Living vicariously through another . . .

Last week, I was fortunate enough to play a round of golf at Finkbine Golf Course, the University of Iowa's course, with my father and U-Iowa golfer Vince India.

Vince I have known eachother since high school, he was a sophomore when I was a senior, at a rival school. Since then, he has grown into a tremendous player; one worth following throughout the spring NCAA season and next year.

The following is an artilce I've written about my experience with him:



“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan

With a cold mid-October dew covering my car, I picked up Vince India, junior University of Iowa golfer, outside of his home at 9a.m. His cold weather rain suit and stocking cap almost added to his small frame, a generous 150 pounds.

While he does not often take himself seriously, choosing rather to laugh at life in its face, at times he aggressively wears emotion in his face, which looks considerably younger than his 20 years. Where his eyes are usually soft, in disappointment they wear the full force of his emotion.

Knowing that Vince had worked out with his team earlier in the morning, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony at the sight of him with a McDonald’s breakfast bag and a small coffee.

Vince is coming off a fourth place finish at the Golden Gopher Invitational and tenth place finish at the Fighting Irish Classic, both of which he, by his own admission, could have won.

Where sports often require complete athletic devotion from their respective players, an athlete’s competitive nature often propels them to challenge the limits of their athleticism in other sports. Such has been the case for the likes of Jim Brown, Bo Jackson, and, recently, Michael Jordan, not in the baseball he played between NBA Championship three-peats, but rather in the golf games that he’s grown notorious for.

This summer, Vince had the opportunity to play 36 holes with Jordan, his childhood hero, at the Merit Club in Chicago’s western suburbs.

“After not practicing or warming up, Michael made a difficult birdie putt on the first hole and acted like it was routine and expected,” Vince said. “Then he turned to the group and loudly says ‘it’s going to be a long day for you guys.’”

Vince played well, shooting even-par over the 36 holes, and beat Jordan in their match. Although, Jordan played well and was a formidable opponent, particularly when it came to his gamesmanship.

Jordan is famous, perhaps infamous, for his extreme competitive nature. “Not in a rude way, but Michael is willing to put friendship on hold if he wants to win, which he always does,” Vince commented.

With our arrival at Finkbine Golf Course, where Vince has become a celebrity of sorts, we had a familiar change in discourse and tone – the same tone which has characterized our relationship for more than five years.

As I often find a need to do with Vince, I spent most of our time at the practice tee reminding him that I was two years his elder.

I first met Vince when he was a sophomore up and coming junior golf star at Deerfield High School in suburban Chicago. At the time, I was a senior on the golf team at Highland Park, a neighboring town and the rival of Deerfield.

As my senior golf season wore on, I surpassed Vince in my play, but, even then it was obvious to me that his golf exploits would be worth following. By the next school year, Vince had established himself among the elite class of Illinois state golfers.

After being recruited by Michigan State University, Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois, Vince signed his letter of intent with Iowa in October of 2005 and enrolled in the fall of 2006.

“At different times I thought I was set in going to another school, but those options kept disappearing,” Vince remarked. “But what could have been a disastrous moment became the greatest thing possible. I fell in love with Iowa early in the recruiting process and [coming to Iowa] was one of the greatest choices I have ever made.”

I enrolled in the fall of 2005 as a member of the Kent State University golf team. Within months I sustained a hand injury, and subsequent surgery, and was rendered unable to practice and play at the necessary level. I came to Iowa in the fall of 2007 and will graduate this December.

We stepped to the first tee and there was our usual sense that what had been playful gamesmanship and ultimately two competitive friends squabbling back and forth had become a bit more serious. As he placed his tee in the ground, I announced to an absent audience “Welcome to the tee Steve Kerr (Jordan's less famous teammate).”

Though we were not playing tournament golf, there was familiarity of competition in the air. With tournament golf, there is the additional pressure of notoriety, a final score published in the newspaper adds anxiety that a round amongst friends does not have. Nevertheless, the flames of competition that once epitomized us still, at times, linger.

“Stop calling yourself Michael Jordan and me Steve Kerr," Vince said.

As he often does, Vince played a low spinning pitch shot to the par 5 second hole with flawless technique. After tapping in his short birdie putt (and taking a one-hole lead), Vince whispered “M.J.” in my direction.

He referred to me as “has been” for most of the round.

Vince’s career thus far is characterized by high finishes, but few wins. At the junior, high school, amateur, and college level Vince has steadily established him self among the best, but has done so through his consistency on the top-10 of the leader board.

Vince has had eight top-10 finishes in five semesters of college golf; a strong resume, yet it noticeably lacks a victory.

