Each hole on a golf course is measured in yards, but to Glenn Paulus, the retiring coach of the conference champion Maryville men’s golf team, the most crucial span in the game is measured in much smaller increments.
Each hole on a golf course is measured in yards, but to Glenn Paulus, the retiring coach of the conference champion Maryville men’s golf team, the most crucial span in the game is measured in much smaller increments.
Once you’ve developed the skills,” Paulus said, “this game is played on the smallest field you’re on — the six inches between your ears.”
Whether you’re judging by physical skills or mental toughness, Paulus’ teams fared well during the 12 seasons he served as head coach of the Saints’ men’s and women’s squads. Three straight trips to the Division II tournament, the 2019 men’s championship in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and selection as men’s golf conference coach of the year are just part of a stellar record leading up to a well-earned retirement.
Paulus, who will remain with the golf programs as an assistant coach, looks back on a fulfilling coaching career and looks forward to spending more time on the links, where he played on professional senior tours before becoming a coach, first at Saint Louis University, then at Maryville. He also spent 25 years in the commercial finance business.
All of that experience, Paulus said, has helped him develop the way he approached his coaching duties. He wants to make sure that golfers who are gifted physically have the mental approach that can help them succeed.
“By the time they get to college,” he said, “they have their swing and they know the basics. We don’t necessarily change their swing, but we find things that we can refine and help them become more competitive.
“You can see when a kid starts wobbling mentally. That’s a chance to get them back into what they’re doing. They’re pretty much on their own out there. It’s like a cross country runner — once they’re off the starting line, they’re on their own.”
Scott Thomas, who succeeds Paulus as head golf coach, points to Paulus’ technical expertise and thoughtful approach to the game as hallmarks of his successful career. “It’s a combination of recognizing a player’s strength, helping them to build a solid golf course attack plan for each and every tournament and putting together a strategy to play that course,” Thomas said.
“Golfers have so much time to think between shots. It’s important to remind players to stay in the present. He has the ability to teach the game and to help players continue to improve and believe in themselves in competitive situations,” he said.
And, Thomas adds, both in recruiting golfers and coaching them once they arrive on campus, Paulus has always made sure his players can succeed in the classroom as well as on the course. “Academics come first,” Thomas said. “That’s well understood.”
One of Paulus’ most successful players, Nick Profancik, was a conference player of the year in 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as earning academic All-American honors. He said that Paulus helped him most by teaching the right way to approach the game, rather than simply lowering his score.
“Golf is a very simple game,” Profancik said. “You can have it one day and not have it the next. He can pull you aside, put his arm around your shoulder and ask, ‘What are you thinking about?’ You have to figure out how to grind it out and put up a better score. It’s all about getting the right mindset. Golf in a way is all about confidence. If you can have somebody reinforce that in you by pulling you aside, that can mean everything. That can change your whole day, change your whole round, change your whole life. That’s a huge part of it,” he said.
Looking back, Profancik sees how Paulus helped him in ways that didn’t always appear to be directly related to the sport at hand.
“Oh, my gosh,” he said. “It’s twofold: lessons as a man and lessons as a golfer. Both stick with me. I like to think that relationships I’ve built since then have been by and large attributable to how I treat people, and a lot of that is what coach Paulus taught me. I think everybody knows that there are some people in your life who make an impact more than others. He’s one of those people. You’ll hear the same thing time and time again, about the impact he has on people.”
Paulus has appreciated his time helping to mold players like Profancik. Now, he said, it’s time to leave a coach’s heavy travel schedule behind, spend more time with his family and return to the links as a player.
“I really miss competitive golf and playing in a competitive environment,” Paulus said. “So that’s on the horizon for next year. Lately, my game has been very suspect. Ten years of rust has grown on it, so I just have to get to work to get my game back to the point where I can compete again.”