Jonathan Garrick wants to be the best player in college golf.
After leading UCLA with an average score of 71.2 last season, Garrick is currently the No. 16-ranked player in the nation by Golfweek. One of three seniors on the Bruins’ team, he’s impressed this fall, winning the Oct. 6 Erin Hills Intercollegiate with a score of 10-under-par.
“He’s a very good student of the game,” said coach Derek Freeman. “He has studied his own game and has tried to really address any type of weaknesses that he has.”
To improve, Garrick keeps a detailed report on each of his performances, typing out around five pages of notes after each tournament he plays.
“I always write down the stuff that I learned or stuff that I can get better at so I never try to make the same mistake twice,” Garrick said. “So I’m always learning from what I did freshman year and last month, last week and yesterday.”
He’s learned a lot throughout his years at UCLA, evolving from a struggling freshman to a leader of the No. 17 team in the country. Much of his improvement has been mental, Freeman said.
“When he was younger, he just made lot of poor decisions. … (He) didn’t hit the right golf shot at the right time,” Freeman said. “(But) he doesn’t make mistakes like he used to.”
Garrick has also taken great care to avoid injury. Teammate and roommate Jake Knapp said Garrick is in the training room almost every day.
“He gets more treatment than anybody,” Knapp teased. “He can be a real baby sometimes, but he always likes to make sure his body feels the same day in and day out.”
Family affair
Garrick picked up his love of golf from his grandfather. While Garrick’s parents were busy taking care of his two younger siblings, his grandfather would pick him and spend the day with him.
“Even when it was snowing, he would come and pick me up and take me to the indoor driving ranges in Chicago, just trying to get me hit as hard as I can,” Garrick said.
His grandfather passed away when he was 8, but the sport of golf stuck with Garrick. Although he played other sports when he was younger – and even skied competitively until he was 12 years old – Garrick knew he wanted to pursue golf.
“It was a pretty easy decision,” Garrick said. “I started playing in the tournaments when I was 9 and then I’ve always played ever since. … I still love it the same.”
Garrick’s father, George, always encouraged his son to play sports and is still the golfer’s number one fan.
“Usually, there’s always one of (my parents) at my golf tournaments, even if the tournament’s in Wisconsin or Georgia or Hawaii,” Garrick said.
Garrick, who lives in Atherton, Calif., is not the only member of his family to end up in Los Angeles because of athletics.
His sister Victoria is a freshman libero for No. 1 USC women’s volleyball, so when the Trojans came to Westwood for a match Sept. 23, Garrick was torn.
“She served the first point of the game, so when I heard her name ‘Victoria Garrick’ in Pauley Pavilion, it was just cool, obviously because it’s my sister and hearing my own last name,” Garrick said. “(I was) so happy for her to (see her) play well and beat her rival. (Although) I don’t want USC to win, I’m her number one fan.”
As fellow college athletes, the two siblings often share advice with each other.
“I talk to my sister a lot, because she always asks for advice,” Garrick said. “I also get inspiration from her because she’s on the number one team in the country and obviously I don’t want to be the second-best athlete in my own family.”
Eye on the prize
Golf was always Garrick’s first-choice sport because he said he enjoyed the individual aspect. He found that golf let him practice on his own as much as he wanted, regardless of other teammates’ schedules. In order to improve, he just needed to focus on himself and his own game.
“I love it so much that I never felt it would be an issue that I would slack off by myself,” Garrick said. “I always felt that I could hold myself accountable.”
And it did show, quite distinctly, throughout his high school years when he became the team captain and committed to UCLA in his sophomore year.
His success continued in college. As a freshman, he was named to the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team, tied for third at the Pac-12 Championship, and placed second at the NCAA West Regional.
Now, fresh off the Erin Hills victory, Garrick is one win closer to his season goal of winning three events and one step further in his plan to become the top player in the country.
“My goal is to be the best player in college,” Garrick said. “I don’t want to sit in an office after putting this much time into golf.”