He played so well in fact the Fort Collins product earned the one thing he’s been seeking since he stayed at home to play golf for Colorado State – a trip to the NCAA Championships. He did so by posting a 54-hole total of 211, his 5-under making him one of four players in the field to shoot under-par in all three rounds.
Afterward, the enormity of the moment hadn’t sunk in quite yet for Ott. But when he talked about what made it a successful two days, the first thing he mentioned was not how well he putted the ball, or how accurate he was about staying in the fairway. Nothing about his short game being a key asset.
No, the first chance he had to praise something, he went straight to the one person who was with him every step of the way, assistant coach Parker Edens.
“He helped a ton. He’s helped me a lot this spring, and we just bonded a lot,” Ott said. “We’re very similar in our approach to the game. We both like to work hard, and we both just take it seriously, course management … I just think we mesh really well. It’s nice to have somebody to talk to between shots, so that worked out really well.”
This is why head coach Christian Newton hired Edens, his former pupil. Not just those three rounds, but they are a prime example of what Newton envisioned. He didn’t have a checklist of things when searching for a new assistant, just one attribute.
“I knew that would happen,” Newton said of the relationship Edens has built with the entire roster. “For me, it wasn’t about I was hiring Parker because of these particular skill sets, I was hiring him because he’s a good person first, then we would figure out what he and I were good at. I was more interested in hiring a good human being first, then we’d figure out how to delegate.
“I didn’t need a guy who checked three boxes, it was one.”
But Newton also knew Edens would be someone the players could emulate and admire. Edens was a Northern Colorado kid, playing as a prep at Greeley Central. He first went to South Dakota State, then transferred to Fort Collins and played two seasons for Newton, working his way toward becoming one of the best players on the team.
From there, he went to Q-School and played three years of professional golf on The Dakotas and the Web.com tours, winning six events. He was a grinder, through and through. As Newton noted, “he figured it out,” which is what he wanted his players to see firsthand.
Ott, who was a highly sought recruit coming out of high school, considers himself to be a grinder, too. In Edens, he sees someone who shares very similar approaches to the game when it comes to the work required, the mental makeup and shot-hitting ability.
That’s why Ott felt walking those 54 holes with Edens was so important to his success.
“One thing I’ve been trying to work on, and I told him at the beginning of the spring … In golf it is super important, especially on a tough course, to pick where you want to hit it and what shot you want to hit instead of what you don’t want to do,” Ott said. “Last week, I picked the club, and I was calling my shot, almost like in pool. I would verbalize it to me, then he’d confirm if he liked it, and then I just went and hit it. That was really helpful. I think that’s something a lot of good players do in their minds when they’re by themselves, but it’s nice to kind of talk it out loud. It makes it a little more tangible.”
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