While Vince reads greens well and generally has a fine feel for speed, he does occasionally suffer from an inability to start the golf ball rolling on his intended line.

Back home in Chicago in August, Vince saw a putter in the trunk of my car and asked to use it. It was a belly putter, a putter that is anchored on the stomach as a means to encourage a pendulum, arching putting stroke with increased face control. While it does have its critics, the belly putter is clearly a method that helps to start the ball on line.

Vince won the Iowa Open at Riverside’s Top Ridge Golf Course only weeks later using my putter. The belly putter didn’t win the event for Vince, but the confidence that it gave him certainly propelled him to overcome a 10-shot deficit with a final round 68 and an eventual two-stroke victory.

“When my speed is good with the [belly putter] I can make any putt I’m looking at,” Vince remarked. “There’s a lot of confidence in knowing that you’re going to start the ball on line.”

After I lipped out a chip shot on the par 5 sixth hole for birdie, Vince — still using my putter — made a short, but difficult left to right putt, a putt that he traditionally has struggled with, to win the hole. With a conventional putter, skilled players often rely on feel when stroking short, but big breaking putts – players push or pull short putts subconsciously to start the ball on an appropriate line. Vince has routinely had difficulty with this; often over or under compensating.

Two holes down to Vince after seven holes played.

Where Vince is most impressive is in the quality of his ball flight, for which he does not get enough credit. Top professional golfers are noted for high, but controlled ball flights, spinning, but penetrating trajectories, and a consistent curvature. They also have an ability to purposefully curve the ball either direction when they need to.

Vince clearly favors a right to left drawing shot, which also can cause his greatest struggle on the course. He has a tendency to overdraw the golf ball or, in defense, overcompensate by aiming or swinging to the right. However, he is aware of those issues and works relentlessly to improve the path of his club head.

“I spent hours yesterday hitting cut (left to right) shots,” he remarked. “I’m trying to find ways that make it easier for me to control the draw and move it left to right when I need to.”

As I hit one of my best shots of the day on the eleventh hole, a 100 yard wedge from the right side of the fairway, Vince, without hesitation or discretion, yelled “no” as my shot nearly fell in the cup – he knew that had it gone in, the match would have been even.

One down to Vince after 12 holes played.

On the thirteenth hole, Vince became visibly frustrated after a combination of an extraordinarily difficult putt and a misjudgment in speed resulted in a three-putt green.
Finkbine is well known for its undulating greens. Particularly in the fall when the grass doesn’t grow as well and the greens become faster, putting at Finkbine is remarkably difficult, as it was throughout our round that morning.

Perhaps he is too hard on himself; perhaps at times his drive to excel may get the best of him. But, it is more likely that he is impressively self-confident while aware of the expectations that his coach, his family, his peers and competitors have for him, as well as the unmatched expectations that he has for himself.

“I want to play well and I want to win,” he commented. “I believe that I can win and sometimes I am hard on myself when I am not performing as I know that I can.

When you look at the top level of junior and college golf, the players are often equally skilled and talented, but the best players are the ones who have an ability to remain as emotionally composed as a seasoned veteran, but embrace the benefits of the optimism that youth provides.

Ultimately, it’s about accepting disappointment, because in golf it occurs often. The challenge is to never become discouraged; disappointment is a source of motivation while discouragement can be debilitating.

Golf is also a contest of who is willing to do what is necessary to get better.

“Jordan spent his life his getting better at basketball, even after he was the greatest ever. Tiger (Woods) won the Masters by 12 shots and he looks at the camera and says ‘not good enough.’ You always have to work to get better; maintain that long term perspective.”

On a cold October Iowa morning Vince won two holes up after shooting a calm, simple even-par 72 and I had a blue-collar, working mans 74.

Where I onced looked at Vince as an opponent and threat, today I find myself living vicariously through his successes and frustrations.

In the car ride home, Vince wears in his face the unmistakable frustrations of what could have been, the absolute nature of golf in the mind of a highly spirited, highly successful competitor. Vince spent the drive criticizing his misplayed iron shot on the seventeenth hole and a poor drive on the fourteenth hole.

With the combination of a more fundamentally sound golf swing than is often found at the collegiate level, a polished game that seems too mature for his age, and a willingness to learn and improve that is not often found among young players, the sole obstacle to success in Vince’s future is himself.

Vince will be back in competitive action at the end of this month at the Baylor Intercollegiate, as the team rounds out its fall season.

As we left lunch and sat in my car, Vince looked at me and with a serious face asked “Can you drop me off back at the course? I’m going to practice.”

Maybe in the not too distant future, Vince deserves my letting him be Michael Jordan for once.