 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the highly respected head coach of our University of Hawaii women's golf team. He is Coach Steven Bidney, and today we are going Beyond Golf. Hey, Coach Steve, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hello, hi, Rusty. Thanks so much for having me on. You know, we are so lucky to have someone like you, you know, coaching the women's golf team here in Hawaii. I mean, you're a man of great character and can you tell me a bit about your background before coming to Hawaii? Yeah, well, I grew up a long ways from here, Minnesota, so not really the place if you're a golfer, you want to be forever, but grew up there and ended up playing collegiate golf at Northern Colorado. So kind of went down the chart and got a little warmer going there and had a great career there and had a lot of fun and had enough success where I wanted to continue to try my luck at and making the PJ Tour and that's, you know, a lot of golfers' dreams and was fortunate to have a lot of success right away. Winning four times, I made the PJ Tour, I made it onto the PJ Tour Canada, so the Canadian Tour and had some success there, played for a couple of years and then throughout my playing career there, at one point the University of Northern Colorado came knocking and said that there was an opportunity to come back to my alma mater and coach, and I think they caught me at the right time and wanted to get back to Colorado and kind of get into a passion of mine which was teaching. I've always had that passion of teaching players and golfers, whether new golfers or experienced golfers or whether teammates, and so I thought it was a really cool opportunity to kind of get back to my alma mater and get back and plant some roots there in Colorado. And so I ended up calling my pro career and doing that and absolutely loved it. I took a team that was 220th in the country, finishing dead last in almost every Division I event, and by the time we left, we were inside the top 80 for my last two years, and so we had a lot of success. And then this job at Hawaii opened up and spoke with David Matlin, and things just, stars aligned and made my way out here. I always loved Hawaii, came out here in college to play a couple of times and it's been awesome to be here. My family and I have absolutely loved just the culture here and everything that Hawaii brings and so far, we've been doing some really cool things with our program here on and off the golf course and I can't believe it's already been five years. So coach Steve, how did you first get interested in golf? Tell me that. Yeah, it's funny, nobody in my family golfs. We're a big hockey family. It was my next door neighbor is actually who, kids my age and they're members at a local country club and wanted me to tag along every now and then, which I did and didn't really, I thought it was fun, but still absolutely love soccer and hockey growing up. But it wasn't until I got to middle school that I kind of really got into it and qualified for junior varsity, but it was awful to say the least at golf. I was shooting probably in the 90s or the hundreds, but then I got in touch with my swing coach, John Means, who's former University of Minnesota head coach. He's in the college golf coaches hall of fame and he took me into his academy in between his collegiate coaching stints and he really transformed my game. And if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be where I am and anyone would be in the golf scene. He took me again, like, which in 90s or hundreds, within two years, my sophomore year winning conference and averaging even par. So I'm very thankful for him and yeah, it's kind of a weird story, you know, Minnesota boy with nobody around him really playing golf. Here I am today. That's, you know, that's who I am. Yeah. Well, I've been to Minnesota and I can, I know why you love Hawaii so much. And coach Steve, what is it about golf that you love so much? Yeah, I mean, there's so many things. I mean, you can just see it with the pandemic going on that you're able to be outside and within one's nature. And it's just, I mean, some of the most beautiful places in the world are in golf courses. I mean, whether it's public beach or even here in Hawaii, there's some of the best courses that overlook the oceans and it's just so scenic, but you're able to be out there and it's a true testament and game between you and the golf course. It's nobody else and it's every day is a challenge. You can have the best round of your life the day before and then you come out today and it's the worst round of your life. So you can never beat this game and I think it's that challenge of always trying to get better, 1% better and how can you continue to improve in areas that really excites me. And it's something that I really like about being a coach. There's always something to work on, whether it's your top player on the team or someone who's struggling a little bit, there's always an area to improve. And I think that's what's really exciting for me. No, and I love golf too. I mean, it's so much fun. Coach Steve, why did you become a coach? Yeah, I think, you know, as I mentioned before, I mean, teaching and kind of being a mentor type has always been someone or a leader has always kind of been in my bloodline or in my, just how I've done things. Ever since I was in soccer or in hockey, I was always the captain in hockey and lights being that leader in that leadership position. And as I got into the golf, you know, I still like that. I love coaching, I love giving back. And so for me, when that opportunity