about college golf, and we've just had some recruits visit the last couple weeks, and not everybody understands this about college golf. A college golf coach can be on the course and give advice. Yeah. And walk with a player. And that's one of the most passionate things. That's part of me and who I am and what I stand for.'cause I like to be on the course with my players. And help them in a situation if they're standing on the fairway looking between a six and a seven iron. And but body language in sports is big. Yeah. And you can see it from a hundred yards away. You can see that confident look that somebody looks like he's in the zone and just doing his thing and very going along very smoothly. But you can also see bad body language and that happens in every sport, right? But I think golf is a very mental game'cause you have to have a clear head about yourself. And so I think I've known how to say some things to people that have been in a bad situation of. They just made a double or they just three putted and so you hit a bad T shot'cause you're still mad about the last hole. So you're walking down the fairway and I've got all kinds of sayings for it. But most coaches do that. You have 10 seconds or you have 10 steps. Ted lasso calls it be a goldfish. That's right. But it's on the scorecard. We can't change the past. You can't change the previous whole. So the sooner you get over it, obviously the better. But that's a learned process. And I think 18 year olds maybe aren't as good at it as 21 or 22 year olds.'cause it's a learned process and how you handle your emotions. But sometimes, first of all, friendly face, walking with a player, being with a player. Just relaxing. And it's mom and dad are over in the rough. Yeah. They came here to watch you and they're gonna love you tonight as much as I'm gonna love you. So that's not gonna change. So let's just relax. And would you take a really deep breath? Just let's just slow it down for a second, because I think athletes get ahead on themselves. That's right. And they get in a rush. I think if we slow things down a little bit and what always helps is, would you take a couple drinks of water? Just stand here and take a break. That's right. And golfers are real good about playing golf and not always drinking as much water as they should or having a snack, having a banana, having granola bars, whatever. But I think a couple drinks of water just relaxes a person. And it's okay, now it's time to focus again. That's right. And now we're still gonna have fun tonight when we go out for dinner, but the point right now is this shot. Yeah, this is the most important thing in the whole world, but you know what, we're gonna go hit it, find it, and do it again. And it's a one shot at a time thing. Yeah, but golfers or athletes put so much pressure on themselves and they overthink and probably really smart young people, great grades, great A CT, all of those things. But they overthink. That's right. And so making them relax and settle down a little bit because overthinking hurts performance. I always think about my chiropractor, when he has to pop my neck in a certain way and get me to relax, he'll say, Hey, just drop your left arm, pop. And he pops my neck.'cause I relax'cause I'm thinking about something else. And if somebody hasn't golfed, the things you're throwing out may seem simplistic, but really that's what you're doing is saying you're not alone. Let's get your brain thinking about something besides that last shot. Let's take those 10 steps and focus on counting those steps. Let's focus on maybe three or four deep breaths and get your brain thinking about something else. So I love that mindset. Do you do anything early on in the season when you're indoors, and I know you guys have a great indoor facility. Are you doing some of that mental training then as well? We do it almost weekly. Yeah. And we talk about being in the right mindset.'cause I think it's a process and it's learned and 18 year olds are really good golfers. But I think there's still things to learn. That's right. And they can be very successful, but I think they can even be better. Yeah. With some things to learn. And this is a way to think your way around the course. This is a way to handle things and sometimes you look out the window and you see all that snow, but it's really pretty. And you walk down a fairway and you see a beautiful scene and it's I say once in a while you could be home studying but you look at this view and we're at a beautiful country club because we are invited to play in this tournament. And we're playing a very nice golf course. Isn't this a pretty view? Just something to take their mind off of it for a second, right? Yeah. I love that. And I was like that, I needed that. So I love the fact that you get to be on the course and you get to be on the course with your kids, and you almost get to be really what the value of a caddy is. You're not carrying the bag, but a good caddy is keeping your brain focused on that next swing, right? Yes. And making sure you, you don't feel alone when those moments where, oh