In early September, Charleston Southern deputy athletic director Courtney Corridor despatched an unconventional e-mail to all athletics body of workers.
The college wanted an intervening time girls’s golfing teacher. And rapid.
A couple of weeks prior, former Buccaneer golfing head teacher Chan Metts had departed the varsity to change into head golfing teacher at Appalachian Situation. Associate Ben Carroll took over each the boys’s and ladies’s techniques on an intervening time foundation past Charleston Southern looked for a fresh full-time teacher.
However they quickly confronted a predicament.
From Sept. 15 to 17, the Buccaneers males’s and ladies’s golfing groups have been each prepared to be in motion — 250 miles clear of one some other. Carroll, who competed with the boys’s squad for 5 seasons ahead of graduating from the college in 2023, used to be a herbal are compatible to exit with the boys’s group.
With out some other teacher on group of workers upcoming Carroll used to be promoted, the ladies’s group would want a special intervening time teacher.
Golfing experience wasn’t wanted — simplest the facility to power the group van.
Up stepped Michael Causey, the workman AD for athletic communications. A sports activities knowledge director by means of business, Causey used to be well-versed within the garden of being a plug-and-play approach to any roles an athletic branch would possibly wish to fill. He had even an (extraordinarily) novice golfing pedigree, having helped create — and as soon as successful — an annual worker mini-golf match at Ice Cream Station in Simpsonville, S.C.
Causey noticed a chance to provide some spare protection to a group and recreation that regularly doesn’t get a lot sparkle.
“I kind of knew that was going to be an opportunity with this to get them a little bit of extra coverage [compared] to what they’re used to,” Causey informed ESPN. “Let them enjoy their college experience here a little bit more with getting some photo and video from it.”
The group Causey took over used to be plethora battle-tested and had championship enjoy as a gaggle. All six gamers on Charleston Southern’s roster are upperclassmen, 4 of whom have been part of the group’s 2023 squad that received the Fat South championship utmost April.
Unsurprisingly, Causey’s first plan of action as intervening time teacher — upcoming downloading WhatsApp to tied the group’s crew chat — used to be to show to the group’s current leaders and incline on them for course. Each and every making plans feature from foods to direction arrival occasions went in the course of the squad’s veteran gamers.
“I was kind of like, ‘Hey guys, I don’t want to disrupt what y’all have done in the past,'” mentioned Causey. “[I] kind of relied on them for a lot of stuff.”
Making the method more straightforward used to be the truth that the Buccaneers were right here ahead of — actually, on this case.
Senior Odette Font and teenage Katie Stephens had competed with the group within the 2023 iteration of the Elon Invitational the while ahead of, an enjoy whole with a Buc-ee’s go back and forth that led to a neglected observe spherical. The squad used to be ready to show inward to their veterans for course-specific recommendation forward of the contest.
“We had a little team meeting,” recalled Font. “We asked the other girls that hadn’t played that course before if they had any doubts or any hole that they were concerned about… We’re going to be out there by ourselves.”
The player-centric management manner didn’t ruthless Causey used to be and not using a function, then again.
Causey did what SIDs do absolute best — a tiny little bit of the entirety. He served because the group’s chauffeur, using them from the lodge to the direction to foods. He helped arrange and post scorecards and reside scoring from the direction. He met with officers because the group’s consultant. He additionally carried out his habitual tasks as a photographer and essayist.
His maximum impactful function of the weekend regardless that? Turning in mid-competition snacks.
Causey knew that regardless of his ice cream store mini-golf match name, he wouldn’t be capable to do business in a lot technical enter to the group. What he may lend, then again, have been tasty pick-me-ups and an encouraging word of honour.
“The role I wanted to assume more was kind of being the on-course guide,” Causey mentioned. “Instead of always trying to figure out the better shot, figure out how to attack this more, it’s like ‘Hey, how are you doing? How’s the round going? Anything I can do for you? You want Goldfish or a fruit snack right now?’
“I believe the ladies in point of fact replied to that properly. Each and every occasion they noticed me it wasn’t like in addition they noticed an intimidating golfing determine who used to be their teacher. It used to be Michael with the snack cart.”
And responded well Charleston Southern did. With “Michael with the snack cart” motoring around Alamance Country Club, the team’s experienced leaders helped the Buccaneers come out firing.
Stevens and Font — who said Causey’s consistent upbeat attitude “takes that concern away” — finished the opening round at 1-under and even respectively, good for the joint-second and joint-fifth best individual scores of the round. Another upperclassman returner, Eugenie Varet, chipped in with an even opening round as well. All told, Charleston Southern carded a course-best 1 over first round as a team.
The momentum continued into the event’s second round later in the day. Their lead on the field was whittled down, but the Buccaneers held firm, finishing with a one-stroke lead and setting the stage for Tuesday’s decisive third and final round.
The weather had other plans, however. Midway through the third round, the rain that had persisted throughout the event turned into thunder and lightning, suspending play. That suspension would eventually become a cancellation, meaning the standings from the end of the second round would hold as the final result. However anticlimactic, Charleston Southern were champions.
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β Charleston Southern Women’s Golf (@csu_wgolf) September 17, 2024
The only team at the event without a full-time coach stood alone at the top of the pack. Causey said even if the idea of getting a trophy out of his volunteer gig started as an amusing thought, he was convinced by the team’s mentality as soon as members first stepped up to the tee.
“Simply visible the best way that they have been drawing near the direction, and the arrogance that they had, I knew [winning] used to be a fact,” he said.
Causey is quick to turn the spotlight on the team’s players, highlighting their championship performance on the course. But the Buccaneers, however briefly under his tutelage, made sure he got some of the limelight as well.
“We’re in point of fact thankful to have had Michael with us,” Font said. “He used to be in point of fact wonderful. We couldn’t have requested for higher.”
