Marquette senior golfer Patrick Adler and head coach Steve Bailey were walking through the school’s Alumni Memorial Union with a recruit when Bailey commented on the acoustics in the building and asked Adler to belt out a song.
That also happened when Adler was a freshman at an alumni match in Florida. He had to get up and sing in front of the whole contigent, including prominent donors to the program.
“There’s been a lot of times where Coach Bailey has tried to embarrass me and get me out of my comfort zone,” Adler said.
During his four seasons with the Golden Eagles, Adler has learned to be comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s led to a breakthrough on the golf course, with two monumental individual victories in the last three-plus months that has Adler thinking about turning pro next fall.
He’s also not afraid to get on stage and rock out with a band that includes his two older brothers.
“He’s so fun to be around,” Bailey said. “He’s a rare breed of a person. I’m so proud of him. He’s got a lot to still accomplish this year. We don’t really talk about what’s next, just try to stay in the moment.”
Adler had breakthrough in Ireland at Lahinch Golf Club
Adler was deeply frustrated last spring. He felt like he was working harder than he ever had, but the results weren’t coming.
So he and MU teammate Ryan Banas – the golfers are close friends who grew up together in Winnetka, Illinois – started what they called “The Breakfast Club” at MU’s Athletic and Human Performance Resource Center.
“We kind of have similar attitudes. We want to work harder than anybody,” Adler said. “We’d use everything we could within our means in there.
“We’d hit on the simulator, get our yardages dialed in and do a lot of putting and chipping in there. For me, I felt a sense of accomplishment after I did it.”
A turning point came in the final round of the Big East tournament.
“I ended up getting subbed in for the final round of the Big East championship last year and shot under par,” Adler said. “Which was a good confidence booster and kind of started seeing the results then.”
In the summer, he reached the quarterfinals of the Chicago District Golf Association Amateur Championship and finished in the top 20 of the Wisconsin State Amateur.
Then came the big breakthroughs.
In late July, Adler won the prestigious South of Ireland Amateur Open at historic Lahinch Golf Club – a very personal place for him.
“Everything clicked, my whole game,” Adler said. “Long game, short game, putting, mid-irons.
“Everything was going that week. I think it was just a culmination of all the hard work I did last year and I continued to do. And I just started seeing the results, which was nice.”
Then in late September, Adler dominated one of the toughest fields in college golf at the Windon Memorial Classic, winning by five strokes at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois, another course Adler knows well. Bailey called it one of the best individual performances in MU history.
“One, it’s really hard to win in college golf,” Bailey said. “Then to do it by five shots in a field of that caliber, it’s super impressive. It’s not too often you see folks running away by five shots. Maybe it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s significant.”
Adler’s mother was born in Dublin
The victory at the South of Ireland meant so much to Adler, not just because his name is etched alongside past winners like Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell.
Adler’s mom is from Dublin. She moved to the United States in the 1980s, but most of her family still resides in Ireland so Adler would go there every year to visit. Adler’s father became an overseas member of Lahinch and recently Adler and his brothers joined, too.
Adler has played in the South of Ireland for the past three years.
“My dad had told me about the South since I first played Lahinch when I was like 13 years old,” Adler said. “That’s kind of when I started getting into golf a lot. So, it was always in the back of my head that I wanted to play in it.”
Adler had a large contingent of family to watch him win the 122nd edition of the tournament.
Bailey credits Adler’s ability to focus on the task at hand. Even when that’s singing on cue while fellow students traipse through the union.
“We’re always trying to make him uncomfortable,” Bailey said. “It’s life and golf, right? Let’s put them in situations where they have to get outside their comfort zone a little bit. Whether it’s talking to donors or getting in front of people to speak.
“There are the parallels to golf again. He’s on that stage and he has some 20-some family members in Ireland watching him play. There is that peripheral. OK, now how do I block it out and put my energy into what’s in front of me.”
The Adler Brothers band formed during COVID
The love of golf isn’t the only part of Adler’s Irish heritage.
Whenever his mom was nostalgic for the auld sod, she would put on some traditional Irish music. After the family went out to dinner in Ireland, they would seek out pubs with musicians playing “trad sessions.”
Adler had a nice, lilting tenor voice. He and his brothers picked up instruments quickly. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, the Adler family were stuck inside together.
“We all sat down and were, like, hey, we might as well start writing some of our own music,” Adler said. “My oldest brother does most of the writing. We kind of jam out some songs together. We decided to release some when I was a senior in high school.”
They called themselves, appropriately, The Adler Brothers.
Adler plays bass and sings. He’s also been the drummer on some studio sessions.
“It’s kind of a really fun hobby for us to kind of get outside of our regular lives,” Adler said. “Like for me, golf, and my two brothers are working so it’s a nice way to get out and clear your mind and play some music. We’ve been able to play some shows the last two summers.”
The brothers are well-versed in Irish music, but that is not their whole sound.
“It definitely has an influence on our music, but we mostly stick to folk-rock kind of stuff,” Adler said.
Pro golf could be the next move
The Adler Brothers have joked about writing a song that gains enough traction for them to hit the road on a tour.
But Adler might have another dream to chase. After winning those two tournaments, he’s thinking about chasing pro golf next fall.
“I’ve seen my game improve a lot and still think there’s a lot more that I can improve on,” he said. “You kind of stack yourself up against others.
“At Conway, it was a pretty good field. I know that a lot of those guys are going to be on the PGA Tour one day, so if I was able to go out and beat them by five shots then what’s stopping me from doing that when I graduate.”
But that’s off in the future. Bailey stresses to his players the importance of staying in the moment. He points out to Adler that success came only because of those uncomfortable moments when he kept working despite not getting results.
“We use the phrase ‘stacking bricks,’ ” Bailey said. “We talk about it all the time, it’s like at some point that foundation is going to be so strong that you’re going to succeed.
“It’s going to happen if you stick to it. Credit to him. He kept doing it and kept doing it. This success now is directly attributable to that work he did every day.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette’s Patrick Adler won South of Ireland and Winden Memorial
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