Colorado University Athletics
Tolan Comes Full Circle
Junior Derek Tolan accomplished one of the toughest things to do in tournament golf, and because of it, he continues to play on and is perfecting his game for the NCAA Championship Finals which begin this week in
Tolan became the first Buff since Bobby Kalinowski in 1993 to qualify as an individual for the tournament, and will also become the first Buff to play in NCAA Championship Finals since the team qualified in 2002.
To qualify, he had to finish as one of the top two individuals not on one of the 10 schools that advanced as a team, and also beat out five others invited on the regional level without their teams. To sum up, he had to place in the top two out of 91 to advance; he was first, finishing seventh overall with a 5-over par 218 score on the tough Ohio State Scarlet course.
“Derek played great, and did so in tough conditions on a tough golf course,” CU head coach Roy Edwards said. “He went through rough patches like many players do, and he’s worked extremely hard to build himself back up. He’s a long way from the guy who missed the cut in the (
Derek Tolan has put his name in the history books at the
Tolan picked up the passion for the game at an early age from his father, who played collegiately at
“I started going to work with him, and he worked at a golf course, so I naturally picked it up. He taught me the fundamentals, and told me to pay attention to those, and just go play,” Tolan said. “I never got caught up on mechanics at a young age which allowed me to just go play the game.”
He kept playing and improving his game, and by the time Tolan had reached high school, he was widely considered one of the top junior prospects in the country. In 2002 at the age of 16, Tolan became one of the youngest golfers in United States Golf Association history to qualify for the U.S. Open after he hit 50-foot birdie chip in a playoff hole at the sectional qualifying.
Tolan went from playing in front of 40 people at the sectional qualifying, to about 40,000 fans at the Open.
“It was surreal. It felt like a movie,” recalled Tolan. “After I got off that first hole I didn’t feel a lot of nerves and I was able to play some good golf because I don’t think I was able to grasp the concept of what was going on.”
Though he missed the cut after shooting a 78 followed by an 88, Derek continued to play well after the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, and as a junior in high school he was the 5A State Champion posting a couple of 69’s and 6-stoke margin over the second place finisher.
During his senior year in high school, Tolan’s ranking rose to the 23rd best high school senior in the country, and later that year he decided that he wanted to commit to the
“At the time my dad was going through a lot of health problems, so I couldn’t find myself leaving,” said Tolan. “And CU is just about 45 minutes from my home which made it a lot simpler. I was born and raised in
Shortly after graduating from high school, Derek’s life was turned upside down. While returning home from the Western Junior Championships at the Denver Country Club on July 14, 2004, Tolan and friend and fellow CU golfer Michael Baird were driving down Interstate 25. Derek fell asleep behind the wheel and veered across multiple lanes of traffic and hit a pile of sand. Baird escaped the accident unharmed, but Tolan was not as fortunate. He broke his ankle and needed four screws to put it back in place. Needless to say, his golf career was in jeopardy.
Tolan was told by doctors that it would be 10 months before he could play golf again, and this gave him a lot of time to think and reflect about his life.
“In a way it was blessing in disguise because I was just able to sit back and reflect on it. I realized that golf is just a game, and if I am not having fun then it’s not worth doing,” said Tolan about his time away from golf.
As it turned out, he only needed four months to recover from the injury. When he started playing again, he jumped right back on the course playing 18 holes, and shooting a 66 in his third round back.
It was now 2005, and it would turn out to be a bittersweet year for Derek. He was named the 2005 Colorado Golf Association Amateur player of the year racking up a total of 628 points, and recording five top 10 finishes, a CU freshman school record. However, on December 5, 2005, his coach, long-time Colorado Buffalo Mark Simpson, passed away after a yearlong battle with lung cancer.
“He was what I looked for in a leader,” Tolan said of Simpson. “I made some promises to him, and even though he is not here today, those promises have been held. I have held myself accountable to follow through.”
With another year passing, and the inspiration from coach Simpson still fresh in his mind, Tolan became a lot more comfortable with college golf. He finished fourth on the team in overall stroke average with 75.36, and he ranked 32nd nationally in total short game with a 63.5 percentage rating.
“College golf is a lot different from regular golf. First off, you play 54 holes in about 30 hours, and that is brutal for my ankle,” Tolan said. “But it helped me separate different parts of my life, and help me handle other things on top of golf. I had a hard time doing that before college.”
So when Tolan became one of six individuals from across the nation to qualify for the NCAA Championship Finals, it came as no surprise to those who know him.
“I have been practicing a lot, Tolan said when asked if he felt prepared. “And this entire semester I have been aiming for the postseason, and everything has fallen into place. I feel like if I play well I can do some good things in this tournament.”
The NCAA Finals, hosted by Purdue, start on Wednesday, May 28, and run through Saturday. Tolan will tee off at 12:05 p.m. mountain time on No. 1 Wednesday, and then come back and play his second round Thursday at 6:55 a.m. MDT off No. 10. Depending on where he stands compared to the other five individuals in the 156-man field, he will tee off at either 6:55 a.m. or 12:05 p.m. for Friday’s third round, after which the field will be cut to the low 15 schools and six individuals not on those teams.
Legendary Buff and PGA and Champions Tour great Hale Irwin played in the 1967 NCAA’s as an individual. He left
“When Derek is on his game, I have no doubt that he could accomplish what Hale did,” Edwards said. “When you’re playing solo, there’s a little less pressure because it’s you against the course, you don’t have to worry about playing too conservative or covering for a teammate who might be struggling. I expect Derek to have fun and to play well. It’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com.