my gosh, I just hit one in the lake. I just hit one out of bounce and I was right there. And getting your brain back to that. What's the development over those? Four years you have with a young man from 18 to 22. How does that change? I'm really intrigued by that. Do you see consistent changes from freshman to sophomore to junior to senior year? Yep. And I also think it starts with our freshmen from the fall to the spring season and I, and probably every single coach would say this, when this new group of freshmen come in, they're excited and they have so much energy. They have to learn how we do things or what we stand for and what we expect. But they mature on the golf course and they mature in the practice habits and preparation to get ready for a tournament. And I think they're a different player in the spring. And so that's really neat. Yes. You've seen that growth. And they're on their second semester away from home, and so they're managing all of that. It's really neat to see and I just think that development from year to year, you can see the confidence of a sophomore, junior, senior walk in the door, Hey, coach, how you doing? Just a great young man from a great family has great confidence. Yeah. And it's really neat. I always said I was a basketball coach. I always said if I could get a kid to really understand defense and to on the basketball court. Defense isn't about chasing an effort. Defense is, again, it's above the shoulders. It's putting yourself in the right position and knowing when to put that effort in. Yeah. Do you see that second semester where maybe the relationship with you has gotten a little bit more relaxed? Where now everything you've been telling'em for that last two years as you were recruiting them. You're really that guy and they're starting to buy into it. Yeah. Yeah. And they understand it. Yeah. And they see it, and then they're around with all the upperclassmen that have lived it with me x amount of years. And so it's who we are. And I think it's a good part of the program that provides that my leadership, my player's leadership. But we're always learning. And 18 or 20 year olds, they're learning too. They're learning things on the golf course to be a better golfer tomorrow or next week or in the golf room during the winter months. And it's fun to see that growth and how they've learned and how it's helped them. It. It's so funny because Lee Leo's coming in to play for you this year, and Leo went through that. He was the one or two guys, a freshman on his high school team, and I think this last year the leadership part of that became more important to him than the playing. And getting the team to that level. What do you see outta your juniors and seniors? Is there a thing that happens where you know they're accepting that ownership of that, of being the leaders and being the older guy and understanding? Is there activities or actions or words that you start hearing out of them that it clicks with you, they're getting it. Yeah, I agree. First of all, I'm excited to get Leo and I'm excited to have him come. That'll be fun. But yes, there is, and I think it's a confident body language and it's a confident way. They handle things right from on the golf course to in practice and they've just learned and they're, they have found their spot. 18 year olds are just coming in and excited and the whole world is new. But a junior senior has really found their spot and classes are going good. They've got their major, they're going the direction that they came to college for. And I think we have success in the golf program. And so it's fun to go to tournaments and it's really fun to see that development.'cause I think it's confidence. I agree. It's a maturity. That's Sure. And you see an 18-year-old compared to a 22-year-old when they're getting their grad, their diploma at the graduation ceremony and the things they go through and they experience and all the growth and the maturity. It's really fun to watch. It's fun to be part of that journey. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm intrigued by the growth that every young man goes through. And when they figure it out with golf, it's such an individual sport. And I would imagine there's, there comes a point in a young man's career where they realize, okay, yeah I gotta do my part, but. I'm not going to the national tournament. We're not going as a team unless there's five of us that are playing at a high level. Do you see that transition where they go, gosh, I gotta be more involved in getting us there, not just me there. Is there a point where that happens where they make that mental shift? I think it's different for every player. Yeah. But it is because I think we're pretty good, so we all need. Maybe to step it up a notch or I need to help my buddy'cause this has really worked for me and maybe I see something. And so it's teammates helping teammates, which is an important part of a team. I can talk all day and all night. But a young person has to still find that, and it's their work habits and the time they put in, because I'm not with them every minute of every day. In golf, you can practice on your own, stay late, come early, all those type of things. But that happens in every sport. But I, they find their place and I think it's neat to see because they work really hard. And they're so confident and it's just really fun to watch and be a part of. Yeah. That's one of my favorite parts of coaching. