Q&A With Freshman Golfer Justin Wingerter

CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University freshman Justin Wingerter took time away from working on his game to speak with SIUSalukis.com. The native of Olathe, Kan., signed with the Salukis on November 11, 2019, and is hoping to turn a successful high school career into an impactful freshman year.

Generally speaking, how was the adjustment from high school to college?

For me, especially with how academics are online this year, it's a big adjustment for school and with golf. It's been great to adjust to college golf because everyone here wants to work as hard as I want to work and everyone wants to achieve the same goals as bad as I do. So, it's good to be surrounded by great teammates and coaches. Just all the opportunities that we have as student-athletes is just so much better for me.

What are you most excited about entering your freshman year at Southern Illinois?

I was really looking forward to the fall season, but now the spring. I'm just really excited to be working with my teammates, the coaches, the practices and the workouts. I will say that the workouts are pretty exciting for me as a skinny, lanky guy. It's going to be good to put on a few pounds and look a little bigger.

What made you decide that Southern Illinois was the right school for you?

When I visited, I really liked the campus. However, it was more important to me that I really liked Coach Justin Fetcho and Coach Eric Gilpen. Then I met a few of the guys and they all seemed like really good teammates. Through those three things mainly, I just knew it was a good fit for me.

What kind of things have you been working on to prepare yourself for the collegiate game?

We went to Victoria National last week as a team. It's a different style of golf when you get to that level. Victoria National is one of the top-50 hardest courses in the country and we played it as hard as we could. It just teaches you a lot about short game, ball placement and where you're aiming. It's just really helpful to the guys and I to be a able to learn from a course like that and figure out what we need to work on to be good at the best level possible.

What's one goal you have for your Saluki career?

For this year, I want to be the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year. This might seem a little ambitious, but by the end of my four years here I want to be an All-American. That's just my goal and that's what I want to do.

Has anyone acted as your mentor or inspiration?

I've had a couple mentors and they've all been super helpful. I've never had the "storybook mentor", where everything is just go to them and they'll help me. It's been a combination of a lot of stuff from a lot of people in my support group. Everyone helps a little bit. When you have that many people to help, it's little by little and it grows into a lot of help.

What's been your biggest accomplishment to date?

Winning the 2018 Kansas City Masters. I was the first person under the age of 25 to win it and I was 16. It was pretty impressive in my eyes.

How do you feel about the way the team has been practicing? What's stood out to you?

The team is competitive and Coach Fetcho is keeping it competitive. In practice, we all just want to win and we all want to win with our in-practice teams. We get split up into three-person groups and we compete throughout practice against one another. Off the course, we're all a team. We're just a group of guys who support one another in any way we can.

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