Tag: Howard golf 2022

Your 2022 picks: Our top 10 college golf stories (No. 1 is about John Daly’s son and his NIL deal)

While the infrastructure of the college game is being overhauled, the best stories again came from big personalities and masterful golf.

While post-pandemic college tournament golf settled back into something more familiar in 2022, at least in terms of scheduling, the new frontiers of NIL, LIV Golf and the transfer portal made this anything but a typical year.

And while the infrastructure of the game continues with a major overhaul, the best stories of the year again came from big personalities, storied institutions and some masterful play on the course.

As we continue the countdown to 2023 by offering up a snapshot of our best stories from the year, take a scroll through some of the biggest stories from the world of college golf in 2022 (photo galleries and preseason watch lists were not included in this listing).

After a recession, HBCU golf is on the rise once again — but the hard work isn’t done yet

“I think golf has proven itself to be an investment worth investing in for HBCUs, for people, for the culture.”

Historically black college and university athletics have become more prevalent in recent years, largely in part due to NFL legend Deion Sanders and his work with Jackson State’s football team. On the golf side, Howard has shown over just two years what can be accomplished when resources and opportunities are paired with hard work.

According to a Black Golf Directory listing, 31 HBCUs have golf programs spanning NCAA Divisions I, II and NAIA. Eleven schools have both a men’s and women’s program, 19 are men only while Delaware State is the lone school to have just a women’s team.

“I would double that number. If you go back to the early 90s, at least double that amount,” Black College Golf Coaches Association (BCGCA) board member Jamila Johnson said of how many HBCUs used to offer golf programs. After a recession of lost programs over the years, the tide is beginning to turn as HBCU popularity continues to grow. Now the focus is on making these positive changes a movement, not just a moment.

Johnson’s mother, Selina, started the Hollywood Golf Institute, a junior golf program in her native Detroit, Michigan, when she was 6 years old. She played on and was captain of a co-ed team when she was in high school and then became the first female athlete recruited for Jackson State’s women’s team by legendary coach, Eddie Payton, in the early 1990s during the second wave of Title IX. When the government began enforcing the law – which prohibits discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding based on sex – one route a number of colleges, not just HBCUs, took to address the inequity was to create women’s golf teams.

Back then, every SWAC school had a men’s and women’s team. Today, seven of the 12 member schools have either a men’s or women’s team, and just three schools have both.

“If you go back far enough, you had so many HBCUs that actually had teams, even though the players were not necessarily welcome to play at some of the local facilities,” said Johnson. “We haven’t recovered yet to the number of teams that we once had, but what I will say is that the quality of the events and the experiences, the quality of the venues, and the experiences that we are able to offer this generation of golfers is definitely trending in the awesome direction. We played nice courses, but this generation of golfers and HBCU golfers, they’re having the opportunity to play better venues, they’re having the opportunity to see what life looks like after golf as far as careers.”

One of those venues is Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, which hosted the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup earlier this year, an exhibition that featured six top HBCU programs. While discussing what needs to happen for HBCU golf programs to continue to grow, Howard head coach Sam Puryear keyed in on HBCU programs not just recruiting the best black talent, but developing and supporting it.

“Programs systematically and schematically have to be set and sound as it relates to practice, types of practice, leadership, running the programs, and putting the different things in place that will allow them to be successful,” said Puryear. “I think if you do that, and I think if you create competitive schedules, all those programs are going to get better. It’s like the proverb, iron sharpens iron. I think at the end of the day, that will happen.”

“I think to keep driving HBCU golf forward we need to put more out there, show the kids what we do, where we play, give them more information,” said Howard senior Everett Whiten Jr. “I feel like a lot of kids, they only see the big schools, they don’t really focus on HBCUs.”

The Hollywood Golf Institute has introduced over 6,000 children to the game of golf and have sent close to 350 golfers to school on full or partial scholarships, and 41 years later the program is still producing talented players. The BCGCA has created tournaments in various regions around the country so schools don’t have to travel as far for tournaments. While opportunities to play are important, those experiences only last so long.

“For me, it’s just about more opportunities and people actually being present throughout these opportunities, like mentorships,” added Greg Odom Jr. “I have people to talk that are at a different type of level, and that’s helped me grow as a person with these opportunities.”

When the BCGCA was started 35 years ago, Johnson praised the association’s efforts of partnering with high school coaches to educate them on what was needed to help their student athletes reach the next level. While developing players and talent on the course is undoubtedly important, Johnson argued that supporting, empowering and developing the existing coaches is the next step.

