In early September, Charleston Southern deputy athletic director Courtney Corridor despatched an unconventional e-mail to all athletics personnel.
The varsity wanted an interim ladies’s golf coach. And quick.
Just a few weeks prior, former Buccaneer golf head coach Chan Metts had departed the varsity to turn out to be head golf coach at Appalachian State. Assistant Ben Carroll took over each the lads’s and ladies’s packages on an interim foundation whereas Charleston Southern looked for a brand new full-time coach.
However they quickly confronted a dilemma.
From Sept. 15 to 17, the Buccaneers males’s and ladies’s golf groups have been each set to be in motion — 250 miles away from each other. Carroll, who competed with the lads’s squad for 5 seasons earlier than graduating from the college in 2023, was a pure match to journey with the lads’s workforce.
With out one other coach on workers after Carroll was promoted, the ladies’s workforce would want a distinct interim coach.
Golf experience wasn’t wanted — solely the power to drive the workforce van.
Up stepped Michael Causey, the assistant AD for athletic communications. A sports activities info director by commerce, Causey was well-versed within the area of being a plug-and-play resolution to any roles an athletic division may must fill. He had even an (extraordinarily) novice golf pedigree, having helped create — and as soon as profitable — an annual worker mini-golf match at Ice Cream Station in Simpsonville, S.C.
Causey noticed a possibility to offer some extra protection to a workforce and sport that usually would not get a lot shine.
“I sort of knew that was going to be a possibility with this to get them a little bit bit of additional protection [compared] to what they’re used to,” Causey instructed ESPN. “Allow them to get pleasure from their school expertise right here a little bit bit extra with getting some picture and video from it.”
The workforce Causey took over was a lot battle-tested and had championship expertise as a gaggle. All six gamers on Charleston Southern’s roster are upperclassmen, 4 of whom have been part of the workforce’s 2023 squad that gained the Large South championship final April.
Unsurprisingly, Causey’s first plan of action as interim coach — after downloading WhatsApp to affix the workforce’s group chat — was to show to the workforce’s current leaders and lean on them for course. Each planning element from meals to course arrival occasions went by means of the squad’s veteran gamers.
“I used to be sort of like, ‘Hey guys, I do not need to disrupt what y’all have carried out prior to now,'” stated Causey. “[I] sort of relied on them for lots of stuff.”
Making the method simpler was the truth that the Buccaneers had been right here earlier than — actually, on this case.
Senior Odette Font and junior Katie Stephens had competed with the workforce within the 2023 iteration of the Elon Invitational the 12 months earlier than, an expertise full with a Buc-ee’s journey that precipitated a missed observe spherical. The squad was in a position to flip inward to their veterans for course-specific recommendation forward of the competitors.
“We had a little bit workforce assembly,” recalled Font. “We requested the opposite ladies that hadn’t performed that course earlier than if they’d any doubts or any gap that they have been involved about… We’ll be on the market by ourselves.”
The player-centric management strategy did not imply Causey was with no function, nevertheless.
Causey did what SIDs do greatest — a little bit little bit of every part. He served because the workforce’s chauffeur, driving them from the lodge to the course to meals. He helped arrange and submit scorecards and stay scoring from the course. He met with officers because the workforce’s consultant. He additionally carried out his normal duties as a photographer and author.
His most impactful function of the weekend although? Delivering mid-competition snacks.
Causey knew that regardless of his ice cream store mini-golf match title, he would not be capable to provide a lot technical enter to the workforce. What he may present, nevertheless, have been tasty pick-me-ups and an encouraging phrase.
“The function I needed to imagine extra was sort of being the on-course information,” Causey stated. “As a substitute of at all times making an attempt to determine the higher shot, determine find out how to assault this extra, it is like ‘Hey, how are you doing? How’s the spherical going? Something I can do for you? You need Goldfish or a fruit snack proper now?’
“I feel the ladies actually responded to that effectively. Each time they noticed me it wasn’t like in addition they noticed an intimidating golf determine who was their coach. It was Michael with the snack cart.”
And responded effectively Charleston Southern did. With “Michael with the snack cart” motoring round Alamance Nation Membership, the workforce’s skilled leaders helped the Buccaneers come out firing.
Stevens and Font — who stated Causey’s constant upbeat perspective “takes that worry away” — completed the opening spherical at 1-under and even respectively, good for the joint-second and joint-fifth greatest particular person scores of the spherical. One other upperclassman returner, Eugenie Varet, chipped in with a fair opening spherical as effectively. All instructed, Charleston Southern carded a course-best 1 over first spherical as a workforce.
The momentum continued into the occasion’s second spherical later within the day. Their lead on the sector was whittled down, however the Buccaneers held agency, ending with a one-stroke lead and setting the stage for Tuesday’s decisive third and remaining spherical.
The climate had different plans, nevertheless. Halfway by means of the third spherical, the rain that had persevered all through the occasion changed into thunder and lightning, suspending play. That suspension would finally turn out to be a cancellation, which means the standings from the top of the second spherical would maintain as the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless anticlimactic, Charleston Southern have been champions.
𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒🥇✅ pic.twitter.com/v8KzvLGjbd
— Charleston Southern Ladies’s Golf (@csu_wgolf) September 17, 2024
The one workforce on the occasion with no full-time coach stood alone on the prime of the pack. Causey stated even when the concept of getting a trophy out of his volunteer gig began as an amusing thought, he was satisfied by the workforce’s mentality as quickly as members first stepped as much as the tee.
“Simply seeing the best way that they have been approaching the course, and the boldness they’d, I knew [winning] was a actuality,” he stated.
Causey is fast to show the highlight on the workforce’s gamers, highlighting their championship efficiency on the course. However the Buccaneers, nevertheless briefly beneath his tutelage, made certain he bought among the limelight as effectively.
“We’re actually grateful to have had Michael with us,” Font stated. “He was actually superb. We could not have requested for higher.”