at Northern Colorado came, you know, I knew it was gonna be the perfect fit because I love golf so much and I love helping people and I like seeing people improve. And that's what really gives me excitement and kind of why I wanted to pursue coaching. Yeah, no, I love hearing that. And Coach Steve, who is a leader or a coach that you admire and why? Yeah, I mean, I've been fortunate to have crossed paths with many good golf instructors and coaches. You know, I think leaders, you know, outside of golf, I'd probably have to say my parents. I mean, they've been such an instrumental in shaping my life. And when it comes to golf, I mean, John Means who I already talked about, you know, put me in the position line today, but probably who I look and more of my coaching philosophy here at Hawaii is based on my first college golf coach who is the late Wally Goodwin, who just passed away recently this summer. And he was, he recruited me and was actually the same college golf coach for Tiger Woods. So he coached Tiger at Stanford and got out of coaching and then came to Northern Colorado and then recruiting coached me. And so he really was instrumental in kind of showing me, you know, what it takes to be such a great coach. He was so easy going late back, so positive and supportive and really connected with everybody on the team at a ground level. And you knew he, you really wanted the best for you. And so he's shared a lot of great insights with me. And even when I came here to Hawaii, he was so excited and kept telling me, hey, make sure you don't overcoach those girls because that was a big thing. You know, don't overcoach them. So it was so cool and just so thankful that I was able to have him, you know, be a part of my golf journey and, you know, how he's touched so many players including, you know, Tiger Woods. Well, Coach Steve, I've been following your Hawaii women's golf team. And I mean, you guys are doing good and how is it looking for this year? Yeah, I mean, knock on wood. We just wrapped up the best semester U.A. she's ever had. We're on track to have one of the best programs ever. And we've already won twice this year, which has never been done in a single semester. And so we're coming off a great fall season. And we're a very young team. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores in the lineup. And it's been really exciting. You know, it's in a lot of teams are noticing that we're going to tournaments and everyone's like, wow, look at this Hawaii team. And so we're doing such a great job and we're climbing up the NCAA ranks. Our goal as we talked about in the fall was to get inside the top 65 so that we can get in at large birth regionals. And we're right around there right now. So it's pretty cool to see everybody really excited about this program and just see the transformation that we've done, you know, from when I've gotten here to even between last year and now, the team has done such a great job. And, you know, I'm really excited as we move forward into the spring season and in the conference to hopefully be the first ever UH team to take on that big West Conference championship. Oh, that's so exciting. And Coach Steve, you've created such a great culture of excellence with your team and how would you describe your leadership style? Yeah, great question. You know, for me, I'd probably have to say I'm more of a laid back coach who's again, just like Wally Goodwin who mentored me, really trying to connect with my players and just be the best supporter and encourager that I can. You know, my biggest thing here is to build a big positive team culture that's built on supporting everybody and working hard and knowing that, you know, no matter what win or lose, you know, we're gonna still hold our heads high and keep moving forward. And because golf is such a tough sport, you know, it's probably similar to tennis. It's very mental game-based, especially when you get it on an elite level, you know, everybody's their worst critic. And you know, for golf, you can beat yourself up mentally and so we really try and just build that positive growth mindset in everybody. And for me, you know, I just try and support them and love them as best I can. And see even on good days or bad days, how can we continue to get better? And I think they see that and I think everybody, even recruits, see our culture and teams that we're playing against always like, wow, it's so cool. You know, what you guys are doing, just the energy. And so I really try and build that positive energy. Every summer when players come in, I have them read the energy bus. I'm gonna have to have them send them to your books now, but it's all about, you know, building that growth mindset and just coming in with that positive energy. And because when you're in a positive frame of mind and you're having fun, you're gonna play well. And so I try and do that as best I can, you know, whether on sunny days or rainy days, you know, how can we have that class half full type of mentality and knowing that we're working hard towards excellence. Well, I love that, Coach Steve. And you know, you're definitely making a huge positive impact for sure. And what would you say are some specific reasons why you're having success with your team? Yeah, I mean, I think the lifeblood in any programming in college athletics is recruiting. That's a huge piece. I think that's been a huge piece of our success this year. We've had a huge recruiting class, the biggest recruiting class that I've ever had of five players coming in. A roster is nine and five of our players are new to this program. And so I think