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, if not the favorite. Yep. I could talk about that stuff all day too. Sure. I wanna get into course management with you'cause we touched on it a little bit and I wanna put a little bit more time into it. Sure. We're gonna have a lot of people listen to this that maybe don't play a lot of golf, maybe have never played before. Maybe our novice golfers and just go out and swing and go to top golf. Sure. How do you teach course management in terms just the full aspect of how we're gonna attack a course and how we're gonna attack today's meet. What? What are some of the things you talk about with your guys? So this is one of the biggest parts of who I am and what I do with my guys. I think there's a lot of young people that play really good golf. I'm not gonna criticize any type of golf management, but I think there's things to learn about golf management to help them get better. And so we work really hard on this, so before every single round of every single tournament, we start talking about course management. But we have a team meeting in the hotel the night before in the van on the way to the course, whatever. I've got the scorecard. I've been to the course before. The upperclassmen that played there last year, remember the course, but the nice thing today is most courses are online and everybody pull out your phone, pull out your laptop, and so we're in a motel room and we can see every single hole. The nice thing today is I can give yardage books to my players, and a lot of courses have yardage books available. There's companies that have a 30 or 50,000 course database of yardage books. That's awesome. So I give my guys yardage books for every tournament. And so we can go through every hole shot by shot. And that's a mindset'cause it's a preparation that, if you remember, number four has that big tree on the corner and invariably I'll have an upperclassman. Now you don't want to go there guys, let's go left. And so that comes from experience, right? And I can talk all day about it, but when you have a teammate say, let's be careful on that hole.'cause if we make five pars, we're going to gain strokes on the field. That's right. That type of thing. So we talk really hard and I say, all of you guys are big, strong young men that hit the ball a country mile. Everybody hits the ball far today. And that's fun to watch, but take advantage of your distance when it's the opportune time. But at other times, you don't have to hit a driver. You can hit a five wood or three iron stinger, whatever the shot is, but let's play smart. That's right. And we just stress that a lot. And I'll invariably have young man say, coach, I'm gonna take a driver up over the tree on 14, that dog leg ride all up, be the green. I said, okay, let's just think about this for a minute. So we go back and forth for a couple minutes, think you really need to hit a three iron down the corner. Coach. I said, okay, go ahead. You make a par or you're walking home. So I make my point that, however you get a par, as long as there's a par in the scorecard or a birdie that looks good, right? Nobody likes bad decisions after the round when we're analyzing it.'cause we analyze the round. Okay, so what happened in that whole stretch?'cause I would lose somebody else. What happened on those three holes? Bogey, you miss a pot. You miss a pot. But was it bad course management? Was it bad course decisions? Golf courses are set up to be played a certain way, and you can play smart golf all the time, and you don't always have to go for every par five into. Sometimes people lay up because they're really good at their wedges and they can hit their wedge within 15 feet and have a good look for birdie. That's right. But we talk about course strategy all the time and the course management is so important Today, probably one of the biggest things that's changed in my time is the amount of time we talk about course management and how to play a golf course. The average golfer is thrilled when they can get on a green in two or three and they really don't care where it's at. As long as they get to putt when you get it to the college level, and it doesn't matter what level. It's all levels these days, right? Where you put the ball on the green. Is the difference between a one putt or a three four putt depending on some of the courses you're playing and understanding the grain and the quality of that, that green, how much effort goes into talking about greens and what do you do specifically before round on the practice greens for your guys to maybe cut two or three putts around? Yeah, that's a very important part of course management. And you have yardage book. Yeah. And you can see the green