Robert Saleh had no thought on the time that he wanted an escape.
He was a 29-year-old and dwelling his dream as an NFL assistant coach, a newlywed to his spouse, Sanaa, and feeling like he had life by the scruff of the neck.
Saleh had no thought what golf would possibly in the future carry him.
Then, a sequence of kismet moments — starting with the urging of Sanaa — introduced Saleh to the sport and he’s by no means seemed again, a person hooked on it as so many people are.
The one disgrace for Saleh, 43, is that he’s too busy for the time being — main the Jets as their second-year head coach and persevering with to construct a life for his six kids — that he doesn’t have practically sufficient time to play as typically as he’d like.
NFL head coaches have a really small window of unencumbered free time in between the season, the draft, free company, OTAs, minicamps and coaching camp.
The present interval is that one window, between the ultimate minicamp and coaching camp (which begins in a few weeks), and Saleh, on a muggy summer season day final week, took the time to play 18 holes with me at Suburban Golf Membership in Union, N.J.
Certain, we talked soccer, talked in regards to the thrilling offseason acquisitions the workforce made, the unknowns about which of these gamers might emerge as stars, and in regards to the linchpin that second-year quarterback Zach Wilson and third-year left sort out Mekhi Becton are to the Jets’ success.
However we largely talked golf. What introduced him to the sport. Private milestones. Coolest programs he’s performed. Greatest thrills. How he grew to become such a golf junkie that he grew to become a course rater for Golf Digest.
Jets followers, you already know from what you’ve seen of Saleh how passionate he's as a coach and about turning your workforce right into a winner.
Saleh can be enthusiastic about golf. There have been a number of occasions throughout our spherical when he picked the mind of Suburban head professional Mark McCormick in regards to the golf swing.
“Everybody wants a vice,’’ Saleh mentioned. “It’s a chance to both get away from every thing, being out on the course by your self, or be with individuals you take pleasure in being round. I’ve additionally used it as a chance to bond with the youngsters. I’ll seize the youngsters out of college and take certainly one of them daily to go play 9 holes. It's sort of a getaway, it’s a pastime, an enjoyment, simply one thing I love to do.’’
Golf is Saleh’s escape.
Being a head coach within the NFL is demanding. Being the pinnacle coach of the Jets, who haven’t been to the playoffs since 2010 and whose final Tremendous Bowl look was in 1969, is much more demanding.
That’s the place these late-afternoon nine-hole periods along with his children turn out to be useful to sooth the soul.
Saleh didn’t play as a child rising up exterior of Detroit. He took the sport up when his spouse noticed so a lot of his teaching friends taking part in of their free time and nudged him to affix them.
Saleh recalled Sanaa as soon as asking him what the opposite coaches have been doing throughout their free time and Saleh mentioned, “They’re most likely taking part in golf.’’
“Nicely, why don’t you're taking up golf?’’ she requested him.
“And the subsequent week, the final follow of OTAs, we had a bowling outing with [Texans head coach Gary] Kubiak and I occurred to roll the very best rating among the many coaches,’’ Saleh recalled. “Due to that, I gained a $300 reward card to a golf retailer. My spouse had been encouraging me to play as a option to community with the opposite coaches and colleagues, so I took that as sort of my signal to get into golf. That’s how I obtained began in golf. I blame my spouse.’’
Saleh smiled at that final line, as a result of what he actually was doing was thanking his spouse.
Saleh used that $300 reward card to purchase a set of Cleveland golf equipment. Then he invested in some classes.
“The very first lesson I ever obtained I used to be getting annoyed — I simply couldn’t hit the ball straight — and the professional stops me and says, ‘Hey Rob, I’m going to offer you your first piece of recommendation on golf: You’re by no means going to be ok to be mad, so simply benefit from the recreation,’ ’’ Saleh recalled. “So, from that day ahead it’s simply been about popping out and having fun with the sport. It’s a getaway, so if I’m spending time getting annoyed then I’m not having fun with the sport. That’s the angle I’ve taken with it.
“The second I hit one flush, it was over for me, I had the bug.’’
Saleh, who’s handicap is hovering round 10 for the time being, has had it as little as 6.
“I keep in mind the primary time I broke 90 — it was once we have been let go in Houston as a defensive employees [in 2010],’’ Saleh recalled. “It was the day after we obtained fired and I had nothing to do and I used to be like, ‘I’m simply going to go play on my own.’
“I don’t keep in mind after I broke 80 for the primary time, however I do keep in mind after I broke 70. I shot a 69.’’
It was in the course of the COVID shutdown and he was teaching in San Francisco. He took his oldest son, Adam, to play one afternoon at Almaden Golf and Nation Membership in San Jose.
“I used to be simply going to play 9 holes, however I shot a 34 on the entrance 9 — I used to be on fireplace — and I used to be like, ‘You recognize what? I’ve obtained to maintain this going,’ ’’ Saleh mentioned. “We made the flip and I saved taking part in properly and I shot 69. It was the very best spherical I ever performed. It was fairly superior.’’
How a lot of a golf nerd has Saleh turn out to be?
When he was teaching in Houston, Saleh met a person at Arcadia Bluffs Golf Membership in Michigan who was score programs for Golf Digest, and Saleh instantly wished in.
“I used to be on the point of play and one other gentleman is coming off the course and he’s obtained all these bag tags from very good programs on his bag,’’ Saleh recalled. “We struck up a dialog and he informed me he was a part of the golf course score course of. I informed him I used to be and gave him my card.”
The person helped him get into the method and now Saleh has been part of score a number of the finest programs within the nation.
“I grew to become so obsessive about golf and the course score, it truly helped me within the recreation with the stuff you wouldn’t in any other case know as an off-the-cuff golfer — the issues they educate you to search for just like the structure of the golf course, the conditioning, the position of bunkers, the shot values,’’ he mentioned.
Saleh has purchased a bag for every of his children. In his new dwelling in New Jersey, he has a golf room, the place he homes his golf memorabilia, a USA-Canada Bubble Hockey Desk and a popcorn machine for film nights with the youngsters.
Additionally in there's a rack the place he retains a brand ball from each new course he performs. As quickly as we have been completed with our spherical, his first order of enterprise was to purchase a Suburban logoed ball from the professional store for his assortment.
“My objective is to get to 1,000 programs,’’ Saleh mentioned. “I’m within the 400s someplace now.’’
So, what’s subsequent in golf for a man who’s already performed Pine Valley, Cypress Level, Shinnecock Hills, Nationwide and numerous different most top-rated programs on this planet and broke 70 whereas taking part in along with his oldest son?
“I simply take pleasure in taking part in,’’ Saleh mentioned. “I actually don’t have a objective.’’
Pause.
“Clearly, Augusta could be good,’’ he went on. “However I really feel like we’ve obtained to win round right here first to have the ability to try this. Simply being in New York and having the privilege to work together with followers and season-ticket holders … this place goes to go nuts once we flip it. It’s going to be cool.’’
So will his first journey round Amen Nook at Augusta Nationwide.
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