“I think golf has proven itself to be an investment worth investing in for HBCUs, for people, for the culture,” added Johnson. “It might be a recession where we’ve lost some teams, but I think we’re seeing a trend where schools are seeing the value and they’re starting to build these teams again and teams are recovering and coming back where they weren’t there before.”

[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]

Howard men’s golf builds on Steph Curry’s support to become nation’s top HBCU program, and they’re still growing

“Did I know it was going to happen in year two? No I didn’t, but I knew it was possible.”

Greg Odom Jr. thought head coach Sam Puryear was blowing more smoke than a chimney when he was being recruited to play golf at Howard University.

“Getting recruited, I thought he was bluffing. I’m on the phone with him, he’s like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna win championships, you’re gonna get this, you’re gonna do this,’” recalled Odom Jr., who was a sophomore at Memphis at the time. “When you actually walk up on the tee of PGA Tour event and you walk to the podium after winning a championship, you look back and it’s just, ‘Wow, everything happened.’”

Sure, they were lofty goals for an upstart program getting its first crack at NCAA Div. I competition thanks to the financial backing of NBA superstar and avid golfer, Stephen Curry, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And Puryear believed every single word.

“I’ve been feeling like for the last 30 years I’ve been saying to myself the day is coming where you can put (an HBCU) product on a golf course where it can be competitive if you have the proper things in place,” Puryear said of his vision for the program. “From funding to course access to instruction to the opportunity to compete against the better programs, teams can get better. I knew that was gonna happen.”

“Did I know it was going to happen in year two? No I didn’t, but I knew it was possible.”

Howard’s inaugural 2021-22 season was just five events, two of which were match play duels against local programs Navy and Georgetown. Howard finished T-13 at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate, third (out of four) at the MEAC Championship and fourth at the PGA Works Collegiate Championship, an event that highlights the best minority collegiate golfers across the country.

“I feel like we’ve always had the pieces, we just had to put them together,” said Odom Jr, who individually placed fifth at the conference championship and then won the PGA Works in 2021. “We were close the first year at PGA Works but we fell short, and I feel like that was our drive for the next season.”

The Bison closed out their second season in 2021-22 with a pair of wins at the MEAC Championship and PGA Works and placed inside the top five in five of 10 events. Odom Jr. won the individual MEAC Championship wire-to-wire and then defended his PGA Works title, fulfilling Puryear’s vision.

“We go to every event and try to win and give it our all, so I feel like the expectations haven’t changed,” said Odom Jr of the team’s early success. “If we win, we win, and if we don’t, we learn something so we can win next time.”

“I think the one thing that we have to continue to do is just to realize that we have a long way to go,” added Puryear. “All the guys on my team will tell you, I preach it all the time: don’t get comfortable, because you’re only as good as your last week, as good as your last shot.”

“So we keep it focused, stay in the present, don’t put your mind too far down the road and you don’t lament on where you’ve come from, because you have to keep putting the left foot in front of the right foot.”

The team has worked hard to reach its current status as the top HBCU program in the country, but Puryear and his players will be the first to tell you that none of this would be possible without Curry, who in 2019 announced his commitment to support and establish Howard’s first NCAA Div. I golf program for the next six years. The university also launched a golf endowment campaign to support Curry’s efforts. While Curry’s money has provided the team with tangible benefits, it’s the intangibles his support brings that mean the most.

“To show you the mark of a man, when (Curry) was hurt during the NBA season last year, he was in a walking boot, got in a cart and followed the team when we were playing out at Stanford,” said Puryear. “Most people, 99% of the people would never do that. Some people are comfortable with signing a check. He’s comfortable touching a life. To me, that speaks volumes.”

“I would like to commend that guy. He’s an NBA champion. He’s a superstar. He’s the MVP. He’s everything. But he’s also the guy that started the Howard golf team and helped fund the team. It’s incredible,” added Odom Jr. “For the team, he’s present, and when we need him, he comes. He’s supplied us with everything, and he’s helped us with resources and opened doors for opportunities so we just can’t thank him enough. He’s the guy.”

The men’s golf program joined the Northeast Conference as an associate member this season and have six events on the schedule for this fall, including this week’s Howard/USF Intercollegiate at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. As the program continues to evolve, the expectations for Odom Jr. and his team remain the same.

“I see no difference. I still see us being the No. 1 seed and having that target on our back,” said Odom Jr, who won the Bison’s first start of the fall at the River Run Collegiate. “We will be at that podium and we will be winning.”

[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]