Written By: Jonathan Viene, Staff Writer
DEDICATION: For a golf pro and his students, “perfect practice makes perfect.”
It’s 5:00 a.m. It’s any ordinary weekday. The sun has yet to rise. The air is crisp and cold; the surroundings are quiet; and cars have not yet begun to fill in the usually-bustling eight lanes of Van Buren Avenue. Van Buren Golf Center will not be open for another hour and a half. But for Mike Hancock, his work coaching the juniors of the Poly High School golf team has just begun.
Mike Hancock, a former PGA tour golfer and local golf pro, has loved the game of golf from a young age. Growing up, he developed a passion for the game of golf, yet was left continually frustrated after repeatedly being turned away from golf courses as a child and a teenager. He envisioned a place for young golfers to practice with the coaching they needed and to expand opportunities for new people to pick up the sport. After buying out Van Buren Golf Range in 1979, he made that vision a reality; he started to give the gift of the game of golf to Riverside.
Samuel Bonzoumet (11) is a junior here at Poly High School and the captain of the golf team. He is one of five juniors on the boys’ golf team and is one of the most competitive golfers in Southern California. He has recently qualified for the invite-only Toyota Tour Cup, a youth golf tour with alumni widely represented on the PGA Tour. And he credits his coach, Mike, as having played a key role in his success.
He’s known Mike for over ten years, taking his first lesson at the age of six. Over these ten years, Mike worked closely with Sam to develop a consistent swing and, over time, foster a close relationship. For Sam, Van Buren Golf Center soon became his “home” after day and night practices, tournaments, many ups, and many downs. Over some time, his success drew others to Van Buren Golf Center, such as his cousin, Jack Wasserman (11), and his friends, Brady Gless (11), Michael Viene (11), Bella Sota (11), Ani Soto (11), and Jonathan Viene (11), all now Varsity golfers here at Poly. Mike has coached many champions in the past, and he identified this group as particularly exceptional. As he did with Sam, Mike put in extra hours coaching all of these students and became an integral part of their development. As they all became high school golfers, he began to shape the team we see today.
This success did not come easy. Anyone who’s ever picked up a club would know that golf is a very fickle sport; it is very hard to be consistent, and this is no exception for even the most practiced. The key to becoming a good golfer is fundamentals, which “have to be repeated,” according to Mike. And this repetition takes hours upon hours of dedication at the range, giving up mornings and weekends to work on your game. I had the chance to interview Mike and experience one of these many morning sessions to gain some insight into just how hard both he and the golfers work. After waking up early in the morning, they make the drive to Van Buren Golf Range before it opens to get some extra practice in before school starts. After enjoying a sausage and egg McMuffin for breakfast, Mike gets right to work analyzing their swings. While the cold and the sleep deprivation may be difficult at first, they have come to embrace “the grind” of it, according to Sam. It’s all “technique, technique,” which Mike unapologetically reinforces. But it’s this scrutiny and refusal to “put a bandaid on it” that makes for such effective coaching that has produced champion after champion and that these students appreciate.
But what really sets Coach Mike apart is something far beyond coaching: the bonds he forms with his students. For all the serious moments, Mike ensures to balance them out with a unique lightheartedness. From a student’s very first lesson, they adopt a “work hard, play hard” culture at the range. They get to know Mike’s “silly” personality, as Jack Wasserman describes it. Despite the inevitable, necessary, yet sometimes dull or frustrating nature of repeating shot after shot that comes with building a swing, Mike is sure to brighten the mood—“If you make it fun, you have a chance,” he reasons. When not closely attentive to all “fifty-two moving parts” of a student’s swing, you can hear him cracking jokes or affectionately using nicknames such as “Blocky,” for Michael’s proclivity for hitting the ball right, or “Goof,” for Sam’s also “silly” personality. Beyond his busy Van Buren mornings of lesson after lesson, he consistently makes a point of getting to know his students—especially the ones who dedicate themselves, like this group. You may catch him at Johnny’s Burgers after a lesson for lunch, or perhaps playing a game of basketball with Michael. This commitment and generosity with his time are one-of-a-kind and truly impactful—and a part of why he still keeps up with his very first generations of golfers he coached over forty years ago.
The impression on their golf game and their lives made by Mike for these juniors is very apparent. This season for Poly Golf, the boys are looking to get back to their recent high of a runner-up finish at the CIF Southern Section finals two years ago. And with Mike’s continued support, they are in a better position than ever to be competitive. Per Sam Bonzoumet, one thing is certain: “If we didn’t have [Mike], I don’t know what we’d be looking like now. We wouldn’t be the same, for sure.” We, along with Mike Hancock, will all be eagerly rooting them on as they continue their season and respective golf careers.