that's been a huge piece since we've been able to, a lot of kids internationally in Hawaii or in the mainland have seen our program and the culture and everything that we're doing here and they're buying into it. And they want to be a part of the program. And so I think that's been a huge piece to the positive of this is just building that culture and getting recruits to want to come to Hawaii and they're wanting to. So, I think that's been a big piece. And they're the ones that hit the shots, but as I tell them, as we, I'm here to support them as best we can and to be a resource. So, Coach Steve, as a coach, what are some of your top priorities in terms of building your team? That's a good question. I mean, for us, I mean, the top priorities is just academics, academics and being really disciplined and doing well in that area. And that's something I look at even in the recruiting stage because it shows one's discipline and work ethic and how it translates most likely into golf and just throughout their whole life. And so, I really look at one's discipline in that area and the work ethic on and off the golf course. And for us, that's what we talk about as a program all the time. How can we get 1% better each and every day and not just going through the motions of practice each and every week. And so that towards the end of the semester or towards the end of the year, we're better than where we were a week ago or a month ago or last year. And I think they're seeing that and they're buying into that. And it's just keeping everybody accountable and making sure that we're charting our progress. We do individual meetings every other week and we chart progress academically to golf wise to everything. And so I think the players really like that and they take a ownership of each category. And I think it's been a great, or been a big role in our success. So Coach Steve, in terms of getting your team to buy in to your philosophy, I mean, how do you get your team to really buy in to your coaching philosophy? For me, I think you gotta, I'm all about positive energy and building that support culture. And I think it's showing them and walking the walk with them and showing them each day in and day out that this is what our culture is and this is what we're gonna do. And even on bad rounds with our last term and we might have not wrapped up is exactly how we wanted. It's showing them, hey, we're gonna continue to get better and not me being coming from a hierarchy role and screaming and yelling at them. It's more of supporting them and showing them steps on how we can continue to get better. And I think that when they see that day in and day out of that mentality and that culture, I think they get into it and they buy into it and it's continuing to showcase on that goal at the end, which is winning conference and they're getting the post-season, being that first team to win the Big West Conference Championship at UH. And I think especially, I mean, this group, they're so excited every year or every week. What do we rank now? What do we rank now, Coach? And so they're so invested in trying to get that ranking higher and higher. And that's what's super exciting for me to see as a coach. So, yeah. And Coach Steve, golf is similar to tennis in that it's an individual sport. And for me as a coach, I wanted to have everyone feel like they're special on a team. And that's what you're doing as well. And can you talk about how a lot of these players might have just been playing on their own and then now they're on a team in college? How is that for them being in such an individual sport? Yeah, I think tennis and golf have so many similarities in that regards. I mean, in golf, it's an individual sport. It pretty much is unless they're playing in college. For the most part, it's very individualized. And so for them, when they get here, I think a lot of them yearn for it and they're so excited to be a part of the team. And for me, it's trying to know that everybody's gonna have a different personality and a different way of doing things. And so it's trying to have a different coaching style, almost individualized for each person. And so I think that's where having those individual meetings and communicating them with practice each and every day is so imperative and because what I might do for one player is gonna be different for the next player and next for the next one. And so having different communication styles and practice plans is so imperative for everybody instead of just being a cookie cutter type practice plan or communication style. And I think that's been something that I've seen, pay some big dividends and in something I'm gonna continue to do from here on, moving out. So coach Steve, what's a big adversity that you dealt with as a coach in your life so far? Yeah, I think looking back, I've been a head coach now for nine years, believe it or not. I'm probably still one of the younger coaches out there, but I feel like I've been around for a while. So I think probably one of the harder things for me was trying to get the respect of everybody when I was a 25 year old coach, barely old enough to rent a car. And here I am trying to coach and direct student athletes who I'm only a few years older than. And so I think that was really challenging at the beginning. I never like majority of coaches never had the assisting coach experience. So I was kind of diving into or trying to pull from my experiences in college athlete and what I liked and didn't like of other coaches. And so for me, that was really tricky. It was being a super young head coach, but I learned from mistakes