and the yardage books today shows you slopes fantastic. And there's arrows on where the slopes are and what direction that part of the green is sloping towards. And so we can have a strategy that the best spot to go is 25 feet left. I wanna go and attack the pin. Okay. But if you're shortsighted or the creek on the right or whatever, might bring in too much trouble. Tiger was really good for his whole career and he it between 20 and 40 feet. Yeah, he played smart golf just like Jack Nicholas. They hit it to the fat par of the green and they let everybody else make mistakes. They have won the two most major championships in history by playing smart golf. Yes. And we talk about playing smart golf, and if they don't play smart golf, they're mad at themselves because they made that decision. But that happens in life. That happens in sports. In the second round tomorrow, that's not gonna happen. They're gonna play smarter on that hole tomorrow. That's right, because of the mistake that's made. But the greens are very important because nobody likes the three put. You want to have a chance for birdie, but I'll take a 25 foot birdie putt from a good angle compared to an eight or 10 or 15 from a terrible angle. That's right. And it's straight downhill. If you don't touch the cup you're eight feet by and it's okay, what do I do now? We probably should have been. No, but you can't be critical in the moment. Yeah. But that's a learned thing after the round when we have a team meeting that night, what mistakes did we make today that we can learn from to get better tomorrow? But college golf is about wedges and the green and putting, and the short game. So analyzing all that is so important to be in the right spot on the green and be in the right position. So true. It's so true. And if you're, if it's downhill, put the odds of. You getting there in two, if you don't hit it and score it, it could might 18 foot p might be 18 feet coming back if you don't hit it. So I love how you're talking about that coach you've been doing this a long time over the last 30 years. You guys have either won the conference or been second in the conference so many times the consistency of your results are simply amazing. What. What separates what you're doing and I don't mean to get you in a comparison with other coaches in your league, but what do you think you are doing that's different that's allowing you to compete at those levels year in and year out? We have really good coaches in our league, and they're all great guys. Yeah. And they do a good job. I just like us. I like us, I like what we do. I like what I provide and the direction I give my players. So that's what I like to talk about and who we are. And I think we have good game plan, we have good management. I think I know the right thing to say at the right time. Yeah. From all of these years. There's so many good college golf programs. I just like us and I like the opportunities we provide and a lot of people care. I really care. And I don't mean anything against anybody else. I really like my guys and they're more sons of me. Yeah. Ann and I have two boys. Ann really has three boys in her family. But then the guys come up in the fall and we have more sons every year. That's right. I just really care about my guys and I love what we do and what we offer our players. I know how humble and modest you are, but I'll tell you this, coach, getting able to talk to you on the phone a few times and then getting to see you and have this conversation today, I would've loved to have played for you because you just, you don't get too high, you don't get too low. I know what I'm gonna get from you. I know whether I just doubled bogeyed the last hole, or I birdied it. I'm, you're gonna keep me here. You're gonna keep me on that plane. And I think that is such an advantage. For the young man in your program, when they know what to expect from you they know that if you throw an 88 out there, you're still gonna love him. You're still gonna, you're still gonna coach'em the same way. And I think that's what makes you really special coach. And so that's why it's fun for me to hear you talk about coaching. Thank you. It's very important for me. But that's who I am and that's where I've lived my whole life. And I think that helps my players. Absolutely. I wanna do a little rapid fire with you. I wanna do some fun questions with you, if you don't mind. Okay? Sure. Just to get you thinking. First thing off the top of your head, what's the favorite golf course you've ever played? Goble Beach. Pretty great choice. Yep. Bucket list course you still want to play? Augusta National. The challenge of getting on there, man, is something, isn't it? Yeah. That's for sure. Yeah, I know somebody. Yeah. If you could play around this is a cliche question you could play around with three golfers in history. Who's your foursome? A lot of people today would say probably tiger. I'd say Tiger Jack, Nicholas and Arnold Palmer. Yeah. But I'd like to have my dad with me. Yeah. I'd have to have a fivesome. Yeah, I hear you there. So there's a lot of great people. Yeah. I, that'd be really neat. Might bring, I might bring Bill Murray in too, just to keep it fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Three. People that have shaped the game of golf and Mr. Palmer taught people how to be a professional Yeah. And how to be a gentleman. But everything, they've, all three of'em accomplished in their life. Is really neat. