‘I feel like I already won’: NIC coach Russell Grove follows own path to PGA Championship

One of the best weeks of Russell Grove’s golf career has been followed by one of the busiest, leading into what promises to be one of the most memorable.

There’s been little downtime for North Idaho College’s golf coach after recently cementing a spot in this week’s PGA Championship.

He’s worked on his game, as much as his balky back allows. He flew to Rochester, New York, on Saturday. He found accommodations close to famed Oak Hill Country Club, thanks to former Washington State quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien.

“He called and said he knew a guy back there,” Grove said. “I’m about two minutes from the course.”

Grove handled hosting duties for a Northwest Athletic Conference tournament at Avondale Golf Club earlier this week. His undefeated women’s and men’s teams came through with one-shot victories.

Grove squeezed in a physical therapy session for his back, which has been acting up for the past six weeks. The Coeur d’Alene High and Idaho Vandals graduate lined up Titleist as a sponsor and will sport its logo on his bag and their clubs in the bag.

And Grove found a fill-in coach – retiring NIC trainer Randy Boswell – for the NWAC Championships May 21-22 at Apple Tree in Yakima, in case he makes the cut at the 105th PGA Championship, which begins Thursday. Boswell was the head coach when NIC started its golf teams roughly 17 years ago.

All that’s left is a crash course on stately Oak Hill, which is hosting its eight major, and savoring the experience. In some ways, that could be the easy part, though the nearly 7,400-yard layout with tight fairways, diabolical bunkers and sloping green complexes will be a handful for a field that features 99 of the top 100 in the world rankings.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Grove said. “It’s been a lot, honestly. It’ll be nice to get there and just focus on golf. I’m going to have fun. I feel like I already won.”

He didn’t win the PGA Professional Championship last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but he gained a ton of confidence with a closing 6-under-par 66 to secure one of 20 spots in the PGA Championship. Of the 20, Grove and 10 others will be making their PGA Championship debuts.

Grove has watched videos of Oak Hill and will play a practice round or two – one with Clarkston native Joel Dahmen – to figure out where to hit it, where not to hit it and the speed of the greens. If his back frowns on multiple practice rounds, Grove said he’ll mimic what he does when preparing NIC teams for tournaments and walk the course to assemble a game plan.

“I consider my strength mid-to-long irons,” Grove said. “I don’t mind narrow (fairways) or smaller targets. I feel like I’m pretty good out of the sand, too.”

Grove’s path to the PGA Championship likely doesn’t share many similarities to the other 154 players. He didn’t rack up dozens of tournament wins before he reached his teens. He took to the game later, tried out for Coeur d’Alene’s golf team and helped the Vikings win the 2004 5A State tournament. He was a team captain and three-time Western Athletic Conference scholar-athlete recipient as a Vandal.

He turned pro in 2009 and gradually emerged as a force in the PGA Pacific Northwest Section, winning consecutive player of the year awards from 2017-2019.

Grove, 37, said three years ago that he felt like he was still improving and still believed he could make the PGA Tour. His breakthrough last week, which came after falling just short on a couple of occasions at the PGA Professional Championship, supports his statement from 2020.

“As long as I can stay physically in shape,” Grove said. “Honestly, I’m the longest I’ve ever been. Golf is such a mental game, and you need those experiences to move on and move to the next level. When you look at the phenoms, they had some of those experiences when they were junior golfers. Experience-wise, I still have the best ahead of me.”

Grove credits information gleaned from books he’s read over the last year for assisting his mental approach.

“I read 14 books, I typed up all the notes and gave them to the players on the team,” said Grove, who wasn’t fond of reading when he was at UI. “There’s so much to learn about the mental and physical side of golf, but the mental is probably one I hadn’t worked on enough. Now I realize I need to.

“I definitely noticed it in the final round (in Albuquerque), not having any judgment on any shot or putt, staying in the moment, just kind of playing fearlessly.”

He hopes to replicate that mindset at one of golf’s four majors.

“Obviously, my goal is to make the cut,” Grove said, “but in a way I don’t have expectations. I already accomplished my goal to get in, so whatever happens is icing on the cake.“