and I learned from things that we did well. And I think every year I'm always telling the players, hey, what can we do to continue to get better? Every year I'm trying to get better, just like they are, I'm trying to get better. So even two years ago, I'm probably a different coach than I was then. And compared to nine years ago when I first started, I was probably a lot different in the way we do things, but I think it's helped shape the person and the coach I am today. And even though it's probably challenging at times when I was a young coach, I think that made me a stronger head coach. And just like anything, even if you're young or experienced, when you have results, I think that's when people start realizing, hey, we're doing something cool here. And I think we did that at Northern Colorado and so appreciative of all the student athletes there. And they bought into that process and that growth mindset and were able to do some cool things there during my tenure there. Well, that's why you're a great coach because you keep improving yourself and you keep looking at ways to improve your teams. And Coach Steve, you have my books and I want to ask you, what are some of the principles that stood out to you in the books? Yeah, yeah, I have both of the books and they're so great. And I love how they're such an easy read. I think I read that on the line some in like a day and a half. And so to the point and straightforward and I love, you know, we're very similar minded just on our growth mindset and really connecting with the individuals. I mean, especially on a sport like golf and tennis, you know, you have to have that relationship with that player to earn that trust and to build their confidence because it's such a mental sport. It's not that we can scream out and get them to run faster. You know, for golf, we have to calm them down and probably tennis is a very similar thing. So, you know, I loved it and everything that you talked about and especially diving into the community styles there and striving to excellence and being supportive and positive but also coming up with a game plan of how can we get better? So it's not always rainbows and flowers but it's being supportive but showing a chart to continue to, you know, get that 1% better each and every day and I think that's something that I took from it and, you know, let's continue to do here so that, you know, six months from now, you know, I'm a better coach and our players are better from that and hopefully we're raising that big West Conference Championship trophy. Yeah, I know, I hope so too. I mean, you guys are definitely working hard and you're right. It's all about building relationships and really supporting, you know, your team as best as you can Coach Steve, in terms of performance goals performance goals directly influence results. What are some specific performance goals that you focus on with your team? Yeah, for us, again, I love, you know, working with the mindset and so I'm not very big on calculating statistics for fairways in regulation or how many greens you hit per round or how many putts you hit per round because a lot of it is based on uncontrollables. You could hit a perfect shot and it hits a rock in the middle of the fairway and it goes in the rock or you hit a perfect shot and the gust of wind that wasn't there blows it and now you're in the bunker and so they could do everything perfect but then there's an uncontrollable that might happen and so for us, we really talk about on one's commitment on one's mental mindset, commitment in going into one shot. So we do a mental scorecard and they have to rate it one through five on five being that they're perfectly they had a great mindset going into the shot they execute it they don't have any bad negative thoughts in their mind or they trusted it so we call it a commitment scorecard and so I think that's one thing probably the biggest thing that we look at and then, you know, there's others as well that we, you know, we call them, you know unforced errors, I feel to where, you know did you have any penalty shots off the tee or some of those things where simple kind of we're trying to get the low hanging fruit how can we get better without really changing our game just with some simple things and a lot of it, you know when it comes to golf is the mindset and course management the angles and the shots you select at certain times so a lot of times that's what I'm trying to do it's trying to be a resource for them and, you know, again, golf is such a sport that it can get so technical and if you're so worried about certain statistics and in ones what you're trying to do in your swing or your body, you know, it can get really hard you can start playing golf swing instead of golf that the end of the day it's a sport and you gotta go out there and have fun and if you're standing in your way and overthinking you know, it's so hard to play good golf and I think every golfer out there from Tiger Woods to myself to our team we've all been there and it's really easy to get wrapped up in the technicalities but from a coaching side, you know having those performance-based goals like you're saying some of them are so important because it keeps us on track to making sure that we're not just going through the motions and that we're gonna continue to get better and reach our ultimate goal which for us is to win conference and go to postseason. You're so right about mindset and because, you know, the brain controls the body as you know and do you guys do any visualization or imagery? Yeah, I mean for golf, that's huge for golf, visualization