As Jason Drotter saw it, he had no other choice but to literally call in the troops. Not that the drive west on Interstate 10 out of Palm Desert is ever brimming with scenic excitement. But even if there was more to see than windmills, dinosaurs or the Cabazon Outlet Mall, none of that would purge the images Drotter couldn’t shake from his rattled mind from the previous three days. Images of the Cal State Fullerton men’s golf team’s season imploding before his very eyes. Images of a year of careful preparation disintegrating in three days of sloppy golf. Unthinking golf, devoid of mental toughness. And there’s nothing guaranteed to incite Drotter’s fury quicker than watching his players lose strokes because of mental weakness. And the late February Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate on a very easy Classic Club course provided Drotter an endless reel of 3D golfing horrors that even National Geographic-quality desertscapes wouldn’t purge. The Titans finished 14th out of 15 teams in a tournament in which they finished second last year. Worse, they were 29-over-par —60 strokes behind first-place Charlotte — on one of the easiest courses they’ll see all season. While wasting Tegan Andrews’ 9-under-par, sixth-place finish. “What I didn’t see is the toughness on the golf course. The inability to recognize there’s trouble and step up and just rip it,” Drotter said. “Instead, I saw an inability to recognize there’s trouble, getting paranoid there is trouble and hitting it in the trouble. That’s a mental weakness that needs to be addressed. “It’s on me. It’s always on me. The success of the players is all them; the lack thereof is the coach’s responsibility. And I missed it. It smacked me in the face on the last trip. I saw some things that, quite frankly, I’ve seen in my career, but only from an individual here or there. Seeing it throughout most of the lineup is really difficult for me to accept and a big challenge for us moving forward.” Thus, Drotter wasted no time moving forward. He spent the return trip to Fullerton on his phone. First, there was the call to Brian Kane, the Titans’ sports psychologist, for emergency sessions. Then, there was Drotter ripping up his entire March practice schedule — partly to accommodate Kane’s mental sessions. And partly to accommodate Drotter’s next call. That went to “Captain Kurt,” Kurt Boehmke, the administrative support coordinator for the CSUF Department of Military Science. Drotter asked Boehmke to put together a “golf boot camp” for the next three weeks. “The bottom line is we’re starting over, and I’m going to do some stuff I haven’t done in 10 years — a “Navy Seal-style” ROTC boot camp,” Drotter said. “It’s going to be only six golf hours in the 20 hours I have (each week). We’re going to tear them down and build them up, and we’ll focus on the mechanics and the physical part of golf in April. I have to do a year’s worth of work in two months. “I’ve been really depressed for the last three or four days. I’m upset. I really didn’t see this coming.” Instead of 12-14 rounds of qualifying, nontournament golf, where players compete for spots in the five-man tournament lineup, the Titans are looking at 6 a.m. 10-mile runs three days a week, along with a three-hour obstacle course the other two days. When the Titans actually pick up golf clubs, practices will be geared exclusively toward pressure situations: short-game work from 120-yards in, dealing with 5-10-foot putts and other game elements that reveal a player’s mental character and course management skills. If this is a novelty to his players, Drotter’s attitude setting it up forces him into embracing a mindset that doesn’t fit into his mental Samsonite. The Titans have three tournaments in March, starting with this weekend’s Grand Canyon University Invitational, a tournament they won last year. Breaking down and building his team back up is so paramount to Drotter right now that he’s not paying attention to scores and finishes. Square that mindset from a coach who watched the Titans finish second as a team in the last three conference tournaments — by a combined six strokes. “I probably won’t be able to deal with that; I’ve never done that in my life. But that’s the plan,” he said. “My only concern is one thing only: toughness. Can you handle adversity? Do you have perseverance? If there’s a problem on a hole, can you step up and rip it without worrying about it? That’s it. That’s what I’m concerned about moving forward. Period.” Now, re-enter Kane. Remember when Drotter ripped up his March schedule? This came with not only a psychic and time cost but a financial one, because Drotter canceled his travel schedule to Phoenix for this week’s tournament and rebooked one to get the Titans a day with Kane before the tournament. A disciple of the late Ken Ravizza, the former CSUF professor who revolutionized sports psychology, the Arizona-based Kane will work with the Titans on accountability and practice plans. With Drotter’s concerns centering on everything from the Titans’ lack of mental toughness and course management to Big West Conference 2023 Champion Russell Howlett’s swing issues, the one thing he doesn’t have to worry about is Andrews. The defending conference champion became the second player in program history to be named Big West Golfer of the year, Andrews is rounding into form with two top-five finishes this season. As for Howlett, the news isn’t nearly as rosy. Expected to be CSUF’s No. 2 after his 71.8 scoring average, Drotter said the Big West Honorable Mention selection last year lost his swing over the summer and not only hasn’t gotten it back, but it’s gotten worse, leaving Howlett mechanically and mentally adrift. Drotter said he doesn’t expect Howlett back in the lineup in March, forcing him to use two players he had no intention of starting. Then, there’s Matthew Schafer, who now finds himself CSUF’s No. 2 player. A sterling ball-striker who has enough of Drotter’s mental toughness and who carried a 72.66 scoring average last year, Schafer’s considerable ceiling; Drotter called him “one of the best drivers of the ball I ever had. …” is capped by an average short game and below-average putter. This was illustrated in painful detail during one fall tournament where Schafer hit 17 of 18 greens, didn’t miss a fairway — and shot 71. Freshman Will Tanaka, who finished seventh at last month’s Orange County Collegiate Classic at Coto de Caza, and senior Patrick Ordonez, who won a tournament playing as an individual last year, are the wild cards. How they progress over the next month will go a long way in determining how well the Titans fare — and how many more impromptu phone calls and meatball surgeries on team dynamics await Drotter. “We have a massive hill to climb, but this is my job. I’m not going to give up on them, and I’m not going to give up on this year,” he said. “I will do everything in my power to climb that hill and get them ready. We’re going to work hard, right the ship and see what we can do.”