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THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, July 27, 2014

| July 27, 2014 9:00 PM

Like lots of boys who picked up a golf club at a young age, Dan Potter had visions of playing golf and being watched on TV by millions at this point in his life.

If only it were that simple ...

A Coeur d'Alene native, Potter had a stellar golf career at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane and at the University of Washington, then took a stab at trying to make it to the PGA Tour.

Injuries and the realities of playing golf at that level eventually derailed that dream, and he spent a few years out of the golf business.

But the game has a way of pulling you back into it. Two years ago, he returned to his college alma mater as an assistant coach, and earlier this month, was named head men's golf coach at Boise State.

"It sounds like a cliche, but you do feel fortunate to do something that you really are passionate about," said Potter, 32. "Coaching can be long days, especially when you're traveling. I probably put in 100 days on the road last year (as an assistant at Washington). It can wear you out a little bit, but to be honest, I hardly ever find myself doing something that feels like work. I really enjoy what I do. College athletics is a unique environment, and I'm lucky to be a part of it."

REWIND TO 2004.

Potter was coming off his third NCAA tournament appearance in four years at the University of Washington. Prior to that, he was a four-time Washington state placer while at Gonzaga Prep, and he played in the 2000 U.S. Amateur.

He turned pro shortly after graduating from the U-Dub in '04. He played in tournaments and on mini-tours, mostly on the West Coast. He made it to the first stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School in 2006.

"I didn't have a remarkable professional career," Potter said.

"I made enough to keep doing it for a while, but that's a tough way to make a living unless you get on the PGA or Nationwide tour," Potter added. "I played a lot of rounds of golf with a lot of guys you see on TV. I could appreciate that I could hang with those guys on certain days, but also appreciate just how good they are."

One example, he said, came in one of his first events as a pro, playing with Jason Gore at a mini-tour event at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

"The second round, I played awesome," Potter recalled. "I shot 65, made seven birdies and no bogeys, and he ... the guy hit it farther than me, hit it straighter than me, he putted better than me, and he just made it look easy. He ended up beating me in the tournament. I finished in second place, and I thought to myself, 'how is this guy not on the Tour?' And sure enough, later in the year, he's playing in the final group of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. And he won like three times on the Web.com Tour that year, so he WAS that good. But he was still playing in a minor league mini-tour event earlier in the year, which goes to show you that it can be a fickle game."

In college, Potter developed a condition that caused inflammation in his chest area, and it continued into his pro career.

"The bump right above your sternum is your manubrium, and it's usually a fused joint - the two of them are fused together," Potter said. "And mine, for whatever reason, wasn't fused, so with the rotation and the golf motion, they would grind on each other, and that area would get really inflamed and would cause my muscles around my rib cage and even my back and shoulder blades to seize up, just to try to protect that area."

"It was kind of a random thing," he added. "I never say that's the reason I stopped playing, because I was maybe burned out on it at the time anyway, but it was certainly frustrating trying to do that for your living, and have stretches where you couldn't even compete."

POTTER GOT into the financial business in 2006, working for six years for Griffin Capital Securities in northern California. He worked his way up to regional vice president of sales, "but I got to the point where I could see what it was going to be," he said. "I could see the future and I just wasn't that passionate at the end of the day about the financial products I was touting every day."

Meanwhile, his coach for his last three seasons at Washington, Matt Thurmond, had been asking him if he was interested in returning to the Huskies as an assistant coach. Potter said Thurmond probably mentioned it three times, and the third time apparently was the charm - Potter decided it was time to make a career change.

"I had an unbelievable college golf experience," Potter recalled. "I had great teammates, we were competitive, our teams played in national championships, and a lot of my teammates I'm still close with. It was just a real positive experience for me, so it was always something I looked back on fondly, but at the time, when I got done with school, I was more concentrated on playing."

The Husky golf program he left was different from the one he returned to eight years later. With Potter as an assistant, Washington posted consecutive top-16 finishes at the NCAAs in 2013 and '14.

"We had good teams, but we were always underdogs, and people were wondering how we were doing what we were doing at Washington," Potter recalled from his college days. "And by the time I returned, it was viewed as one of the top 10 programs in the country. So going back to a program that was well-established, to be able to go back to my alma mater, and coach a team that was really good, and be around a program that I was passionate about, and was just really good."

POTTER'S FIRST official day as Boise State men's golf coach was July 9, and he's been busy recruiting and getting settled in in Boise since then.

What he remembered from his coaches at Washington was how much they cared for their players.

Since many college players already have their own swing coaches, Potter said a college coach can help best in other areas - such as course strategy and a player's mindset while competing.

"If anything I learned that as a coach you can look it as, the players are there to make you look good, or you're there to make the players look good. I'm a firm believer in the latter.

"I had an amazing college golf experience, and that's what I want for my guys."

Potter said with the good climate and community supporting all things Boise State, Bronco men's golf can be a program on the rise. Two current PGA Tour pros, Graham DeLaet and Troy Merritt, are examples of what the Boise State golf program can produce. Potter said one goal is to make Boise State competitive with the top teams in the Mountain West Conference, and challenge to get into the NCAA regional tournament.

"It's really hard to make nationals, having been there as a player and as an assistant coach, I can appreciate how hard it is to get there," Potter said. "But you get the right five guys and anything is possible."

And if he does manage to get Boise State men's golf to that level?

"I don't know if they'll let me build a blue turf golf course," Potter said with a laugh, "but you never know."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.