Technically I’m a far better player now
RICHIE Coughlan last played on the PGA Tour 14 years ago. But even though his career was cut short by a freak rib injury, quickly followed by a car crash when at home in his native Co Offaly, he remains as enamoured of the game as ever.
Irish Boys champion in 1991, when he beat the amazing Raymie Burns in the final, he lost to Pádraig Harrington in the Irish Close final at Lahinch in 1995 and was edged out by Keith Nolan for the Irish Amateur Open at Fota Island in 1997.
Despite all that, Coughlan was a star for Clemson University in North Carolina for five years from 1993, setting a host of college records and becoming a First-team All-American in 1997, when he played with Nolan on the Walker Cup team at Quaker Ridge.
He roomed with Justin Rose that week, and while GB&I lost heavily, Coughlan went on to become the first player to win his European Tour and PGA Tour cards on both sides of the pond.
His career was cut short by a series of injuries and by 2006 he decided he’d had enough, eventually finding his feet as a teacher of the game, first in New York, then in Florida and Texas.
Married to an American doctor and the father of a young girl, he’s moved several times in the last few years but just recently found a new challenge in San Antonio as an assistant coach to the University of Texas, alma mater to major winners Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Jordan Spieth.
“Life has changed a lot lately but it’s been great with our first baby coming along,” Coughlan said this week.
“My wife is a doctor and we have moved a few times because of her job. But I am now settled in Texas and looking forward to getting stuck into work again.”
While he played his last full season on the PGA Tour in 2001, Coughlan was still trying to get back into the game in late 2005 when he realised he simply couldn’t go on — physically, mentally or financially.
“I felt that I just wouldn’t be able to commit to playing for 11 months at only 90 percent fitness,” he said.
“I felt like I was on a downslope in my career because I couldn’t play with the physical intensity required but by January 2010 I was Director of Instruction of the TOUR Academy at TPC San Antonio.
“I loved it and was there until August last year when my wife got a job in Oklahoma.
“Our daughter, Quinn, was four months old when we moved to Tulsa and so I became a stay-at-home-dad as I didn’t have a place to teach or any clients there.
“In March, a guy I played college golf against gave me work at a local club in East Tulsa up until a month ago when my wife got a job in Austin, not far from where he lived in San Antonio.”
Cue the luck of the Irish and through a mutual friend, he got a call from the Head Coach at the University of Texas just a few weeks after arriving back in Texas.
“It’s one of the top five schools in the nation — Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw . . . lots of big names — and after a few lunches and dinners, I was asked to become an assistant coach with the team,” Coughlan said from Austin.
“They have state of the art facilities at the University of Texas Golf Club — perfect turf and even a short game area built by Jordan Spieth, who also went to college here and pops in regularly. So I’ve been lucky to just touch down a month ago and get a call.”
Inducted into the Clemson Hall of Fame last September, Coughlan admits it felt good to walk out onto Frank Howard Field at Clemson Memorial Stadium at halftime a few months ago and hear his name called.
“It feels nice to hear them tell you how good you were,” he said with a chuckle. “We all need that sometimes . . .”
Lady Luck did not smile on him as a tour player but he never lost his love of the game and wonders what might have been.
“I am 43 and I do miss it, I really do,” he said of tour life. “Would I go back and try for the Champions Tour? I don’t know if I have the desire to go out and commit to the travel, wondering if the body would hold up.
“I had a really bad case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome last year and a bad case of tendinitis, but I’m fine now and shooting a few good scores. In fact, technically, I am a far better player. Back in the day, I had a onedimensional game, hitting everything with a closed clubface and hooking everything trying to keep the ball low.
“If I knew back then what I know about my putting stroke now, I may have stayed out there a bit longer and had more success.
“I never really took a coach seriously back then because I felt I had enough talent and tenacity to make it on tour. Looking back, I’d have taken a chance on someone and risked making a change.
“So I can hit the ball better now but I don’t have the same fire or intensity to compete. I hit it just as far and even better but I don’t want to hit balls for four or five hours.”
He finds it hard to believe it’s almost 20 years since he won cards on both sides of the Atlantic but looking at his peers, he feels fortunate that he still enjoys being involved in the game.
“I was on top of the world when I had both cards in my hand,” he said of those days.
“Then I did my ribs and had that car crash. You just never know. It’s such a fickle game.”
Still immensely proud of his roots in Birr, he is delighted to see a fellow Offaly man like Shane Lowry become such a success.
“My dad and Shane’s dad went to school together in Ferbane,” he said. “In fact, I saw Shane down at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio two years ago and it’s gas, you can just go up and say, ‘How’s it going mush,’ which is a bit of a Birr thing and he’ll know the score.
“Shane has done amazingly well. There is massive talent in his family and he obviously has it.”
Coughlan keeps a close eye on the Irish players coming up and sees something special in Paul Dunne.
“He could be a machine,” he said.
While he arrived on the scene when Tiger Woods was breaking through, Coughlan now sees former roommate Rose as the man to beat.
“He missed cut after cut at the start but he always had the genius,” he said. “I feel he’s the best player in the world, no question. His golf swing is what I’d use as a model in every scenario.”
It’s almost 20 years to the day since Richie Coughlan became the first man to win tour cards on both sides of the Atlantic in the same season. Now 43, the former Walker Cup player from Birr has never lost his love of the game. We caught up with him this week.