Long Beach State University Athletics
Mallinger in Excellent Company
10/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
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Mallinger in Excellent Company LONG BEACH - When John Mallinger warmed up at a recent tournament, Tiger Woods made eye contact with him and flashed him the peace sign. At the end of another tournament, Vijay Singh came up to him and analyzed his strong finish. Mallinger also vied with Phil Mickelson for the lead at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and has collected a grab bag of "welcome to the PGA Tour" stories. To say that the golf world has noticed Mallinger as a rookie on the PGA Tour is an understatement. The Long Beach State graduate has won $1.6 million this year, is ranked 46th in money on the Tour and has defied various odds to get to where he is. But if the numbers, or the pressure, or the Tour's difficulty, are mentioned to him, he accepts it, but shrugs it off as something that he knew he could overcome. "Last year, I played on seven tours, and so I feel like I've done everything I needed to do to get to where I am now," Mallinger said. "I didn't just jump out there and say, `OK, I'm here. What do I do here?' I feel like I'm here for a reason. I belong here." While Mallinger may have had that belief, the fact remains that he is one of only 26 rookies on the PGA Tour and second to Brandt Snedeker in money among rookies. Plus, he is only one of eight players to qualify for the Tour this year by getting through all three stages of the PGA's Qualifying School. Most of the other Q School survivors had exemptions and didn't have to go through all three stages. Q School, sometimes referred to as golf's fifth major tournament, drew more than 1,000 hopefuls. Only the top 30 and ties earned their tour cards. Anyone who follows golf closely understands how hard it is for rookies to stay on tour. Rookies have priority to play in tournaments only after the top 125 returning players from the previous season. Rookies normally play courses for the first times in their careers, are subject to unfavorable tee times and can fall victim to the intimidation of other players, big crowds, TV and large purses. "It's shocking for any rookie to make it," said Bob Livingston, Mallinger's coach when he was at LBSU. "The system is devised to get rookies off the Tour. When you look at John, he always had the belief to make it. He was driven by thinking, `What am I going to do to get to where I want to be?' He kept with that, and he did it." Something about Mallinger had him frequently beating tough odds. When he entered LBSU in 1997, he was a small and relatively unheralded college golfer from Escondido. With his diminutive stature, he probably looked as far away from a professional athlete as possible. In his freshman year, he had a growth spurt that shot him up to his current 6-foot height, and he slowly developed all of the phases of his game. "When I got him, he looked like a little kid," Livingston said. "He had no record, no nothing, really. He was recommended to me by one of my former players. He was all heart, and he just got golf. He had one of the best short games I had ever seen." The fact that Mallinger had trouble hitting the ball far may have hindered his game when he was younger. But that was something he could develop. "I grew up short-gaming it," Mallinger said. "That was my deal. I didn't hit it far. I didn't hit the greens. I think that was good because I learned how to play the game. I learned how to score. And there's a big difference from just hitting the ball and scoring." To understand why Mallinger has made an impact on the PGA Tour in his rookie year isn't simple. Rather, various factors have come together that included his killer short game. Of all of the factors working for Mallinger, though, the No. 1 reason for his success is his mental approach and calmness, or what he calls having "a quiet mind." It is one thing to play a strong tournament in one of the many mini-tours that Mallinger used to play, where galleries are sparse and it's rare to be on television. On the PGA Tour, he has faced enormous galleries, frequently been on TV and has had more than $100,000 ride on certain putts. To not have pressure creep into his mind has been key, although he accepts that it's impossible for pressure to be completely absent from his thoughts. "It creeps in there," he said. "But you work on something so much, and you just have to understand why you do stuff and how you do it." He continued, "Your body's not going to react unless your mind tells it to do something. And so when you have these bad thoughts, that's when you're going to hit a bad shot because all you're thinking is, `Don't do this. Don't do this.' When you work on something so much and you know exactly what's going to happen, your mind is quiet." He gives huge credit to his coach Jamie Mulligan, the CEO of Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, and his support group at Virginia for his success. Mulligan not only has helped Mallinger's swing, nutrition and fitness, but he has been instrumental in helping Mallinger have the right mental approach and attitude. "The hardest part of my job is to keep everybody focusing on the macro, not the micro," Mulligan said. It is really easy for players to focus on their one bad shot, or their one bad hole, or the negative part of their game. While Mulligan is a firm believer in learning from mistakes, he says he's seen too many players beat themselves up over mistakes, get in the wrong frame of mind and have their games suffer. Mulligan also takes a clear-minded, positive approach with his other three prodigies - John Merrick, Peter Tomasulo and Travis Johnson. The fantastic foursome of Virginia are all professional golfers and have developed close relationships. Merrick also is a rookie on the PGA Tour, has won $628,000 this year and is ranked 128th on tour. Tomasulo is ranked 39th on the Nationwide Tour and will earn his PGA Tour card if he finishes in the top 25. Johnson, who is Mallinger's roommate, has qualified for the Canadian Tour next year and has been playing some Monday qualifiers on the Nationwide Tour. "It's always been a team thing since we starting doing this," Mallinger said. "I saw Jamie when I was a freshman in college, and we started working together in 2000. And John and Pete had been working with him, and they welcomed me in. "We've always had this clique. It's a cool deal. We always want each other to do well, and we're always there for each other." Mulligan is close with PGA veterans John Cook and Craig Barlow, and those two have helped Mallinger and Merrick in numerous ways this year, from explaining the intricacies of courses to helping them feel comfortable in cities new to them. Mallinger may defer reasons for his success to Mulligan and Virginia Country Club, but he was the one to finish third three times - at Pebble Beach, New Orleans and upstate New York. Those three finishes account for more than $1 million of his winnings. What is odd about those finishes is that they came on three different types of grass, and the course in New York supposedly scores well for extremely long hitters, which he is not. Coming into the year, Mallinger said his goal was to retain his tour card. He secured his card months ago. He then made it into top 70 on the tour during the inaugural Fed Ex playoffs and became eligible to play in all the tour's invitationals. When he finished third in upstate New York, he jumped to a season-high 42nd ranking and if he has another jump to the top 30, will be eligible to play in all the majors. Throughout all of his jumps in the rankings, he's been remarkably consistent, making the cut in his past eight tournaments. As for the money, other than upgrading his wine selections, the 28-year-old single guy has no immediate plans for it. He plans on continuing to live in a Long Beach condo with his pal, Johnson - at least for the immediate future. Because of the years he spent playing the mini-tours and the time he's put into golf, he says he has no "I can't believe this is happening" feelings, considering how different this year has been than all the others. He understands what has made his rookie year such a success, and those factors transcend golf. "You've got to have a lot of belief in yourself, and you've got to have a lot of belief in the people that are helping you get there," he said. "If you don't honestly believe that, it's not going to happen." |
