Men's Golf Q&A: Derek Hitchner

Derek Hitchner is a senior member of the Pepperdine men's golf team and a national champion. He is heading into his final year competing and is ready to step into a role as a starter for the defending champions. Hitchner, who was recently named the Minnesota Golf Association's Player of the Year, talks about the challenges of his four years here and how he is looking forward to capping off his run with one more shot at glory:

Q: This is your senior year and final season here at Pepperdine. You've been able to play off and on throughout your four years here, however, this is your first year being a regular in the starting lineup for the team. How did it go in the fall season and what are you most excited for in the spring season?

A: It's been great playing more consistently in the lineup. Given how good the team has been the past three years, it's kind of been a frustrating experience just in the sense that I haven't played as much as I would have liked to, but given the success that we had last year I had to accept the fact that I probably could be playing on most other college teams, but I'm at Pepperdine. I had to try and embrace that adversity and learn as much as I could from it. I feel like it was pretty critical in developing me as a player being around such accomplished players. I'm grateful for those experiences but it is nice to be able to play much more consistently now. Given how good of a schedule we have, it is so valuable to be playing regularly and being able to travel whereas in the past I didn't really get the privilege to play against those schools. So now that I can get to do that it's pretty crucial preparation to be able to move on past college and play professionally.

Q: Is that your goal, to play professionally after your career here at Pepperdine?

A: It is, I've been pursuing it my whole life and I recognize it is a very difficult thing to accomplish but I love golf and I feel I have been working in that direction for my whole life and it's something that I want to give a try.

Q: What was the inspiration for you to begin your golf career?

A: It's a great question, because I've never really known how to answer that question. I know that my dad introduced it to me when I was pretty young so I've always been around golf. But I just got to a certain point where I was 8 or 9 and somehow I would spend the entirety of my day at the golf course and never get bored. It's hard to pinpoint what I love so much about it, but I think it's a combination of how relaxing it is to be outside and the feeling of executing on certain shots is really satisfying. I think it's such a hard game. So it's a constant project and it's kind of addicting to try to improve and get better each day. It's something that I've always loved doing and I've never really done much else.

Q: You had to embrace the adversity of competing on arguably the best team in the nation these past three years knowing that you could have played at almost any other college elsewhere. What has kept you focused and locked in on becoming a regular starting player for your final season here?

A: I think it's how passionate I am to improve and trying to demonstrate that on a national level. Every time that I missed the lineup, it added a certain degree of motivation to correct those failures and improve upon it I had to acknowledge failure so many times given that I was playing against such incredible players and inevitably missed a lot of lineups. So I think the accumulation of all of that is a motivating factor, but also the internal drive of wanting to be as best as I can and constantly work toward improving each and every area of my game. That's something I'll be doing my whole life because you can never master this game.

Q: You guys were national champions last year. Do you have any reflections, or lessons learned from last year's championships and the leaders of that team?

A: It was a little bittersweet for me because I didn't compete in the lineup. While that was frustrating, I was still part of the experience and felt like I was there the whole way. One of the biggest takeaways I had was the value of such a competitive environment that we had. That was largely fostered by everyone on the team who could play, but only half the guys could. So throughout the entire second half of that year we were competing weekly to see who would play, and I think that process made us so much better as the year wore on. Putting yourself in a competitive environment where you have to grow, and you have to improve, undoubtedly elevated everyone's game who was on the team.

Q: What are your hopes for this year's team for the spring season coming up?

A: Certainly to try to repeat what happened last time. Four of the five guys who played in the lineup last year are still on the team. The core of the national championship lineup is still here and I'm kind of the replacement for the one guy who graduated. We want to demonstrate that it wasn't just an outlier or a lucky win because we know that we can do it again.

Q: What will you be working to improve on in your game until the spring season?

A: Each area of my game could improve a little bit. I had a fairly consistent fall but each part of my game didn't quite feel good enough to contend in any of the tournaments. So, just overall making some small improvements in each area. I would also like to get stronger to hit the ball a bit further because it's such an advantage to be able to hit further off the tee and as a consequence have shorter clubs going into the greens, which you can control better. Just making gradual strides in that area will prove to be very beneficial to me.

Q: How has this program evolved in your four years here? What are the changes you've noticed and what do you specifically think you've helped contribute to the program?

A: I think first and foremost the teams just got significantly better and I think that's a combination of each guy getting better as their time here progresses but also just the quality of recruiting. The year below me we had two guys commit who are two of the best players in college. That's just a huge bonus to have that good of a recruiting class, but I think on top of that it's how competitive the team has been and how it's forced each guy to get better. I think that's the one commonality with everyone is they improve when they get here and throughout their time here they keep improving. I feel like that's been the case with me, as in the tournaments I've played in, I've benefited a lot from emerging from that culture of competitiveness and with how that's improved my game. I think that in turn has helped the program in competing as that culture has made me a lot better as a player.

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment of being a member of this team in your time here so far?

A: I would say even though I wasn't personally part of the lineup I would still say winning the national championship because it was a culmination of a long year where everyone competed and each guy made everyone better. Even though I wasn't in the lineup that week, I still feel I played a small role in getting them there. I think the same applies to each guy on the team. Just being part of that and feeling that I might have contributed a little bit is a pretty amazing thing to be a part of.

Q: What has been your favorite memory of Pepperdine outside the team?

A: I've had a pretty interesting experience. My freshman year everyone was sent home for two weeks for the fire in the fall and obviously with COVID everything was disrupted. There was a moment when I came back in the fall last year, even though everything was online because I had to play for the team, so I was lucky enough to go back to campus on occasion. There was one morning when I came back here and I was on campus. It was one of my first times back on campus where I was able to soak in the view again. It was pretty special after six months of being away due to COVID. That was a cool moment for me to be able to appreciate how special of a place it is after it was taken away from us for a bit of time.

Players Mentioned

Derek Hitchner

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