Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: Lagodich Shooting Beyond Next Week's Greenbrier
4/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Logan Lagodich is ready to tee it up one more time on Marshall's regular-season men's golf schedule at The Greenbrier Invitational next week.
If he had his druthers, however, the tournament the Herd senior really wants to play on the Old White TPC is the Greenbrier Classic, the resort's July PGA Tour stop.
Lagodich, from Canton, Ohio, is on track to graduate in December. After that, he plans to head west, seeking a jumping-off point toward a pro golf career with the Tour as a goal.
"I'm thinking Arizona right now, and the last couple of weeks I've been trying to get some plans in order," Lagodich said. "I'm looking to go out there, play some mini-tour events and see where that takes me - great place, weather is perfect and I think that gives me the best opportunity for success.
"I've thought about pro golf since I was 10. My dad, Mike Lagodich, played some low-level professional golf and I think it all stemmed from wanting to be like Dad. And I just immersed myself in the PGA Tour, followed all of the tournaments every week on TV, just fell in love with that atmosphere.'
At Marshall, Lagodich, 21, has endured more than right hip surgery in July 2014, between his sophomore and junior seasons. Herd Coach Matt Grobe and Lagodich agreed the biggest obstacle the player has overcome is in his mental game.
"When Logan first came to Marshall, he already had a really good plan," Grobe said. "He was doing all the things, nutritionally, physically and the golf game was pretty good. The one thing I think he really lacked a little bit was kind of letting the bad things that can happen in a golf round go.
"I think what we're seeing now ââ'¬Â¦ if you go back to when he was a freshman, a bad hole kept him down a lot longer, led to 4-5 bad holes in a row maybe even turn into a bad tournament."
The "new" Lagodich was on display in the Herd's last event, at Furman. He opened with a field-leading 67, then ballooned to 77 before posting a finishing 70 for a 2-under-214.
Asked what the freshman Lagodich might have scored in Round 3 after that 10-shot dropoff, Lagodich smiled.
"The freshman Logan might have been good for 87," he said. "It's hard telling. But I shot a 70 and even left a few out there, so I was a little bummed out about that. But it's nice to see progress each tournament this semester."
Lagodich said he's played mind games about his mental approach throughout a Herd career that includes a pair of individual victories - at Old Dominion in 2013 and at Western Carolina last season.
"I think about this a lot," he said. "I think coming in my freshman year maybe I had a lot of expectations and then I performed poorly for whatever reason - a freshman, everything is new to you - and I really got negative. I call it rock bottom for me.
"I was angry after every shot, even good shots. If they weren't perfect, but still good, it wasn't good enough. I learned a lot from that and every year I've seen improvement on that - the ability to recover from a bad shot, stay positive. And now I'm at the point where that's definitely behind me, but I think I needed that freshman year of failure to get to that point.
"I remember the second semester of my freshman year (2012-13) I noticed there was a problem, I started working on it and saw improvement each tournament. I still didn't play well even in spring, but it was better. I took that into the summer, had a good summer, continued that into the fall of my sophomore year and eventually got my first win at the end of that fall semester (ODU/Outer Banks)."
Grobe said he can see Lagodich on the PGA Tour down the road, as long as the player continues to grasp that his emotions are a key to success.
"The shots Logan has in his game right now are incredible," Grobe said. "He can work the ball either way and he's got a very high ball flight, so he can go after some really tricky pins. He works his tail off on his short game right now.
"I really think the only thing he needs to continue to work on is the mental game. It's the toughest part of the game to get a hold of. He wants it so bad and then one bad shot, it feels like it takes the air out of that dream a little bit. So, that's been the toughest thing he's had to transition with and I think it will be the toughest thing for the next level.
"He has all of the shots ââ'¬Â¦ probably one of the best ball strikers that we've got here - if not the best. He's got incredible short-game shots around the green and he's a really good putter. Everything he does is solid. The only thing is, when you want something so bad, and then when something goes wrong all of a sudden, it can feel like it's a lot worse than it really is.
"For him, at the next level, it's about continuing to refine that mental approach to the fact that the next shot is the most important one, and we can't go back and change what already has happened."
Lagodich said his purposefulness is rooted in more than shot-making. Grobe said the Herd senior who played in the U.S. Amateur last summer brings a focus to the game based on strength and conditioning and a commitment to good nutrition.
"I think it's just about feeling good all the time, feeling really healthy all of the time," Lagodich said. "I talk to my friends and they eat some big Taco Bell meal and they regret it a half-hour later. I guess it was nice for the few minutes they had it in their mouths ââ'¬Â¦ I eat a lot of vegetables, lot of fish, eggs, meat ââ'¬Â¦ Anything that grows from the earth is a pretty good rule."
Lagodich is one of only six golfers in Herd history with multiple individual titles, and the first to accomplish that feat since Jonathan Clark won four in 1995 and '96. The Ohioan said if the Tour goal doesn't work out, he'll turn to his MU exercise physiology degree.
"If I'm not playing for a living, I don't think I want much to do in the golf business," he said. "I'd probably go into strength and conditioning, use my degree. I've always been into human performance, and I'd be OK with that."
After the Greenbrier Invitational, the Herd finishes its season in the April 24-27 Conference USA Championships in Texarkana, Ark. In the fall semester as he finishes his class work, Lagodich will work as a student assistant to Grobe.
"It went really fast," Lagodich said of his college years. "All the adults - when I was coming into college - told me it would go really fast, to enjoy it, and they were right. I have enjoyed it, especially the last two years. After I got through my first two years it didn't hit me how fast this is going, so I did kind of settle down and tried to enjoy the last two years.
"Going into these last tournaments, I guess you could say I have mixed emotions, but overall, I'm pretty happy. Since I was 10, I've always been driven toward professional golf. That's been the goal on my mind all of the time. So, I'm just about there and I'm ready to take the next step.
"The mental game is where I need to focus. You see these guys at the top level and their confidence is through the roof and I'd say I have that at points, but still struggle with ââ'¬Â¦ you know, everyone has their Achilles heel. And I still struggle with getting down on myself, too hard on myself, I'd say."
Grobe said because those moments are fewer and fewer for Lagodich, the Herd senior has what it takes.
"Logan wants to start playing mini-tour and work his way up through Web.com (the secondary tour) and try to get on the PGA Tour," Grobe said. "The nutrition, the working out, making sure physically he's ready to go and all the hours he's put into practice - it's all been directed toward reaching the PGA Tour.
"Marshall has been kind of that 4½ years to help him improve and be a great college golfer and do all those things and get a college degree he can fall back on if it doesn't work out on the Tour. But he's one of the most single-minded kids I've seen when it comes to that goal. He's a kid on a mission and he has been since the day he stepped on campus.
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The third annual Greenbrier Invitational is scheduled next Monday and Tuesday on the par-70 Old White TPC, with 15 teams joining co-hosts Marshall and Bowling Green in the expanded field. Three of the Herd's fellow Conference USA members are entered - Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky.
Other teams in the field are Delaware, East Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Northern Kentucky, Ohio, Siena, St. Bonaventure, Towson, Western Carolina, William and Mary and Youngstown State.
The teams are scheduled for 36 holes Monday and a finishing 18 on Tuesday. Marshall won the inaugural Greenbrier in 2014, and ETSU is the defending champion.
Players Mentioned
