Hype can be a difficult thing to live up to, especially if great things are expected. Craig Cerbins arrived at UW as one of the best recruits in men’s golf for the state of Wisconsin. In his first season of eligibility, the redshirt freshman is just looking for his chance to compete.
Coming out of Portage High School, Cerbins was rated as the best junior golfer in Wisconsin by the Titleist/Golfweek Performance Index. As a three-time member of the all-state team, Cerbins won the 2005 WIAA state Championship and took home back-to-back Wisconsin Player of the Year awards.
One of Cerbins’ greatest moments was when he edged out current Wisconsin starter Dan Woltman for the 2004 WSGA Player of the Year award. In high school, Cerbins played against many of his current Badger teammates including junior Nick Engen.
“I actually played with him a couple times in high school. He really knows and manages his game well,” Engen said. “He’s definitely a hardworking kid, and he’s put a lot of time into it.”
It seemed that Cerbins was destined to excel from the start at Wisconsin. However, his transition from high school to the collegiate level has been anything but easy.
Upon his arrival at UW, Cerbins began to struggle with his swing, which inevitably led to some inconsistencies. In addition to this, a nagging injury didn’t help. Cerbins’ play became erratic, and he decided to redshirt his freshman year.
“Golf is just a funny, weird game. You do a couple things with your swing, and the next thing you know you’re struggling to hit the ball just cause you may have tweaked it,” Engen said.
Though Cerbins figured his swing would come back around by this past fall season, he still needed some time. While he qualified for a few events, he decided to save a year of eligibility and work on his game. The time away from the course was difficult for Cerbins, but he has taken his setbacks in stride.
“It’s been pretty tough. Certainly in high school to have the success that I did was great. Then you come here, and it’s a bigger step to collegiate golf, and you just have to learn from your experiences and your bad rounds,” Cerbins said. “The fall was quite a struggle. I was kind of surprised and disappointed by it, and that’s just the way it goes and certainly things come around.”
Cerbins has taken advantage of the latest time off and has begun to make large strides in his game. He has been striking the ball a lot better, and his swing is back to his high school form. Cerbins’ progression has led to his eligibility for this current spring season, which has head coach Jim Schuman excited about what lies in store.
“Craig had a bit of an injury and kind of struggled a bit, but he is really back on track here in the past three or four months,” Schuman said. “Craig has done a great job dealing with some adversity and kind of finding his form again and getting himself in better physical condition. When you do that obviously your confidence soars, and now we’re starting to see that in him.”
Currently, Cerbins is on the outside of the five-man starting rotation but is close to cracking the lineup. In order to secure a starting spot, he would have to outperform the teammates ahead of him, which is no easy task with a deep roster.
“I’m not going to move players out of the lineup unless I see somebody doing something better or progressing along a really fast road,” Schuman said. “You know the guys in the lineup can obviously shoot some bad rounds, and you know there are some guys like Craig Cerbins, who I think is very close to being on that edge of breaking in [to the lineup] but you certainly have to show just a bit more for that to happen.”
While Cerbins is hoping for playing time this season, he acknowledges that this season’s schedule may not be in his favor.
“My goal certainly is to get a chance to play in a tournament,” Cerbins said. “It’s going to be tough simply because the way the schedule works out. There are not going to be too many great opportunities to qualify, so I would say an ideal situation would be to get a chance to play at some point in an event or two this spring, but if not then just to continue to improve and get ready for the fall.”
With three more years of eligibility left after this season, Cerbins’ collegiate career has a bright future if he can maintain his progress and reach his potential.
“Sometimes you get derailed through injury and it eats away at your confidence but he’s made some changes that I think look great,” Schuman said. “Like I said, he’s getting some of that confidence back right now so he’s going to do some big things for us; it’s just a matter of time for him.”