Rickie Fowler. Rory McIlroy. Brock Ochsenreiter.
At this point, comparing the IU freshman to two PGA greats may seem unwarranted. However, all three of these players have a common attribute. They stand at a modest height of 5-foot-9.
Ochsenreiter also is the lone freshman on the IU men’s golf team. He is also the shortest, the biggest hitter and the No. 3 man. He is the present and future of Hoosier golf.
He is a two-time defending Division II-AA state champion at Ensworth High School in Nashville, Tennessee. In October 2015, he won his second state title with rounds of 66 and 73 on his way to being named first team All-Tennessee Mid-State for the second consecutive year. Ochsenreiter was also ranked the No. 4 golfer in the state of Tennessee by Golfweek magazine last year.
Ochsenreiter made a name for himself as a junior standout in Florida and Tennessee, but before the accolades and the trophies, golf was simple fun.
He began swinging about the time he began standing. Ochsenreiter’s father, Don, worked for Burton Golf Bags. Brock’s older brother, Brett, began playing competitive golf when Brock was still a toddler. Both Don and Brett coaxed Brock into golf.
When Brock was old enough, the three began hitting the links together.
“We would play games and just have fun with it,” Brock said. “We’d always have bets going on. We were out there to have a good time. We were close.”
By the time he could subtract the dollar-a-hole losses from his piggy bank, he was playing junior tours around his home state of Florida. By the time he could do long division, he was competing in tournaments around the South alongside his brother. He played between 15 and 20 tournaments a year throughout high school. During the summers, he said he played roughly three tournaments a month and sometimes played a tournament a week.
Brock quickly developed into a phenom during this time, and, before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, after his freshman year, Brock played as the No. 1 golfer at his high school in Florida. He was named All-Area Northwest Florida as a freshman and posted a 2-1 match play record in the Panhandle Cup.
He also helped guide the Northwest Florida Junior team to state titles in 2012 and 2013 and was the youngest player selected to the Florida Junior Cup in 2013.
Later in 2013, the Ochsenreiter family headed north. In terms of Brock’s game, however, nothing changed.
IU Coach Mike Mayer said he knew of Brock even before he moved to Tennessee, yet IU did not pursue Brock until late into his sophomore year. In fact, when IU assistant coach Brian McCants first saw Brock play in person, he was scouting other players at the tournament.
“Traditionally, a person from Nashville might be reluctant to come north to play collegiate golf,” Mayer said. “Sometimes you have to fight the battles you can win.”
After seeing him play, however, Mayer said he was sold.
“I knew the background,” he said. “I knew the club head speed. He’s not afraid to hit the golf ball as hard as he can. You have to play with passion, belief and confidence, and he has that. He has a top gear that’s as good as anybody in the game.”
Similarly to his PGA counterparts, what Brock lacks in stature, he makes up for in swagger.
“I don’t think there was any doubt in his mind that he was going to come and play right away,” Mayer said. “I won’t call him cocky, but he’s extremely confident.”
The Hoosiers lacked such poise throughout the past two seasons. They struggled to get a top-five team finish in tournaments two seasons ago. They struggled to finish in the top 10 in the Big Ten Championship last season, and Ochsenreiter may provide the weight necessary to flip the see-saw of success to the other side. It’s a long shot considering the Hoosiers’ bottom-tier Big Ten finishes the past two seasons, but Brock Ochsenreiter said he doesn’t mind long shots.
“When I was younger, all I wanted to do was see how far I could hit it,” he said. “I just swung as hard as I could. I’ve always had that mentality.”
