Recent Marquette Graduate Mike Van Sickle Eyes Promising Pro Career

Quick, who has been the hottest golfer with Midwest ties in the past year? Steve Stricker? Zach Johnson? Jerry Kelly? Mark Wilson?

Try Mike Van Sickle, who, since the fall of 2008, has compiled wins at a Tiger Woods-like clip.

The recent Marquette University graduate and one of the nation's best amateur golfers is in the midst of a whirlwind schedule of golf events which earlier this summer had him in six cities in two weeks.

"The other day I woke up and said, 'What city am I in? I don't know where I am?" Van Sickle explained in late June. "Home is kind of where my hat is these days with so much travel."

This summer, perhaps more than anything else, will help Van Sickle prepare for what looks like a budding career as a tour player. He is hoping to make the United States team for the Walker Cup (which is the amateur version of the Ryder Cup) in September before turning professional.

In the meantime, Van Sickle will try to keep the good vibes going from the 2008-09 collegiate season in which he finished his Marquette career with five wins in 12 events (including a 17-under total over three rounds to win the Xavier Invitational and a playoff victory at the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic). Among the several regional and national events on his summer schedule are the PGA Tour's U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, the Western Amateur at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, Illinois, and the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Van Sickle was one of only two players from Midwestern schools to be named All-American during the last academic year (Jorge Campillo of Indiana was the other). He backed up that selection with an unprecedented 8 and 7 victory in singles competition for the United States team at the Palmer Cup in Colorado (June 4-5). He carded eight birdies in 11 holes to blow away Europe's Leonardo Motta.

I caught up with Van Sickle while he was in Rhode Island playing in the Northeast Amateur. Here is what he had to say regarding his rise to the top, beating the Midwest rap, and becoming Johnny Miller, among other topics:

Matt Tevish: Give me a sense of what it was like to be on such a role this past year. Obviously you had a great year at Marquette. Did it sometimes seem like it came easy for you?

Mike Van Sickle: In a sense, I suppose it did... At Xavier, I won by eight and everything was clicking, but at the same time you're not going to have everything perfectly happening for you every time you go out there. Sometimes you're going to win pretty and sometimes you're going to win ugly. I kind of did a bit of both in the fall, but after the fall season where I finished winning the fall All-American event, and I also won my State Am and State Open to end the summer, you just kind of feel invincible. Unfortunately winter came and that invincibility went away. But when you get on a roll and start winning, you kind of have this sense that you almost expect to win when you go out which just kind of adds to your confidence a little bit.

MT: You were born in Milwaukee and grew up in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, what brought you to Marquette to play golf?

MVS: I wasn't heavily recruited out of high school. I was a late bloomer. I kind of slipped under the radar. One thing I wanted to do was go somewhere where I could play right away. I had a little interest from Kent State and Ohio State, but the Ohio State coach told me flat-out that he doesn't play freshmen. Well, why do I want to go there then? I knew playing in tournaments was the way to get better. You get tournament experience. You get practice playing under pressure. And my mother was the Marquette Sports Information Director from 1979-89, so I had some connections to Marquette. It was kind of cool when I went there for my visit when I got to meet people from the athletic department that I already knew. They were friends with my mom. We've seen them over the years... The Marquette community helped sell my decision on Marquette.

MT: When did it hit you that you thought you might want to play tour golf because when you got to Marquette that wasn't necessarily your intention, was it?

MVS: It's always been a dream of mine, but not until my junior or senior year in high school did it seem like more of a realistic possibility. Over the past couple of years, it's turned from a dream into a more realistic goal to make it on the tour. These past couple of years especially, my game has progressed and I've fine tuned many aspects of my game to where the past couple of years what it's really become is a reachable goal in my mind.

MT: You've said that your dad (Sports Illustrated writer Gary Van Sickle) has been a big influence in you taking up the game. There are a lot of fathers that do that for their sons, but not every son catches on or turns out to be successful like you have. What did he do that kind of made golf stick for you?
MVS: He really made it fun. He would take me out after school, when I was in elementary school as a little kid and we used to go out to the course and play five or six holes before dark. And the thing is, if I didn't want to play, he didn't drag me along with him or anything like that. Every time I played it was because I wanted to be there. I wanted to be with him... Golf was never pushed on me. For me, it was really fun. I really enjoyed the time my dad and I spent out there. My mom used to come out there, too, and just walk along. I really developed a love for the game. My dad was a pretty good golfer, too. He's been scratch for a number of years, so he was a help growing up. He knows the golf swing pretty well and has a pretty good swing, so kind of copying him and listening to his advice I was able to develop a pretty decent swing from scratch."

MT: You seem to be almost a poster child for a golfer who can make it at a Midwest school which is kind of a rarity. It's easy to point out the disadvantages of playing golf at a Midwest school, but did you find any advantages going there?

MVS: I thought so. If I was at a Florida school in December, January, and February and it's 50, 60 degrees outside and sunny, I'd almost feel obligated to go play and practice because being from the Midwest you know how crummy those months are and if you're down there, and it's that nice, you think you have to take advantage of it. I think being in the Midwest is a good thing because it makes you put down your clubs for a month or two which is actually a big thing in college golf because the college season runs from the end of February all the way through November. Plus, in the summer months, everyone is playing in the national amateur events. You need to take some time off to re-charge your batteries. Going to a Midwest school is really a good way to do that. On top of that, we do make numerous trips in spring, back down south to go practice or to play a tournament, so that's kind of a nice advantage, too. When everyone else is at school freezing their butts off, you come back all tan and they're mad.

MT: So you actually did take a couple of months off in the winter where you didn't golf?

MVS: Yeah. Basically, when December came my golf clubs were put away for the most part unless I was going on a trip somewhere. January 1 every year my parents and I and one of my friends who plays for Villanova and his parents, we'd all go down to Tampa for about nine or 10 days and that was kind of our spring training to break the rust off, practice a bit, and play. From there, I'd be going back to Marquette and going to the indoor golf dome and our indoor putting green, which is pretty nice down in the Marquette old gym, just to see what I wanted to work on and to see where my swing was at coming out of the winter."

MT: What are some of your swing keys, and by that I mean if you simplify your thoughts for us right before you hit a golf ball, what are you thinking?

MVS: It always starts with the takeaway. A one-piece takeaway is kind of what my dad has told me from time to time and I find it helpful. I try to take the club back in one piece so my wrists don't breakdown. I try to rotate around my spine. I have a tendency to get a little bit more vertical, my right shoulder kind of starts going up higher which takes me out of my posture. So a one-piece takeaway and swinging around my spine angle - that's a pretty good start when I get to the top of my swing. And then swinging down, my first thought is just lead with my shoulders, and especially firing with my left shoulder, keeping on top of the ball. Then I let the club do the rest.

MT: It sounds like you're on a pretty good track as far as becoming a tour player, but if the golf thing doesn't work out, could you see yourself sort of following in your dad's footsteps and doing the media thing (Mike carried a 3.3 GPA majoring in broadcast and electronic communications)?

MVS: Yeah, that's kind of the backup plan - to do some sort of broadcasting. I'm very knowledgeable obviously in golf, also played a lot of basketball. Those are probably the two sports I'd love to get involved with in some aspect.

MT: So would you be more of a Johnny Miller or a Jim Nantz?

MVS: Oh, I would be Johnny Miller. I would just be relentless in my criticism of all their shots.

MT: You really would?

MVS: Oh sure, why not? It makes for good TV. The tour players don't like Johnny Miller because he calls them out when they hit bad shots and they don't want to hear that.