| | Amateur Spotlight: A Walker Cup
Hopeful? September 28, 2008
By Stuart Hall
The Walker Cup is less than a year away, and it is certain
that the 10-man United States squad will have a distinctly
different look than the team that won in 2006. Five members
have since turned professional, one has said he will turn pro
at the end of the end of his senior season and a seventh has
retired from amateur competition.
So American captain Buddy Marucci has to create a new short
list of potential players. Sure to be given some
consideration will be Corey Nagy, a gangly junior at UNC
Charlotte.
Nagy's name is popping up with more frequency as his game
matures. He's twice been named honorable mention All-American
and enters this season on a number of watch lists.
After reaching the semifinals of the 2007 U.S. Amateur Public
Links, he worked his way back to the quarterfinals in July.
And as his junior campaign begins he is a pre-season
All-American.
But such things don't weigh heavily on Nagy's mind. A
psychology major, Nagy takes a cerebral approach to the game.
"You know, I pretty much try to stay even keel, try not to
get too high or too low," he said. "You definitely want to
remember the successes you have had, but otherwise I try to
stay in the present."
To help Nagy maintain that mindset, he works with Dr. Louis
Csoka, a retired colonel who is the founder of the U.S.
Military Academy's Center for Enhanced Performance at
West Point and president of Apex Performance.
"It's pretty in-depth," said Nagy of his mental game
preparation. "We go over things to keep yourself calm and
focused, and we study Mr. [Earl] Woods a lot. His emphasis is
to keep it simple."
Nagy believes that the mental aspect of golf is every bit as
important as the technical components of the swing.
"If you think about it, Tiger Woods probably doesn't have the
best swing in the world, but he's definitely got the best
mind in the game," he said. "Look at the U.S. Open; Rocco
Mediate has the week of his life and Tiger still came out on
top even being injured. It's like he willed himself to win."
Nagy, like many at his level, was introduced to the game very
early in life, and while he played the other mainstream
sports such as baseball and basketball, at age 12 he came to
a realization. He also watched Woods win the 2000 Masters and
thought, 'Wow, if I could do this every day for a living it
would be pretty cool.'
So Nagy put away the bat and stepped away from the court to
focus on golf.
"I've known pretty much all along that I'm pretty good at
this game, so there wasn't really just one day where I just
realized it," he said. "But it's also taken a lot of hard
work and practice to get to this point. I just try and keep
building on the successes."
While wins have been sparse, Nagy is a model of consistency.
Nagy, who was the Atlantic 10 2007 Rookie of the Year, has a
career stroke average of 72.17 and owns two of the 49ers' top
five single-season stroke averages. Not coincidentally, the
49ers have two consecutive top-10 finishes at the NCAA
Championships.
But such things matter little to Nagy. In fact, he would just
as soon not even know the results.
"Whether I'm playing Tiger Woods or my dad, I'm just going to
do what I have to do," he said. "If you worry about who
you're playing or what they're doing or what they've done,
then it can't be good for you. I've never really looked at
leaderboards unless by accident. You're just putting more
pressure on yourself either consciously or subconsciously. It
works pretty well."
Hard to argue with success.
Stuart Hall is a freelance writer whose work has
previously appeared on www.usga.org.
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