Senior Patrick Adler tees up on the par-3 177-yard 11th hole in the third round at the Windon Memorial Classic, holding the individual lead and admittedly nervous for his final 18 holes of the weekend at Conway Farms.
“I had no idea where I was individually, and I had no idea where the team was,” Adler said.
But Adler wasn’t alone.
“Right after my range session, Coach [Steve Bailey] came up to me, asked me if I wanted Jordan to walk with me, and I immediately said yes,” Adler said.
Jordan Niebrugge — who was hired by the team in June to be the new assistant coach, walked all 18 holes alongside Adler — loosening the nerves for the eventual individual champion of the tournament.
“The entire day we were laughing a ton and throwing in some chirps at each other to loosen the mood up a little bit,” Adler said.
Niebrugge, a Mequon, Wisconsin native and Homestead High School standout, was a four-time PING All-American at Oklahoma State and carries an extensive playing resume.
He is a two-time Walker Cup competitor, a Ryder Cup style tournament featuring the best amateur players from America and its competitor, the Great Britain and Ireland team.
He also won the silver medal at the 2015 Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrew’s, finished tied for 35th at the 2017 U.S. Open and competed in the 2014 Masters and the 2016 Open.
Bailey said he hopes the team will be like a sponge, soaking up his stories and experiences.
“One thing I really stress to Jordan is to be transparent,” head coach Steve Bailey said. “I tell our guys every day they should be in his office picking his brain every day about what he’s learned.”
Niebrugge was Bailey’s first official player visit when he became Marquette’s head coach in 2010. Even though Niebrugge went a different route, the two still kept in touch through the years.
“When I came in 2010, they didn’t have this practice facility at all, so it was a bit of a blur,” Niebrugge said. “I moved back home from Florida two years ago and he has invited me out to the practice facility and stuff like that. He’s always been so generous.”
When former assistant Jace Long left for LSU this summer, Bailey didn’t have to search far and wide for the Whitefish Bay resident.
“He’s in our own backyard,” Bailey said. “It’d be silly not to give him a call and just see if he’s interested, and I think it caught him by surprise. I don’t think he had ever thought of college coaching.”
While coaching may have been unfamiliar territory for Niebrugge, Marquette and Bailey weren’t.
“It was like a second recruiting trip to Marquette,” Bailey said. “I was trying to tell him all the things we had done to elevate our program, and it had quite a bit of a transformation since he came around the last time.”
Niebrugge is recovering from surgery, which has kept him away from playing professionally, but Bailey hopes this helps him get back into the swing of things.
“Our hope is that Jordan gets healthy and gets back in a position where he can go play again,” Bailey said. “He’s so talented and we hope he gets to go do what he’s really good at.”
This story was written by Trevor Hilson. He can be reached at trevor.hilson@marquette.edu or @hilsontrevor on Twitter/X.