It’s only the second year for both coach Andrew Tank and assistant coach Patrick Datz running the ISU men’s golf team, but it feels like they’ve been here much longer.

“It helped a lot last year in my first year of making the transition to have [Datz] on the staff because we already had that relationship and that trust built up,” Tank said. “He was familiar with my vision and coaching philosophy, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time sharing that with him.”

Both coaches were a part of the University of Minnesota men’s golf program before coming to Iowa State. Tank coached for eight seasons with the Golden Golphers, and Datz played for five years at the university.

“Datz played at a number of events in Minnesota,” Tank said. “He was usually the fifth or sixth guy, and we always played five, so he was always on the bubble.”

Tank helped improve Datz’s game during his career at Minnesota.

“He really helped my game,” Datz said. “I learned how to practice, control emotions and think around a golf course.”

Playing the game wasn’t the only thing Datz focused on in college. As an undergrad, he picked up an internship with Tank.

“In his last few years, Datz expressed a lot of interest in coaching,” Tank said. “He would always have questions and wanted to learn the things that we were doing as coaches at the university.”

The University of Minnesota hosted a high school tournament annually, and Datz learned how to study players. At such a high level, he talked about how they all would look the same.

“When researching players, the coaches already knew who was good and who was not,” Datz said. “So they wanted to see what I came up with. It was sort of a mini test.”

Datz enjoyed some success at the professional level, but took the opportunity to help Tank at Iowa State with the men’s golf program.

“I still had the goal of playing professionally my last couple years at Minnesota,” Datz said. “It was not as good as I liked. I did not make much money, but my game did improve after college. The things I learned while I was up there could really help our guys now.”

The learning process between player and coach continues as they enter the second year here at Iowa State.

“He knew that coaching was what he wanted to do and has a bright future in that,” Tank said. “That has really paid off now because he has already thought about a lot of things from a coaches’ perspective, dating back to when he was still playing. Now he has one year of experience, but it’s like he has two or three years in reality.”