University of Houston Athletics
Mike Dirks Chat Wrap
10/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Oct. 31, 2001
Moderator: Good morning everyone,
We are fortunate to have with us today golf head coach Mike Dirks and assistant coach Chip Huston. Thank you for joining us in the chat room today. Now, let's begin.
Bill (Houston): Coach, first I want to say congratulations on bringing the cougar golf program back where it belongs. at the top. On to your current team, this year has been rough, what do you see as ways to break through for the whole team and not bring in the high scores
Mike Dirks: Golf is an up and down game. You are dealing with young men who are learning every round that they play. Our goal is to be at our best at the end of the year. Right now, every tournament and every round, we teach and go over the good and bad in each round. By doing this, at the end, we will be much better.
ken smith (ponka): How would you discribe this years team?
Mike Dirks: This team is young and talented. We have a lot of quality young players who have not had a lot of experience at the Division I level. But in comparing to the past three or four years, the talent level seems to be about the same. We are just working on the maturity level in their golf games. Course management is one of the big keys to us achieving the success that we should.
lester smarts (college station): Do you have any kind of workout program for the players and if so what does it consist of?
Mike Dirks: Our workout program is a three-day-a-week program, consisting of cardio, weight-training, stretching and ab work. This program wlll help us on the golf course, based on college tournaments now being 36 holes in one day. We should be stronger at the end of the round and able to make better decisions on the last nine holes.
bill monsterthrill (ft. worth): Do you see tcu as a threat in conference USA?
Mike Dirks: TCU has always had a good golf program. TCU will add to the depth of Conference USA in the years to come. The whole conference has improved a great deal in the last five years. UAB has emerged as a good program. Louisville has made a huge committment to golf. South Florida, every year has a chance to contend for the championship. TCU brings to our conference another top 10 golf program. With that comes challenges in repeating as the conference champion. We have a chance to play TCU often during the year and we know how good they are. We hope history will be on our side. In the last five years, they have only beaten us once at the NCAA Championships and hopefully that will continue.
billy bob duglas (houston): what is going to be your greatest challange this year?
Mike Dirks: The greatest challenge we have is molding our young players into mature players by the conference championship. In golf, you continually get better as you get older and more mature. We need to hurry up the process a little bit. The team needs to realize that golf is not made up of one good shot or one bad shot. It,s a game of marginal shots, Working your way around the course with the golf game you have that day. That will be our biggest challenge.
eddy mcwillie (houston): what are the areas in which this years team needs to improve in order to win a 17th national championship.
Mike Dirks: In order for us to contend for Houston's 17th national championship, we will have to improve as a group our putting and short game. Based on the statistics of our first two tournaments, we drove the golf ball in approximately 82 percent of the fairways and hit 75 percent of the greens. When a team drives the ball that well and hits that many greens, their scores should be much lower than ours have been. Our team will see a great deal of improvement on our short games with hard work.
Moderator: Can you talk some about your top players and how they are doing so far this season?
Mike Dirks: The top players for this year's team would include Simon Robinson, Brad McIntosh and Scott Ferguson. Simon had a great summer over in England this year. he has worked very hard on his putting and has gone from a short putter to a long putter. That has made him a better putter. He understands that for him to advance to the next level, he must continue to improve his putting.
Brad McIntosh has as much natural ability as any young player I have seen in a long time. It comes so easy for Brad that sometimes his practice focus is not where it should be. Brad won the Conference USA championship for us last season as a freshman. We expect him to contend in every tournament he plays in.
Scott Ferguson is a sophomore who gained a great deal of experience this past summer by playing in numerous amateur tournaments. He finished second three times in those tournaments. The experience that he gained by being in the last group at each of these events has helped him understand the strengths and weaknesses of his game.
Slappy: What do you see as the hardest part of being a golf coach?
Mike Dirks: The hardest part of being a golf coach is recruiting with 4-and-a-half scholarships. Student-athletes are not always on the same scholarships in golf. When the play goes up and down, so do scholarship demands. You have to ride a fine line to keep all the players happy throughout the entire year.
Bob Sworski (Fon Du Lac): Coach, great job with the program! I have followed Cougar golf since Freddy Couples. I believe you are doing a great job and am concerned that another program could lure you away with more money. What is the status of your contract? Your assistant has done a great job, but is not full time, that has got to be a factor in keeping you around -- having a full time assistant. Will you comment on a contract extention/pay raise to keep you in Cougar Country as well as full time assistant status! Thanks and Go COOGS!
Mike Dirks: I am very happy here at the University of Houston. Coach Chip Huston has done a great job with our program and we are very fortunate to have him. Chip is also a full-time coach here at the university. Thanks for your interest in Cougar golf.
Stinkboat: If you had to give your average golfer one piece of advice about the golf swing and one piece of advice about the game itself, what would it be?
Mike Dirks: tempo in the golf swing is the most important thing. In the game of golf, you should think conservatively and then play aggressively. Think about this the next time you are on the course and good luck.
Moderator: Thanks to Coach Dirks and Coach Huston for spending some time with us today. We certainly appreciate all the interesting questions and your support of Cougar Golf.
Quick reminder -- the Cougars return to action and close out their fall season when they compete Nov. 9-11 at the Long Cove Invitational in Hilton Head, S.C.
Thanks again to everyone who participated today and we will talk to you again soon.
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