Collegiate Golf
Whether for hope of future glory on a pro tour or for a dedicated love of the game, college golf offers something special
Top pure-game tournaments and kids with hopes, dreams, and full class schedules
NOT TOO MANY YEARS after the United States had its first golf course, the country had its first college golf champion: Louis Bayard, Jr. of Princeton took the individual title and Yale the team in the 1897 event, then sponsored by the National Intercollegiate Golf Association. The NCAA took over in 1939, and the list of individual champions since then, both men and women, has long read like a yearbook for the professional tours. But for every Bryson DeChambeau (2015); Tiger Woods (1996); Phil Mickelson (1989, 1990, 1992); or Annika Sorenstam (1991), there are many more college golfers who do not find or even pursue a career on tour—or even one in the game. This is more true of Division II and III players (D2 and D3), for whom a serious love of golf must preclude any thoughts of future glory. And yet at every level the college game is compelling, harkening to a pre-TOUR era when amateur competitions dominated the sport. Its competitors must balance the rigors of training with full class schedules and sometimes with jobs, but in the end, whatever diploma they receive, college players might end up learning more from the game than they did in any campus classroom.
“All sports along the way can teach you good habits and responsibility, but golf, out of all the sports, probably teaches it best,” says John Tyson of Tyson Foods, who recently launched the Blessings Collegiate Invitational golf tournament. Looking forward from its 2020 debut, the co-ed event looks to feature ten of the top men’s and women’s teams from across the country, including programs from each of the Power 5 Conferences. For Tyson, to support college golf is to support a better future, he says, and that begins with creating opportunities for young individuals.
“Golf offers a form of discipline that people are required to have that allows them to succeed,” says Tyson. “And if you have that form of self-discipline, those habits are good habits, they carry over into your life after sports. You might not continue to play sports and to stay in shape, but you’ll have that ability to say, ‘These are the five things I have to do to get my business presentation done,’ or ‘These are the five things I have to do to get my plan ready for next year or to make my community better.’
“The college game teaches you habits and responsibilities and obligations. You have a responsibility to the game, and you have a responsibility to the game of life, and the game of life is the greatest responsibility.”
Tyson opened The Blessings Golf Club in 2004, and then he opened the world-class facility to the local students on the University of Arkansas Men’s and Women’s golf teams. Having the Razorbacks there has underlined another important facet of the college game, which is its through-line across generations in terms of education, camaraderie, and appeal.
“Inviting the kids is part of the experience here,” Tyson explains. “They interact with the members, and the members get to see college kids succeed. For members with young children, the young children get to see college kids working, disciplined practicing, and they’re learning by observation, sharing conversations on the practice tee when some of the college kids play with the young kids. They play with the young kids, they play with the members, and you get on a golf course you start talking about things. Out of that conversation there’s always some tidbit, some advice. Somedays you get blessed when the golf ball hits the sprinkler head and goes on the green; sometimes it hits the sprinkler head and goes in the ditch. You can’t focus on that. The Blessings offers a chance to be outside in Mother Nature, a space of learning, and having the college kids here is really a great fit. I’m really grateful that the members have helped me and the kids and created an environment that is comfortable for everyone.”
Arkansas is a D1 school, and has produced PGA TOUR pros like John Daly and Andrew Landry, among others. It’s also produced top players that have competed in the Arnold Palmer Cup, an elite college event founded in 1997 by Palmer, on other tours and in other competitions as well. For D1 players, golf’s opportunities are as available as its lessons, but for D2 and D3 players, the rewards inherent in the game must be closer to the point.
“It’s got to—really got to—be a love that’s inside you for the game,” says Mike Hustava, Director of Communications at Saint Vincent College, a Division III school in Arnold Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, Penn. “There’s no scholarship money, lots of traveling, balancing school and work like any other student athlete, and so it has to be a love and passion for the game of golf.”
SVC’s golf team’s home course is Latrobe Country Club, on which Palmer grew up and learned the game, and while the facilities are modest compared to the typical D1 school, no one can argue that one can’t succeed in such an environment. And yet it’s less likely that the kids who play here will find themselves on a pro tour, but that’s not the point, says Hustava—who knows what he’s talking about. Also an SVC alum, he played baseball here and says that unlike a bigger school where sports might be the point for a student, at DIII schools sports is more of an integrated facet of a greater experience.
“I look at this from my perspective as a graduate about nine years ago,” he says. “So many things I learned here I knew that I’d learned, but over time you grow even fonder in appreciation for the education that was received, the things you learn about yourself, the things you don’t even realize that you’re learning. That comes with a liberal arts education, but it also is due to a real commitment by every person here, faculty, staff, coaches—a full commitment to each student, and that’s certainly reflected in our athletic programs.
“Sports often presents such a great representation of what we face long after we stop playing competitively. While you’re a student athlete you’re practicing and honing your sport. But what they see long after they’ve graduated is persistence and perspective, you reset your mind after a bad shot or a bad day or something challenging happens, you don’t let one bad shot turn into another bad shot, being able to control what you can control… All those different types of things draw parallels between the physical act of playing and applying those same concepts to life. Here, our president, Father Paul Taylor, really emphasizes preparing you for a successful career, but also a meaningful life. The transformational experience that we hope that our students are able to undertake here can take so many forms, and so many of my great experiences came through athletics. For the golf team, learning the game’s lessons playing at Latrobe Country Club, a place with real history, that’s something that will stick with these young adults for a long time, no matter what they do.”
The college game teaches you how to handle your responsibility to golf,
and to life