GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
Laurie Gibbs has been about as successful as can be in her 13 seasons as Pepperdine’s women’s golf coach. She has turned Pepperdine into an elite program and the team is coming off one of its most successful fall seasons ever, including two victories, a third-place and a fourth-place finish. Gibbs is this week’s guest on “10 Minutes With …”
You guys are coming off a great fall season. How can you keep it up in the spring?
Well, I think the most important thing is that we really learn from our past performances. I think for us, every tournament is very special. We don’t look at it as a whole year, we kind of approach each tournament one at a time. There is a momentum that kind of builds as you continue. We also feel that with our tournament schedule, right now it’s ranked 10th in the country out of over 300 schools, so we know we have a very competitive schedule. So we know each tournament we have to really be at our best. We’re quite motivated in every tournament to go in there and play our best, we feel if we play our best, we have an opportunity to win. That is something that kind of keeps our momentum going. Plus, the players are really self-motivated, too.
What would you say is the team’s biggest strength?
I think our biggest strength right now is that we have players that are incredibly self-motivated. They are really willing to work incredibly hard, and they know that we have seven players on the team that are fabulous players, so that keeps the momentum going, too.
Then do you think this team is capable of winning a national title?
Yes.
In your 13 seasons, you’ve sort of built Pepperdine into this national powerhouse. What have been the keys to that whole process?
Wow. I think for me, personally, it’s really been recruiting. It comes down to recruiting players. I think it’s also been the support of the university but also players that have the same approach that I do. Players that are obviously willing to work hard where academics are important but have high goals with their golf. A lot of our success, too, has been bringing in not only great domestic players but international players, and certainly that’s been something that has been very key to our success. Players that want the small school, that want the family environment, that want to create that work ethic that keeps it going. I think it really does come down to recruiting and recruiting really solid players that want to improve.
Speaking of international recruiting, what has opened up your pipeline to South America, with two players from Colombia and one from Venezuela?
It’s not one thing really that I can think of that was like, ‘Oh, this thing happened and I got this player.’ Obviously we started in Australia with Tammy Durden, and she was a great player and came in and did very well. It kind of builds upon itself. With South America, it really started when I watched Eileen Vargas play at the Junior Worlds. She won that and I was very impressed, and then I got a resume from Carolina (Llano), who I’d also been kind of aware of. As you recruit you’re doing your homework and trying to figure out who’s doing what, and then I was able to recruit her and basically she wanted to come and Eileen wanted to come. Just through the process, they both made that decision. They both wanted a small school like Pepperdine. At that time, we were a top-10 team and they wanted that. Then we got Stephanie Gelleni who actually ended up walking on and will be earning scholarship. So I think it just kind of falls into itself, and I think we certainly wanted them because of their success, and they really picked Pepperdine because of the program, because of myself and obviously because of the school, too.
You’ve got two kids. How do you play the role of both the mom and the coach?
Oh, it’s hard. It’s interesting, although I have to laugh. Every time I have a child, that’s when my team gets ranked in the top five, which is crazy. I have great support. Obviously, I have a wonderful husband that’s incredibly supportive. I have a great assistant coach that is definitely very involved and is incredibly supportive and takes a big part of our success, we work very closely together. I think being a mother definitely helps me being a coach. It really allows me to see things from different perspectives. I think you wear so many hats when you’re a coach. It’s not just being a swing coach, it’s really being there for the players. I sometimes find myself falling into a motherly role with some of the players, and I think having children definitely helps that. The toughest part of my job is traveling away from my family, but we manage, we work it out. My daughter is 7, so she’s in school so her day is pretty full. My son’s now getting to an age where he knows I’m gone, he’s 2. That sometimes is hard, but he’ll soon be in preschool. It does get kind of crazy though. I always tell everyone around me, nobody can get sick. As long as things are rolling along, it’s like we can just throw a wrench in there and then it all explodes.
What is the best tip you can offer just an amateur, weekend duffer-type of player?
Well, it depends on if it’s someone who is playing and trying to improve their game or someone who’s just picking up the sport. The best advice I can give them is just to enjoy the game. Also, work on your short game. I think everyone wants to go out on the driving range and beat their driver. The game is all about short game. That’s what I would tell somebody from a novice to a more advanced player and it’s something that we work on tremendously with our team. It’s all about short game and really playing the golf course for what it is. What we forget as golfers is that it’s about strategy, it’s about getting the ball in the hole, it’s about playing the game. It’s almost like playing a chess game. I mean if you look at the course, it’s like a big board game out there. It’s where you want to place your shots and not playing for sucker shots and knowing you have 14 clubs in the bag. You don’t always have to hit your driver. So I just gave you five tips, but those are all important, they kind of go hand in hand.
11-10-2005