Mike Holder says some crazy things about OSU golf

I posted this great Alan Bratton golf article by Jimmie Tramel in the Bullets today but thought we should revisit just because of how insane some of the things Mike Holder said actually are.

Here’s a sampling with my unsolicited thoughts below.

OSU endured a slump during Bratton’s career, but only in relative terms. The Cowboys finished 12th at the NCAAs when he was a sophomore. For the first time in Holder’s 20 years as coach, there was no top-five finish. 

“I would say when it happened it was like a death in the family,” Holder said.

A death in the family, eh? I think I laughed out loud at this actually. I can see Holder’s wife quietly coming to him one night in their Karsten Creek home and saying “honey, your mother passed away this afternoon” and him saying “eff it, this is JUST LIKE THAT TIME BO VAN PELT SHOT A 77 IN THE ’94 NCAAs! SCREW THAT VAN PELT GUY!”

Wow.

Then on the following year:

Players were greeted with semi trucks loaded with sod. The sod crew got unexpected help. OSU’s golfers were instructed to lay sod on the 18th hole until the supply was exhausted. They laid sod until late in the afternoon.

OSU roared back from a late seven-shot deficit to beat Stanford in a playoff for the ’95 title. Holder called it the greatest clutch performance ever by one of his teams.

I guess it worked. Also, I’d give anything to go back and watch that ’95 title live. You had Tiger, the comeback, just so much history. I’d also give anything to get a candid Charles Howell or Van Pelt on a podcast feeding me unfiltered non-family friendly Mike Holder stories.

On McGraw:

“I think he will be much more successful in another situation. I think (this) meant too much to him. He worked too hard. He tried too hard.”

“HE WASN’T ME!”

Holder said it was a “catastrophic occurrence for us” when the streak ended. 

“It was just unimaginable,” he said. 

Holder was reminded that Kentucky’s tradition-rich men’s basketball program lost a first-round NIT game one year after winning the 2012 NCAA championship. Replied Holder, “That’s Kentucky basketball. That’s not OSU golf. Higher standard.”

This is great. Why didn’t he say this two years ago when the Big 12 was openly opining for Louisville. This would have easily sealed the deal.

On Bratton:

“Some would say, and I wouldn’t argue, that he (already) had a better job,” Holder said, explaining it this way: “The expectation is not there with the women’s team yet. He was making the same amount of money as the men’s coach. I paid them the same.”

I love how he just openly insults our girls team. He’s right, obviously, but there aren’t a lot of ADs that would come out and say that.

More on Bratton:

“And then to have played here at a high level is kind of a bonus. I’m surprised he didn’t make it on the PGA Tour, but perhaps we’re the beneficiary of that.”

Basically “I thought he was mentally tougher than he actually was as a golfer. Dude was a joke as a professional.”

Continuing the one-upsmanship theme, Holder said this when asked about the future with a new coach: “I am hoping in his mind he looks at what Labron Harris accomplished and what I accomplished and what Mike McGraw accomplished and he thinks he is going to set a new standard. That’s what I want.”

Yeah, good luck.