A practice round with Katie Futcher is deliberate. It’s a fact-finding mission and it’s also a perfect example of the detail-oriented culture that Futcher has established at Emory, where the girls golf program is only four years old.
“We’re engaged,” Futcher said of that crucial day before a tournament. “Our team is engaged the entire time. We’re going through our plans, we’re talking about our shots. We’re not just hitting it out there anywhere. That day sets us up really well on challenging courses and in challenging conditions.”
Over the final 36 holes at the Golfweek DIII Invite, especially as conditions turned cold and windy at Baytowne Golf Links in Sandestin, Florida, in the final round, Emory’s preparation paid off. Emory trailed Oglethorpe by a shot after the first round but spent the next two days pulling away from the 24-team field. The Eagles completed their title defense with a 12-shot victory at 10 over.
Emory sophomore Sharon Mun won the individual title at 6 under.
Emory is a program with Futcher’s unique stamp. Futcher retired from the LPGA after a nine-year career during which she competed in more than 25 major championships and 120 events while earning Class A status with the LPGA.
After a few months spent “in the woods,” she came out on the other side realizing she could put her golf background to use pursuing another passion: helping people.
Futcher spent the 2016-17 season as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater, Penn State (Futcher was the leading scorer for the Nittany Lions throughout her four-year career there). Then she spent the 2017-18 season as the assistant coach at James Madison. She applied for the head coaching position at Emory because it also offered the chance to build a team from the ground up – Futcher is the first head coach in program history.
And Emory wasn’t just looking to just experiment with the sport. The Atlanta school is academically rigorous, and with more than 20 NCAA titles across all sports, Futcher’s drive matched that winning culture.
“You don’t get the opportunity to build a program from scratch at any division,” Futcher said. “I never thought I’d be in Division III, but to be able to have complete control and nobody else to blame if something goes wrong – it’s all your players, all your vision – that really intrigued me and I really was interested in that challenge.
“I had this formula in my head I thought might produce a team that would play well. I really wanted to try it out. That’s why I really chose Emory.”
The Eagles won five times in the 2021-22 season, then added the NCAA Division III Women’s National Championship last spring. The Golfweek win is Emory’s second this fall.
“We really care as coaches about the things you can directly control,” Futcher said when asked about that the national title – referencing assistant coach Christel Boeljon, who won five times on the Ladies European Tour and appeared on the victorious 2011 European Solheim Cup team.
Futcher ticks off a list of variables– hydration, nutrition, attitude, decision-making, pre-shot routine – that she and Boeljon preach to the team. If her players take care of those things, Futcher reasons, success follows.
There is structure in the way Futcher runs her program – maybe more than any other team at the Division III level.
“We have scheduled practice,” she said. “You have to come for a certain amount of hours and time. It’s not this revolving door where you can come when you want and stay as long as you want. We do have pretty structured practice times and that doesn’t suit everybody so it’s my job to try to find the recruits that that does work for them and that’s what they want to be a part of.”
From Emory head men’s coach John Sjoberg’s perspective, Futcher has been key in moving the whole golf program forward.
“She has been unbelievable to work with for the last four years,” said Sjoberg, who has been at the helm of Emory’s men’s program since 2011. “She’s made us better, just the ideas she’s brought to our day to day. How they practice and what she did on tour. . . Our guys really respect what (Futcher and Boeljon) say and how they say it.”
Sjoberg’s squad has a tendency to be explosive and that’s what got the Eagles to the finish line for their own title defense across the street at Sandestin’s Raven Golf Club. Emory and Oglethorpe went back and forth all day in the final round, with Emory down by a handful of shots approaching the closing stretch.
Emory played Nos. 15-18 in 10 under – with the four counting scorers going 8 under – to edge Oglethorpe by five. Oglethorpe’s Michael O’Sullivan won the individual title at 6 under.
“Momentum is a tangible thing, and you can just see it,” Sjoberg said. “Jackson (Klutznick) was our first guy out and he made a couple in a row there, and it just filters through the lineup and all of a sudden, a couple of 6 footers go in, we play the par 5 (No. 17) really well. The momentum works great in both directions and fortunately for us there, we got it going in the right direction.”
Emory’s men have competed in the Golfweek DIII Invite every year since its inception in 2009. Accuracy off the tee is paramount at the Raven, but it’s not a particularly difficult second-shot golf course, Sjoberg’s players have learned. Emory has now won this title three times.
Emory teed it up at the Golfweek event after winning the Piedmont Invitational early in October. Emory’s play puts the team in a national conversation – the Eagles were ranked No. 2 in the latest Golfweek/Bushnell Coaches Poll.
“I think certainly we have a lot of the makings of a lot of the good programs around the country,” Sjoberg said. “…Us being a D3 program is a huge asset because we can recruit kids who want to compete for a championship at the end of the year.”
It’s been a good run at Emory these past few years, and the momentum looks to continue.
[listicle id=778073458]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]