Long before he became a four-time All-American and Arizona Golf's current assistant coach,
Chris Nallen was just a kid with a little bit of a confidence issue.
A heralded recruit out of Blair Academy in New Jersey, Nallen arrived at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2000. Like most, he was ready to win right away. Patience is rarely the strength of a teenager and there certainly was no exception here.
So after a fall season that netted good – but not great – results, Nallen started to get down on himself. His expectations were to win every time he played and he wasn't doing that. As a result, he became a bit distant and was mostly keeping to himself.
His head coach at the time,
Rick LaRose, noticed. So before a practice round at Tucson National, LaRose asked his freshman to take a seat next to him before the team was set to take off for a tournament at Stanford the following day.
What followed could be classified as a career-changing conversation.
"We had a 10 to 15 minute talk, and he never once raised his voice," Nallen recalled. "He said, 'you have another three and a half years of this. Stop being so hard on yourself. Stop being so distant. Stop worrying about the things you're worrying about. There's a reason you're here. You can't have any doubt.'"
LaRose also told him that he wanted him to play a practice round that day with a fella that he thought could help Nallen's mindset. His name? Mike Furyk, the father of former Wildcat and current PGA Tour stalwart, Jim Furyk.
Nallen and Mike Furyk played 18 holes that day and Nallen could feel his mind easing and resetting. An east coaster himself, Furyk talked to Nallen about relaxing on the course and not being so hard on himself.
"He just put it in a way that eased my thinking at the time," Nallen said. "You don't have to be perfect all the time."
This is the part where you can guess what happened next.
Nallen went to Stanford and notched the first collegiate win of his career. The then freshman shot -7 for the tournament and helped the Wildcats win the tournament as a team with a total score of 873.
Nallen went on to win five more times in his Arizona career. He was also either a first or second-team All-Pac-10 selection in all four of his seasons and was a third-team All-American in 2001, an honorable mention All-American in 2002 and a first-team All-American in 2003 and 2004, becoming a four-time All-American.
No one will ever know how Nallen's career would have turned out without his chats with LaRose and Furyk, but there's no denying it changed the ballgame for the future phenom.
Here's what else it did. It showed Nallen the value of quality coaching. The biggest draw for him to the University of Arizona out of high school was LaRose. He was hopeful the accomplished coach could take Nallen's game to the next level and prepare him to play professionally.
Nallen, of course, did that. He played in more than 190 professional tournaments, winning on the then Nationwide Tour in 2004 and playing in a pair of U.S. Opens. But in 2011, Nallen suffered back and hip injuries that resulted in multiple surgeries, including a spinal fusion that Tiger Woods eventually underwent.
With his playing future in doubt, Nallen's former athletic trainer at Arizona,
Justin Kokoskie (who still serves in the same role) reached out to both Nallen and Arizona head coach
Jim Anderson about the potential idea of Nallen becoming an assistant coach.
The idea of putting on the Block A again in a different role was more than appealing to Nallen, who bought a home in Tucson at the completion of his collegiate career. He joined forces with Anderson, who became the Wildcats head coach one season prior.
He suddenly found himself on the side LaRose had always been for him, giving back to his university. Nallen has been by Anderson's side now for seven seasons as the Wildcats have morphed back into the national power they were when Nallen was a player.
"There's a lot of pride when you have that A on," Nallen said. "It's something definitely special. It is a huge part of who I am and I'm very proud to be wearing the red, white and blue."
