Yang Kuang and Florian Huerlimann faced mental struggles in a down year for Maryland men’s golf during the 2023-24 season. A mentality shift within the program helped them gain confidence and enter this season with a new approach.

Coach John Phillips’ group played four competitions in 2023 last season, finishing last in two of them and close to the bottom in the others. With five returning players and three newcomers this season, the Terps have risen to the middle of the pack.

Kuang, a sophomore, came to the Terps as the 11th-ranked amateur player in China, but struggled with self-doubt his freshman year, he said. He overcame those mental blocks this season at the White Sands Intercollegiate in October, where he placed No. 6 in individual play with a career-low score of 205.

“I felt back to my normal performance level,” Kuang said.

Kuang’s new mentality has largely contributed to his jump in production.

“This year I just think, ‘Why [can’t I] win?” Kuang said. “The winner [has] two hands and two legs, I also have two hands and two legs. I just need [to be] working harder.”

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Huerlimann, a senior, has helped establish that new mindset throughout the program as a captain. He experienced similar mental struggles as a putter in his first three seasons with the Terps, averaging 76.65 strokes per round his sophomore year.

At one point, Huerlimann thought his putting was a “hopeless” part of his game, he said.

Huerlimann spent his junior year cutting down his short game and working on his control. Consistent work on the putting green has helped him find confidence in an area he struggles with.

Now in his senior campaign, Huerlimann has averaged 72 per round through his first three tournaments and was named to the Big Ten Golfers to Watch List in the preseason.

As a captain, Huerlimann tries to help his younger teammates overcome that same mental struggle. With a team motivated to do well, that role for him has been “not too difficult,” he said

“The team environment is different,” Huerlimann said. “They don’t come out to practice … just to spend time there, they want to get better out there.”

The Terps notched two sixth-place finishes this season, as well as a fourth place result at the White Sands Intercollegiate, their highest finish since 2022. Four Terps placed in the top 25 of individual scoring.

Phillips,in his third season with Maryland, is also starting to notice the mentality shift from his players.

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While the coach has built a roster of athletes he knows can play, helping them to stay focused during their rounds is a different aspect of his job. Phillips called this group his “most coachable.”
“It is significantly a mental game,” Phillips said. “As we’ve developed guys’ skills over the past two and a half years, the next step is changing your mindset, elevating your self image.”

As the Terps await for their spring season to begin in February, they are bonding with some winter reading . Players are assigned a book from Bob Rotella’s bibliography on golf in groups of two. The team will hold presentations on what they learned when they return from winter break, Phillips said.

With his new group of driven players, Phillips has no doubt they’ll get their homework done.

“That’s probably been the biggest change, is just having a group of guys who work really hard,” Phillips said. “They’re all motivated in the same way … the results have kind of spoken for themselves.”