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.”