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Men's golf coach O.D. Vincent advises junior Steve Conway at the NCAA Championship Tournament thi

If you ask the ever-humble O.D. Vincent, there’s no magic about what he’s done for UCLA men’s golf since he was named head coach last June.

He’s quick to deflect the resurgence of the program to one of the strongest junior classes in the country – John Merrick, Roy Moon, Travis Johnson and Steve Conway.

It just so happens that he’s the best head coach in college golf, and the winner of the Daily Bruin’s Coach of the Year award.

“I told these guys, the day that I’m not in my opinion the best golf coach in the United States, then I’ll step aside and let someone else be the golf coach here,” Vincent said, “because that’s what they deserve.”

His first tournament as head coach, the Pacific Invitational back in September, turned into the first tournament win for a UCLA men’s golf team since 1998.

They entered that tournament unranked, ended the week ranked No. 4 in the country, and didn’t look back, finishing a solid third at the NCAA finals in Stillwater, Okla., May 30.

In between, the Bruins won five more tournaments – including the Pac-10 and NCAA West Regional championships – with Conway winning two individual titles and Merrick one.

Not bad considering no one on the team had ever won an individual or team title at UCLA before.

“When we won our first tournament at Pacific ... that got us started for the whole year,” Vincent said. “The guys got used to winning, and they liked it.”

Vincent encountered his share of sand traps in his first year at UCLA, – none more prominent than freshman Spencer Levin’s month-long suspension, which preceded his leaving the team permanently in May.

Not getting through to Levin was, as Vincent called it, “an unsuccessful chapter in my coaching career.”

But Vincent stayed on the green for most of the year, and in the end, 2002-03 will likely be remembered as one of the best in the history of the program.

Keeping UCLA at the top will, in Vincent’s opinion, be even harder than getting them there was this year. All of the team’s top five – the four juniors and sophomore John Poucher – will be back next year and are early favorites to improve upon their third-place finish at Stillwater.

“On paper, everyone gets excited about that, because they think this should be the big year for them to shine,” Vincent said, “but if you talk to most coaches in most sports, they’ll say the senior year is the most difficult year, because you have a lot of things on your mind about what you’re going to do after school.

“Those four seniors have a tremendous challenge to overcome as well as I do as a coach to set up the right framework for them.”

In one year, the 34-year-old Vincent has built the framework to bring a championship to Westwood. Now he’s talking about his summer plans: finding the successors to next year’s senior class on the recruiting trail.

After this year’s powerful shot off the tee, UCLA is closer than ever to sinking a national championship putt. With a realistic chance at that NCAA title, Vincent has a lot more to offer high school players than he did when he stepped in.