Sports

Tassistro swings for improvement

The road to improvement can be a long and frustrating one, and no one understands that better than Badger golfer Kevin Tassistro. The junior has immense physical talent as he uses his powerful 6-foot-2 frame to blast tee shots, many of them 300 yards or longer. Like most golfers, though, his struggles with the short game have been holding him back. This season Tassistro has had great success with his putter but is still working on his mid and short irons. With Tassistro in the middle of a learning process, he understands that some days are going to be better than others.

This past weekend, for example, Tassistro showed his vast potential, but also proved he has plenty of room to grow. After struggling to an opening-round 84, Tassistro shot a career-best 68 the following day. It is hard not to be frustrated by such extremes in scoring.

“You know you can shoot real low,” Tassistro said. “Then you go out and shoot an 80 or something, and you try and figure out what’s going on. It’s frustrating.”

“There is no question [inconsistent scoring] is frustrating, but that’s learning,” coach Jim Schuman said. “Kevin understands why one day [his score] was a 70 and the next it was an 80, and that is one of the things he’s worked on.”

The learning process took a leap in the right direction this season. After two years at Wisconsin, Tassistro’s scores were consistently in the upper 70s. This season, however, his scores have slipped into the low 70s. Tassistro chalks his improvement up to timely putting when, as he said, “the putts were really falling.” His coach, meanwhile, thinks that there is a lot more to it than that.

“Kevin just needed to understand what he was trying to do,” Schuman said.

What Tassistro was trying to do was improve his game between the tee and the green. With an overpowering driver and a solid putter, getting things together in between would certainly make him a formidable foe. According to Schuman, a few tweaks to Tassistro’s posture and arm swing were in order. With such a powerful swing, the key was keeping Tassistro’s body in position to hit the shot well.

“[Tassistro] may not have shot the scores that he’s wanted yet, but he’s seeing the right things out of his swing,” said Schuman of Tassistro’s learning process.

For the Badgers’ No. 1 player, the improvement is welcome. As he regularly squares off with other teams’ top golfers, Tassistro faces stiff competition not only from the course, but from his fellow players.

“You try and beat a guy and not the course, and that will trip you up,” said Tassistro about playing in a group with some of the Big Ten’s finest. “Then you try even harder to beat the guy, and things just get worse.”

Being such a competitor with an aggressive approach to the game, it is easy to understand how Tassistro can get caught up in trying to beat his opponents more than the course. With his physical skills, though, his coach insists that sending him out there with the pressure on his shoulders is right where Tassistro should be.

“[Tassistro] is such a competitor, he just wants to be the one out there carrying the load,” Schuman said. “When we need a birdie down the stretch or a good round, we know that Kevin wants that challenge.”

Schuman added that some of Tassistro’s abilities can add a bit of pressure for his opponents.

“He sends a bit of a message because no one likes getting out-driven by 30 yards on every hole,” Schuman said.

As his scores become more consistent, Tassistro will start turning the advantage he has off the tee into an advantage on the scorecard. With each passing week it seems that he is improving a little bit more. If Tassistro continues working on his game the way he has this season, next year could be a very exciting one.

“He believes in what he’s doing and he’s sticking to the adjustments he’s made,” Schuman said. “You can see his best golf is certainly ahead of him.”