By Gail Wood
Matt Epstein is now the overlooked winner.
Coming out of high school, he was only lightly recruited by college golf coaches and ended up enrolling at Bellevue Community College.
He was determined to drop his scores and his weight. He’s done both.
Losing over 100 pounds, Epstein, now 210 pounds and a senior at Saint Martin’s University, is the top golfer in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, averaging 71.5 strokes per round.
“Matt knows strategy,” said Kevin Bishop, Saint Martin’s coach. “He knows when to take chances and when not to take chances. There isn’t a weakness in Matt’s game.”
Last week, Epstein put that skill to good use as he placed sixth at a Chico State invitational, finishing one stroke from placing in the top five and making the all-tournament team. He bogeyed his final hole, scoring a par 72 on a challenging course. Saint Martin’s placed seventh and Chico State, ranked fifth in the N
CAA Division II, won the tournament with a combined 894, 20 strokes ahead of second-place Grand Canyon.
“In my 50 years of being around golf, it was the toughest course I’ve seen,” Bishop said. “All you did was look for golf balls.”
The Saints were tied for third after the first of three rounds because they had four golfers finish under 80 that opening round.
“Most teams had three under 80. One kid shot in the hundreds,” Bishop said. “The rough was deep and lush.”
Saint Martin’s Zach Dietz battled the long and narrow fairways and shot 78, 79, 79 to place tied for 38th. As an example of the course’s challenge, SMU’s Ben Fosnick was 4-over par with three holes left in the second round and finished with a quadruple 8, a double-bogey 5 and a 12 to shoot a 90. Fosnick shot an opening-round 79 and closed with a 75, tying him for 61st with a plus-28 244. SMU’s Patrick Whealdon, a freshman, tied for 50th with an 81, 84 and 76. Saints’ junior Brandon Moore tied for 56th with a 78, 79 and 86.
“It was a tough, tough course,” Bishop said. “Chico had a definite home-course advantage.”
The course challenged Epstein’s no-panic demeanor. His hit-it-and-forget-it approach came to his rescue throughout the tournament.
“Matt’s strength is between his ears,” Bishop said. “He’s by far the best young player in knowing that golf is not a game of perfection. Matt can be striking the ball poorly and still shoot 75.”
If Epstein miss hits an approach and leaves himself a 25-yard putt, he doesn’t get upset.
“He doesn’t care,” Bishop said. “He’ll say okay he’s on the green. Now, he’s got a 25-foot putt to sink.”
In addition to his Teflon approach where no bad shot sticks with him, Epstein is also devoted to practice. After the tournament in California, Bishop gave his team three days off to catch up with schooling and rest. But in addition to hitting the books, Epstein also hit plenty of shots at the driving range as the team prepares for a tournament in Hawaii later this month.
“He’s a gym rat,” Bishop said. “The good ones are.”
It’s not like Epstein was a golfing sensation coming out of high school. But through hard work he’s become one of the best golfers in the GNAC. Last year, he won the Chico Invitational and he’s hoping to go to nationals in the spring. His coach said he’s a tireless worker.
“Matt leads our workouts, which is awesome,” Bishop said. “There’s no way the small guys can say they’re tired when he’s up there working hard. He goes three more, two more. Okay, six more. He’s a great kid.”
Bishop, now in his third season at SMU, has turned the Saints program into a consistent winner in the GNAC. He understands that recruiting is the lifeblood to a program. When a recruit is on campus, Bishop always leads him and his parents on a tour of the campus, telling them about the school. He always try to be upfront with the recruit.
“I tell him if you’re into football teams running through a tunnel and the basketball games being packed and partying on the weekends in the dorms, then this place is not for you,” Bishop said. “If you want to hide in the back of a classroom with 300 students in it, then this school is not for you.”
His approach is working. Not only is SMU competitive on the golf course, Bishop’s teams have had the highest cumulative GPA in the conference for the last three seasons.
“I think I’m a player’s coach,” Bishop said. “I always to be up front with them. All parents want for their kids is to have a good college experience. Not just a good athletic experience. That’s what I try to do.”
