Success Takes Patience

Sometimes it takes a lot of patience for success. For Bryan Martin, becoming a golf star at San Diego State University took his entire college career, but it was well worth it.

Martin, 23, has been working on that swing for years. He began at Moorpark College, then transferred to Loyola Marymount and finally found the school that proved to be his hole-in-one, SDSU. He got there in his senior year.

He didn't reach success here without landing in some bunkers, though. Initially, Martin struggled with maintaining his consistency in his swings and had to reexamine some of his fundamentals over again. But the social science major didn't hesitate to work extra hard to stay on the No. 22-ranked SDSU.

"I just worked on my swing and my short game," he told The Daily Aztec. "Because you need to play really well in order to play on this team."

The hard work proved to pay off. SDSU finished second in the Mountain West Conference Championships, and earned a bid to the NCAA Regionals. Martin's performance helped the Aztecs to get there -- his 54-hold total of 209 was tied for third place out of all players in the tournament and the highest of all SDSU players. In program history, it was the second lowest individual mark for a conference championship.

What is his secret? When it comes to golf, a lot of focus is necessary in that one moment when the player estimates where/how hard he will hit the ball and where it will go. His coach said that its all about his confidence.

"He is a very confident player," head coach Ryan Donovan told the paper. "That was what stood out to me when recruiting him."