Glaser turns Gators into title contenders
GAINESVILLE — UF women’s coach Emily Bastel Glaser gave up her dream of professional golf long ago.
Yet as she segued into head coaching in 2012, the golfer in Glaser strengthened its grip.
Glaser, a 2000 Big Ten champion and former LPGA Tour pro, still wanted to hit every shot, make every decision, plan every move for her Gators.
“I think I fought a lot of battles I didn’t need to, and you find out what’s important,” she recalled. “I probably micromanaged my players a little bit too much.”
Over the years, Glaser has loosened the reins and developed a comfortable rhythm with her golfers that has allowed them grow and to thrive.
Star player Maria Torres has seen the change in her coach, herself and her teammates, including two fellow seniors who recently led the Gators to their first SEC championship since 2008.
“I came a year after she was here and seeing the improvement of the program is amazing,” Torres said. “You can see it in the results.
“It’s good we get to learn from our mistakes and we get to learn to practice, because we’re all looking for something bigger.”
One day, Torres, 22 and five-time winner at UF the past two seasons, and her teammates will pursue careers on the LPGA Tour.
For now, Torres and the Gators seek the program’s third national title, and first to since the school won backto-back titles in 1985-86.
“I tell everybody I was 5 and 6 years old when those were won,” Glaser jokes. “So it’s been awhile.”
The Gators are the No. 1 seed in next week’s Columbus (Ohio) Regional, where Florida State also will be among 18 teams vying for six spots in the NCAA Championships. In Athens, Ga., UCF will be among 18 teams competing in one of the other three regionals.
The Gators also enter NCAA competition seeking redemption.
Last spring, UF won five of six tournaments, including its regional, before finishing 17th of 24 teams at the NCAA Championships.
“It sort of gave us this false sense of security of how good we were,” Glaser said. “When the going got tough at the end of the year, I don’t think we quite had it in us.”
Winners of three of four tournaments, Glaser’s Gators are trending again, but are a deeper, more-determined group.
Five golfers compose a tournament lineup, but UF has six with scoring averages under 73 and a stable of talented freshmen. Torres, owner of a team-low 70.89 stroke average, is the only player who did not sit out at least one tournament this season.
“That has taken some management because you know in that situation there’s going to be some people with hurt feelings,” Glaser said. “It’s a good problem to have, but at the same time it’s required our attention.”
Glaser has learned a pat on the back some days can be just as helpful as a swing tip.
When she graduated from Michigan State, Emily Bastel had a five-year plan that would last six, split from 2004-09 between the LPGA and Futures tour.
Eventually, her priorities changed.
“I didn’t have it in me anymore,” she said. “I just didn’t want the grind anymore.” Living in Raleigh, N.C, where she met her future husband, Bastel pondered law school. Instead, she spent two seasons as an assistant to iconic Duke coach Dan Brooks, whose teams have won six national titles.
Glaser seeks her first next month. If the Gators succeed, it will be because the players — and their coach — learned from past mistakes.
“I think when I started I sort of thought, how hard it can be? It’s just golf,” Glaser said. “You think being a golf coach is all about coaching the sport of golf. It’s really not, it’s about managing people.
“It’s about relationships.”