In an effort to build up one of the freshman on his squad, St. John’s head coach Phil Wildermuth dropped to Frank Wu earlier in the season a phrase he thought might be a throwaway line – albeit an earnest one.
When Wu has struggled this season, St. John’s has not performed well as a team. So, Wildermuth told the first-year that that makes him the spark plug – a great position to be in as a freshman. Wu accepted that and it clearly resonated because he reminded his coach of the phrase after posting a bogey-free, second-round 66 to lead the team at the Golfweek/Stifl Spring Challenge.
“He brought up to me, ‘I’m the spark plug, Coach,’” Wildermuth said. “I was surprised he remembered that conversation. It was really cool.”
Wu’s spark is about more than scoring, Wildermuth said.
“When he’s playing well, he’s got this extra, extra energy about him in his walk, in his talk, in his attitude,” Wildermuth said. “It really filters throughout the team.”
In Wednesday’s final round of the Golfweek/Stifel event, Wu led the Red Storm from the No. 5 spot. His 7-under total included closing rounds of 66 and 67. With Wu dropping birdies at True Blue Golf Club in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, St. John’s won the tournament by five shots with its 23-under total, the team’s lowest 54-hole score in three years.
Scores: Golfweek/Stifel Spring Challenge
St. John’s finished five shots ahead of Connecticut in second place with Jacksonville State in third place another three shots back. Jacksonville State’s Ryley Heath won the individual title at 13 under, edging his teammate Ben Shedd by two shots.
At one point early in the final round at True Blue, seven teams were within nine shots of the lead. St. John’s had earned its spot in that horserace with a round of 13 under on Day 2.
While at a southern-style buffet joint for dinner after that performance, Wildermuth was a little surprised the meal passed without a single mention of golf – the day, the round, the team’s position.
“I just kind of let the golf talk pass, we didn’t talk golf last night,” he said. “So this morning, I kind of talked about taking it one hole at a time, just like what we’ve been talking about all year.”
Wildermuth is a fan of David Goggins, the author and motivational speaker, so he framed his pregame speech on Wednesday morning around Goggins’ popular refrain of, “Who’s going to carry the boats?” It’s a phrase from Goggins’ Navy SEAL training that references shared perseverance in tough times.
“My theory was let’s burn the boats so there’s no retreat,” Wildermuth said. “We have to go in and keep fighting.”
Wildermuth doesn’t have an assistant this season, and the sheer logistics of that doesn’t allow for a lot of facetime with his players on the course during a round. He has spent the season stressing individual responsibility for that reason. St. John’s went into True Blue – a risk-reward course – with a careful eye on the closing stretch of Nos. 16-18. That was where the Red Storm turned it around on opening day and Wildermuth believes that set the stage for lights-out second-round scoring.
During the final round, Wildermuth never let himself think his team had it in the bag. He began to feel comfortable, however, when his No. 3 player, David Mlynek, hit a deft chip from the pine needles left of No. 16 to within a few feet of the hole.
“When he did that, I felt like we had a cushion,” Wildermuth said. “At that point we just had to play smart from that point on.”
St. John’s started its season with top-3 finishes in its first three events, including a win at the Bucknell Invitational. The team gave away a lead a month ago at the Sacred Heart Spring Invite, however, with some big numbers in the final stretch. Wildermuth called it a lesson learned.
When the Red Storm closed this one out at True Blue, the whole team got to don a green cap with the Masters logo. That represented the ultimate prize: The winner of the Golfweek/Stifel Spring Collegiate earns an exemption into the 2026 Augusta/Haskins Award Invitational, played annually in Augusta, Georgia, in the days before the Masters. A spot in that field also comes with a team tickets to a Masters practice round.
Wildermuth didn’t talk up that carrot too much, but he found that his players had already researched the tournament and the field on their own.
“They were so pumped,” Wildermuth said of that aspect of the Golfweek/Stifel victory. “They were so pumped.”
Wildermuth will graduate four players off his nine-player roster this spring. That includes Peicheng Chen, his No. 1 player and the reigning Big East individual champion, and Brandon Sperling. Both were in the St. John’s lineup at True Blue. Having the Augusta/Haskins Award Invitational already on next year’s schedule could be an immediate recruiting tool.
“We’re going to add one more player to our roster,” Wildermuth said, “and I think having that in our back pocket is going to entice some quality players.”
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