is so vital to the game trying to visualize, you know what the shot's gonna do or getting or you have to take so many elements into play what the ground, you know what the slope of the ground is what's the wind, what's the temperature? It's so many, what's the lie of the golf ball? So a lot of that is trying to take all those elements and then visualizing the shot that's gonna give us the best result and sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's trial and error and for golf, you're gonna hit a bad shot more times than you're gonna hit a good shot it's just, it's a hard sport and so it's trying to get them to know that if they can build that imagery and visualize and they go through that commitment and they're fully committed into that shot the odds are they're gonna put a free golf swing on it and not be so tense and the odds are when you do that you're gonna hit a great shot and you know, again, the odds are you probably aren't gonna hit a great shot compared to a great shot but if we can get our misses a little tighter that's what makes it good golf and so I think that's what's been big reason for our success this fall and why we are on record and one of the best seasons yet. Oh, that makes sense and Coach Steve, what's an important lesson you learned in life so far? It's a good, it's a good question I mean I can kind of go for all angles here but I think when it comes to coaching you know, I always go back to my first phone call with Wallace Goodwin who's my college coach I told him, hey, I'm gonna be a head coach here I'm 25 years old, what do I do? And you know, I go back to what I already said he said, hey, you train the players at practice and you let them go in competition so he said every coach wants to over coach and work on technique and just do everything when it's game time you gotta do that in practice and you gotta let the players play their game and as a young coach looking back I mean, I was running from hole two to hole three to hole five to hole, I was trying to help them on every shot and then I remember, oh yeah, Wally just said hey, take a step back and so that's what I've been trying to do here I try and have been a resource of hey, I'm here when you need help if I see a player or if there's a certain hole that's maybe a little more difficult I try and go in there just to help give them confidence and for me and try not to over complicate the game because golf is so complicated as it is and so I just wanna be there to be a resource and be a guide in the need, reassurance and encouragement and for me, as simple as it sounds that is probably the biggest feedback that I try and I catch myself going back to that I'm over, I'm being too technical with these players and again, there's a time and place for that and that's at practice but when we're in the heat of the battle and we're on the course, we gotta keep it simple and it's more of course management and just staying mentally tough and usually that gives you good results. I agree with you, I mean, keeping things simple I mean, that's so critical to do and Coach Steve, what's some of the challenges that you face that you deal with with your team here in Hawaii? Yeah, I think golf is a unique sport. We, every player that comes in just nowadays has a swing coach so a lot of them have coaches already and that they've been working just like my swing coach, John Means he was mine for his golf coach so I listened to everything he said and so that's always tricky and I'm sure it's very similar in other sports but nowadays when kids are coming to college for golf they have swing coaches, they have a mental coach they have a short game coach, they have a nutritionist you have all these coaches and it's starting to get them to organize in combined with our coaching philosophy and so sometimes that's the tricky part and most of the time throughout the recruiting process and just explain how we do things here and I tell them, hey, I wanna communicate with their coaches or through you and what you're doing as best you can so that we can utilize your resources, other coaches to make you the best player as possible but sometimes it's a little tricky and because they might be saying one thing or hearing one thing from their coach and so that's where that just comes down to the communication from myself is talking to the player and seeing so that we can see what they're working on with their coach or setting videos and what the coach is saying so that we're heading in one direction and that we're not trying to go opposite directions and so it's been good so far and that's kind of the unique thing that I'm seeing now through the recruiting stages is that they have so many different coaches and here in Hawaii we've been very fortunate to get a lot of great recruits coming in and a couple local players and a lot of great international players as well and so I think a lot of players are realizing, hey, I wanna play somewhere where I can play golf 365 days a year and Hawaii is the perfect place for that so I think we have some of the best golf in the world and I think a lot of the players are realizing that. Well, coach Steve, I love hearing your insights and that's why you're a great coach and you guys are having some incredible success with your team and I really wanted to thank you for taking time to join me on the show today. Thank you so much, Musty, I appreciate your support for our program and UH athletics and everything you're doing. Thanks, coach Steve and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that coach Steve and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.