Brian Kortan & Co. returned from Florida with hardware in tow

Texas A&M men's golf took first place in the Sea Best Invitational at Atlantic Beach CC earlier this week, marking the Aggies' second win of the year. On Thursday, head coach Brian Kortan joined TexAgs Live to discuss the victory, Phichaksn Maichon's run of form and more.

Key notes from Brian Kortan interview

• Whenever you leave town and come back home with some hardware, it's a good way to start the spring for sure, with good performances.
   
• It's big in our sport to have a guy to count on to lead you out of the house. Phichaksn Maichon is our guy for that, and he knows it. If he's doing well, it makes the other guys relax a bit. It happened this week, I think, but it wasn't our best. We have some room to grow, but we had some fabulous stretches of golf. We got better this week because of this week.
   
• Maichon is mature and has an understanding of what it takes to be great. He's a really focused guy when he works on it. The better he has gotten at not being so hard on himself and allowing himself to make a mistake here or there, the more his production has come up. We have worked hard with him, and he's accepted coaching.
   
• Maichon spends a lot of time with coach Matt Fast and myself, and we spend a lot of time with him on the golf course. He's an elite ball striker, and he can do things with the golf ball that most people can't. He's great with our team. They are a lot of fun to be around. Our team dinners are really fun to be around. We have really good guys.
   
• Dome groups have more combativeness to them, but it's not a bad thing because we are a competitive sport. This group can compete really hard against each other and really care for each other, it is fun to be around. There were 12 of us in an Airbnb in Palm Springs. I cooked dinner one night. It's just fun to be around them. We're fortunate to have this group of guys around.
   
• Everybody has nerves. They come in different waves or forms. For us, the opportunity to be in those positions is the more galvanized you become to those. It's admitting that you have them and don't hide from them. Once you admit you have them, you can come up with strategies to get past them. You'll never eliminate them because everyone wants to be successful, and when you want to be successful, you're excited. It's what nerves become. In golf, you have to be able to calm yourself down. If we have every last round, it means we are doing something great.
   
• Jaime Montojo was awesome this week. He had a really great round the last day but got out of position on a hole and didn't handle it great. He really pulled the wagon the last day. He got to five- or six-under through 11 or 12 holes. He put us in a position to win that golf tournament.
   
• We’re going to Hawai’i, and it's a nice field. We've got some strong ones coming up, including a tournament where a bunch of guys go play that maybe are not as strong. Each week, this is a group where a different guy is in front of the bus. They are getting comfortable in their own skin and learning to play golf in their own way. The better they get at that, the more success we'll have. Because we are not the guys who you line up against and go, "Oh those are the prettiest golf swings we've ever seen." We're not that kind of group.
   
• They are gritty fighters, and believe me, they are talented and elite in their talent. We strategize to that, and they are good at what they do.
   
• There are specific weeks where you can see certain guys really driving it well. In general, it is fun to watch the attack on the golf course. We coach to that. We go to Hawai’i next, come back for about 10 days, go to Vegas for one of the best tournaments this spring, and then we will go get crawfish in Lafayette. Louisiana has a great tournament over there. That gets us to the middle or end of March, when we head to Florida again. The guys are looking forward to it.