Senior Arkansas State golfer Thomas Schmidt hails from Gelsenkirchen, Germany, but the three-time Sun Belt Golfer of the Year feels at home in Northeast Arkansas. He is effusive in his appreciation for Jonesboro.

“You got the Southern hospitality, just nice people being all around us,” said Schmidt. “A support system that you just can’t replace. People that are following the sport, that are supporting us, and people that actually care about what we’re doing.”

With his success on the links, Schmidt certainly has opportunities to test the waters with larger programs – NIL is just a factor in college golf as it is in basketball or football. However, Schmidt felt he found exactly what he needed at Arkansas State.

“Obviously you could go somewhere where you get more money or you play better tournaments,” admitted Schmidt. “But to me, it always came down to having the support system. Like when I turn professional next year, I want to have those people around me, the people that actually support my career rather than just for more money in the short term.”

Schmidt’s teammate, sophomore Cole Kirby, knows the region well, having lived his life in Northeast Arkansas, honing his golf skills at Sage Meadows. As the team’s lone citizen of Jonesboro, Kirby finds himself serving as the program’s local liaison, helping a team comprised of Swedes, Englishmen, Germans and Australians feel at home.

“We always make sure they go find the best spots to eat and all stuff like that,” said Kirby. “You know, I love to take people everywhere, but Jonesboro is such a big town, I still haven’t eaten at all the places here and they keep growing every day. I do my best though.”

Jonesboro may be a big town, but this is the first time A-State Men’s Golf has hit the big time, competing for the first time at the NCAA Nationals, starting Friday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. The team is coming off a red-hot fourth place finish at the NCAA Marana Regional in Arizona – a performance paced by junior Jake Lile’s 7-under par 209 (74-64-71). The squad will need some precision bombing from their driver’s to compete at Omni La Costa, which has tested big hitters like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

“I think it’s going to be longer, obviously, right? That’s number one,” said coach Mike Hagen, now in his 11th season helming the program. “I think your green undulations are going to be a lot tougher. And yeah, you’re going to have to drive it like an elite ball striker off the tee all week.” He laughed and noted, “If you didn’t hit grass in Arizona (for the Regional), it was an auto-bogey, maybe a double at times.”

Schmidt, who carded his best season yet with a single-season program-record 69.21 scoring average, is not intimidated by the course’s length. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what the course difference is. You got to compete against the other teams and you just got to do better than the other teams.”

To Win Everything? Change Nothing

Golf is a game of mental toughness, muscle repetition and consistency. Mike Hagen isn’t about to allow the pressure of NCAA Nationals disrupt a proven formula.

“Just keep everything the same,” said Hagen. “Don’t do anything different. And I know people say that and it sounds corny, right? But it’s the truth. whether it was the conference tournament or if it was regionals or if we’re playing at the Wyoming Desert Cowboy Classic, I’ve done everything the same this year. When it comes to prep, when it comes to our travel, anything that we do is the exact same. So that’s something we’re going to continue to do.”

Kirby, who produced a career-low 7-under par 65 in the first round of the Marana Regional, agrees with his coach’s approach. “You know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So I’d say just keep the same mindset, you know, just know that you can go in and beat these guys.”

Who, exactly, are “these guys?” Only the top programs in golf, most of which bearing the elite resources only a Power 4 program can afford. Coach Hagen acknowledges that while there is a financial difference between A-State and high-resourced programs, success is the result of talent and work.

“You see some of their golf courses and their facilities and the way they travel and do things,” said Hagen, referring to some of the larger programs the team will be facing a NCAA Nationals. “I got good players. That’s what it comes down to. You know, I got good players that buy into the system and buy into me and buy into what we’re trying to do here for them. There’s no magic potion.”

Schmidt agrees. “Just because it’s big names doesn’t mean we can’t beat them. You got Alabama, Duke,
Oklahoma, Arizona in there and you’re like, hey, we never played them before. And you just got to show up that you got, you just got to show that you can compete with them.”

Friday Tee Time

The tournament begins Friday with three rounds of stroke-pay that last through Sunday. The top 15 teams and the top nine individuals not on an advancing team will advance to a fourth stroke play round on Monday. The top eight teams will advance to the match play quarterfinals, with the tournament concluding June 3.

A-State’s lineup will consist of Thomas Schmidt, Jake Wallis, Milan Reed, Cole Kirby and Jake Lile. Viggo Hed will also make the trip as a substitute. The opening three rounds of stroke play will be streamed live on Babygrande Golf. The fourth round of stroke play begins on Babygrande Golf before Golf Channel provides exclusive coverage of the remaining holes and match play.

IMAGE: Mark Taylor, Arkansas State Athletics