{"id":541,"date":"2018-04-15T15:49:54","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T19:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/?p=541"},"modified":"2019-11-18T17:15:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T22:15:14","slug":"nicknames-helpful-to-uga-golfers-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/nicknames-helpful-to-uga-golfers-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicknames helpful to UGA golfers\u2019 success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published at The Athens Banner-Herald<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One fall Saturday, University of Georgia associate head golf coach Jim Douglas was observing practice. Then-UGA golfer Keith Mitchell was whining about having to practice. There was a football game that day and he wanted to go tailgating.<\/p>\n

It got so bad that Douglas called him out, saying that he was whining like a kitten who needed his saucer of milk. Thus the nickname \u201cSaucer\u201d was born.<\/p>\n

The UGA golf team, which finished its regular season Saturday at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tenn., has a storied history with nicknames. The nicknames, the players and coaches say, help their camaraderie on and off the course.<\/p>\n

In most instances Douglas is the mastermind behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates an identity in a way that everyone feels like they fit in,\u201d said Douglas, who began as an assistant coach at Georgia in 1997 under current head coach Chris Haack.<\/p>\n

Jack Larkin Jr., a junior, is nicknamed \u201cNeck\u201d because of his large neck. He remembers feeling a little nervous while playing in one of his first tournaments for UGA. Douglas approached him around the seventh hole and quipped: \u201d\u2019Sup Neck? How\u2019re you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

It caught Larkin off guard but immediately eased the pressure for the rest of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nice,\u201d Larkin said he thought to himself. \u201cThis is relaxing. I feel a lot more comfortable right now, just kind of hanging out. This is how we go about our practice every day, and [it] almost helps simulate what we normally do on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douglas uses the nicknames as a way to build up players and further solidify their place on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really want to get somebody\u2019s attention, they know who it is,\u201d said Douglas. \u201cAnd you\u2019re not embarrassing them by calling their name out in front of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both coaches themselves have nicknames. Haack has gone by Haacker for decades and Douglas has gone from Jimbo to Dougie Fresh to now simply Doug.<\/p>\n

It started back in 1998. Ryuji Imada joined the team and people had trouble pronouncing his name. Eventually, Douglas decided he needed a new name. Imada, in typical late 90\u2032s fashion, would use gel and spike his hair up. That led to the nickname \u201cSpike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave it up to Douglas to come up with these names,\u201d said Zach Healy, a senior who goes by \u201cTrapper\u201d due to his affinity for trap music. \u201cHe\u2019s an interesting character and he\u2019ll come up with something and have a story behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nicknames give UGA golfers an informal way to address each other and that \u2014 mixed with the players knowing the back stories behind the names \u2014 creates a bond.<\/p>\n

Douglas is always looking for new opportunities to assign nicknames to players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe common denominator is usually the guys don\u2019t like it,\u201d said Douglas. \u201d(They\u2019ll say) \u2018No you can\u2019t call me that, that can\u2019t be my nickname,\u2019 and as soon as that happens, that\u2019s when it sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smart players learn quickly to embrace the name and own it \u2014 most notably current PGA Tour player Lee McCoy.<\/p>\n

McCoy played for Georgia from 2012-16 and is a freckle-faced redhead who bears a striking resemblance to The Shermanator from the film American Pie. Douglas made note of it and started calling him \u201cSherm.\u201d It stuck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his family actually calls themselves \u2018The Sherms\u2019 now,\u201d said Douglas.<\/p>\n

University of Oklahoma head coach Ryan Hybl was a former player under Haack and Douglas, and his team has a good relationship with Georgia. Even his players will call the UGA coaches and players by their nicknames.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really small community,\u201d Hybl said of college golfers. \u201cThey get to know each other very well on a different level than most other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, many UGA players find it strange when they are called by their actual names.<\/p>\n

\u201cI seriously cannot remember the last time someone called me Zach,\u201d said Healy. \u201cIt\u2019s really weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Georgia\u2019s golfers head into the postseason, hoping to win their first Southeastern Conference championship since 2010, Douglas will be encouraging them with nicknames destined to become part of the UGA golf team\u2019s lore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the greatest fraternities to be in if you\u2019re a golfer,\u201d Douglas said, \u201cis to be in the UGA golf fraternity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grady Sports Bureau is part of the sports media program at the University of Georgia\u2019s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published at The Athens Banner-Herald One fall Saturday, University of Georgia associate head golf coach Jim Douglas was observing practice. Then-UGA golfer Keith Mitchell was whining about having to practice. There was a football game that day and he wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-things-sports","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markymarkbrand.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}