Over five consecutive days at the beginning of April, UA men’s golfer George Cunningham was in the zone.
He went from finishing third and qualifying for the Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada — to tying for first place at the Western Intercollegiate tournament.
He took the same mentality from his final round at Q-school, where he shot a 7-under 68 to move up eight spots on the leaderboard into his next event: Play good golf, don’t play to not make mistakes.
And it worked as he shot three more rounds in the 60s to finish at 10-under.
Not a bad week for any golfer, but it was especially sweet for Cunningham.
For the past few years, having even one of these results didn’t seem possible for him.
To really understand what this week means to Cunningham, one has to step back four years. He was the No. 2 recruit in the nation coming to Arizona.
There were high expectations for a guy who was friends and competed with the likes of PGA Tour golfers Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger and Jon Rahm, among others, on the junior golf circuit.
Cunningham was solid his first year as he was named to the All-Pac-12 freshman team and All-Pac-12 second team and finished in the top 10 six times.
Then, it all started to go sideways. Little things started going wrong and when he tried fixing them, he couldn’t. He never gave up, but no matter what he tried, how hard he worked, nothing changed.
Cunningham says that his sophomore and junior years were substandard. He went from posting an average of 71.6 strokes per round (tied for second in UA men’s golf history) to 75.33 in his sophomore year.
“It could have very easily been ‘Oh, you’re out of it,’ said Cunningham, whose Wildcats play in the Pac-12 Championships starting Monday at Rolling Hills Country Club in Los Angeles. “Nobody around me ever gave up. So I kept persevering and working really hard and it paid off. It took longer than I was hoping, but … it’s been really good.
“What helped me get through was that I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I want to do everything I possibly can to give myself the best opportunity to make it.
“I know if I stopped I would have regretted it later. If I didn’t make it I wanted it to be because I wasn’t good enough, not because I didn’t work hard enough.”
His game didn’t fall apart all at once. It started with his hitting. Next was his confidence. Then suddenly his whole game was off.
“It is very difficult to continue working hard when you aren’t seeing any results and feeling like you are getting worse,” said Cunningham.
“There were many times where I thought I was just going in circles. I got down on myself a few times, (thinking) maybe I should just enjoy my college experience and be done with it. But that only happened a little. It was really hard, but it makes you appreciate playing good even more.”
Besides appreciating the good days more, he’s become even stronger mentally.
“I learned a lot about how to create confidence from nowhere,” he said. “I was trying to create confidence when I shouldn’t have had any.
“That’s something I feel a lot of people have issues with. For the longest time it was hard for me and I kept getting better at it the longer I was playing bad.
“And for me, learning to separate golf and life. How I play on the course shouldn’t determine if I am happy or not. If I play a bad round of golf, I play a bad round of golf.”
Cunningham isn’t the only one on the squad who learned lessons through adversity. From watching his actions on and off the course, his teammates and coaches have picked up a few things.
“I tell him he’s been the easiest guy I’ve ever had to coach,” said UA men’s golf coach Jim Anderson, who describes Cunningham as a fierce competitor. “I really believe this: I’m going to be a far better coach for the next four, eight, 10, 12 years because I got the opportunity to coach someone like George.
“I’ve learned to listen to the players. I’ve learned to adapt. I’ve learned to change or be welcome to change. And there is no one way to do it. It’s what makes this game so great, and so frustrating.”
And as happens in golf, one day it all clicked. Cunningham kicked off his senior season winning the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate.
In January at the Arizona Intercollegiate he had the sort of round that is legendary — just like the one his buddy Spieth had on Sunday at the Masters when he shot a 9-under 64. Cunningham shot a 65, picking up second place and helping the Wildcats win a tournament they hadn’t since 2012.
“When you are playing like that you almost forget where you are and just continue playing,” said Cunningham. “It’s like you know the birdies will come.”
In June, Cunningham will pack up his clubs and head north to play in PGA Tour Canada, hoping to finish high enough in the winnings to earn an exemption into the Web.com Tour and then onto the PGA Tour with the guys he played with in juniors.
He is focused on the present and not what might have been. Although, he has watched PGA tournaments and wondered “what if.”
“People get better at different times,” said Cunningham. “And it took me a while to figure this out, which could have been some of the reason I struggled for two years. I felt like I was good enough to play professionally. But it’s like no, I need to continue playing and get a little better.
“Then I see them (playing on the PGA Tour) and figure maybe I should be out there. It caused doubts. Now I enjoy watching them play golf. I’m going to get there when I get there. I’m not in any hurry.”