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you there. I'm, I've been a huge fan of Arnie as, as long as I've been alive. And my, my follow through is very Arnie esque. I Jack and Tiger Swinger, so classical, but Arnie was more my. My, my type of swing that I loved. This is a baseball question, but we're gonna turn into a golf question. If you had to pick one song to step up to that first tee with, what would be your, what would be your walkup song? Oh, there's pressure here. I am not very good at this. Do you have a favorite band? If you had to go to a concert or a singer that you like? I don't if Ann's here, she can rattle'em off and make my choice for me because whatever she says is correct. But there's a lot of great songs. It's probably weird, Matt, but, cool in the gang had the song celebration. Yeah. And that was iconic when it came out. Yeah. And I think the opportunity to play golf and to play a tournament and to play a really nice golf course is a celebration. I agree. And I instill that in my players that we've got a great opportunity, good choice. Hardest, co hardest course setup. The wind, the rough, or the fast greens. What would you throw out if you could? Yeah probably the wind.'cause you might be 200 yards away and you think you know what's happening down at the green, right? But it might affect the ball a lot more than you realize. Fast greens you, you just have to learn how to put on'em and rough. You just have to be smart. Yeah. And you might have to just lay up and hit the next one on the green. Yep. And that's a mindset. Yeah. You gotta accept things on the golf course and not everybody accepts things. Agreed. But the wind is really difficult and, so I, that's really hard to judge. Yeah. It's, that's why if you win the British Open, you've done something, you've done some success. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. What's the most underrated skill in college Golf. Good question. Oh, there's probably five answers. Gimme the one that comes to your head first. What's the one you, that the kids that really have done well for you, they get it. They've got they work on that skill. Wedges. Yeah. Wedges. Yeah. It's, and we stress that a lot. Yeah. And if they've got their wedges dialed in. They're gonna take advantage of their position on the golf course. And we talk about that a lot. Yeah. And I've had many players that have just hit many wedges and their game has just improved immensely. And so it's fun to see a We shot Yeah. Go where that person's aiming. This question, you may have just answered it, but is there one. Piece of advice you'd give a freshman coming into your program? Like I told a couple recruits in the last couple weeks most young people hit the ball really hard and hit it really far and that's great. I love distance. Strong young men are fun to watch. But we're gonna work really hard on shots from a hundred yards and in. Yeah. And. 80% of our practice. And so our young players coming in every fall, I hope they work really hard all summer on a hundred shots and in chipping and putting, and then they do it again, and then they do it again, and then they start putting That's right. And a good consistent putter will carry you a long ways. hundred yards and end is very important. Love it. Love it. Coach, thank you so much for doing this. For those listeners come back on Monday. If you'll have me coach, we'll do about 15 minutes on recruiting and give those families out there that are looking to play college golf, some advice and give them some direction. But thanks for doing this today. It was a pure joy for me. Thank you very much, Matt. I appreciate you asking me. It's fun. What a great conversation with Coach Scott Festool, 39 years. The consistency, the humility, the way he puts people first and builds everything else around that. It's a reminder that great coaching isn't complicated, but it does require intention. And I'll be honest, this podcast has become a masterclass for me. Every week I get the opportunity to learn from some of the best coaches in the country, how they lead, how they build teams, how they develop people, and more importantly, how they sustain it over time. And now I'm taking those lessons on the road. If you're a school or an athletic department or any organization or business looking to create stronger teams, healthier cultures, and more intentional leadership. I had love to come share what I'm learning through these conversations. You can find more@coachmattrogers.com, whether that's booking a speaking engagement, diving into my books and journals, or finding resources to support your journey. Thanks for being a part of this community. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.