Golf is as individual as a sport can get \u2014 scored one player at a time. In collegiate golf, though, those individual rounds add up to a collective team score. At the same time, the players beside you are also the ones trying to beat you for a place in the lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Will Hartman<\/a>, a sophomore on the Vanderbilt Men\u2019s Golf team, that tension has been a big part of his first year-and-a-quarter as a Commodore. He chose to play for Vanderbilt because of the team\u2019s depth and spent much of his freshman year trying to crack the starting five \u2014 ultimately emerging from that internal competition as one of the team\u2019s strongest players.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe coolest thing about team golf is that it\u2019s way more fun to win as a team than individually because of the feeling y\u2019all get,\u201d Hartman told The Hustler.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Hartman, a Marvin, North Carolina, native, Vanderbilt\u2019s team culture mattered most before he started winning tournaments. The relationships around him helped him work through a difficult start to his collegiate career, earn his place on the team and become a leader of one of the best squads in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, he was one of the best junior golfers in the country \u2014 a three-time Rolex AJGA All-American, member of the U.S. Junior Ryder and Presidents Cup teams and the No. 10-rated player in the Class of 2025. And while he could have played at almost any college of his choosing, Hartman came to Nashville, Tennessee \u2014 not because he was chasing individual success, but because of Vanderbilt\u2019s team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons I chose Vanderbilt is because the team is so deep,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cAll nine guys on our roster are really good. That is a good thing overall, and it\u2019ll make you a better golfer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hartman credits head coach Scott Limbaugh as one of the main reasons for his belief in Vanderbilt\u2019s culture during recruitment. The four-time SEC Coach of the Year consistently brings his squad to the highest levels of collegiate golf \u2014 qualifying for 11 straight NCAA Championships \u2014 and the energy he brings to his players is a big part of that feat.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Limbaugh was definitely one of the main reasons I chose to come to Vanderbilt,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cHe cares so much about everybody on the team, with him its 100% genuine. He wants the best for every one of us and he\u2019s gonna do what he can to help us reach our goals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And Hartman certainly came to the West End last fall with lofty aspirations for what he and his team could do.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Hartman, though, his game was not quite where it needed to be to be competitive. He spent the bulk of his freshman year outside the lineup and did not crack Limbaugh\u2019s starting five until March.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had kind of been struggling a little bit first coming into college,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cIt was just a lot of hard work with the coaches getting my golf game to the place it needed to get to [in order] to get into the lineup. It just took a little longer than I would have liked to get there, but hard work and continuous support from our coaches was the reason I made it in there in March.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Like most college golf programs, Vanderbilt\u2019s lineups are determined by qualifying tournaments \u2014 where the Commodore golfers compete against each other for five starting spots. While these events can create hostility between teammates, Hartman and the \u2019Dores find ways to stay a friendly unit \u2014 helping create better team chemistry overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that there\u2019s any hard feelings after [qualifying] golf,\u201d Hartman said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re out there we all want to beat each other, but off the golf course we\u2019re all really good friends and we don\u2019t carry the grudge around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And, even in his first few starts, Hartman was just okay; his highest placement was 13th overall at the Mossy Oak Collegiate in early April. After a harsh T-41 finish at the SEC Championship a week later, with the team placing 15th out of 16 squads, there was a lot of golf to reflect on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hartman, though, didn\u2019t try to change much, as he wants to keep his golf game as consistent as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI always try to play the same and not change too much, and hopefully that\u2019ll take care of the rest in the end,\u201d Hartman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keeping his head high paid off, as Hartman came out the gate firing at the NCAA Athens Regional<\/a> in late May. The first-year shot 14-under over 3 days, which included a spectacular bogey-free round of 63 in the second round, en route to his first collegiate tournament title.\u00a0<\/p>\n