Two years ago, Matthew Phillips, Lawson Studdard and Will Teague could not have imagined playing collegiate golf, but there they were Monday at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point for the 26th EMCC/Old Waverly Golf Classic, East Mississippi Community College’s annual fundraising event, as members of the EMCC golf team.
All three were athletic, playing multiple sports at Columbus Christian Academy, but the school did not have a golf team, and they did not play recreationally.
Yet here they are, freshmen at EMCC, a school that suspended its men’s golf program three years ago, making up fully one-half of the Lions’ men’s golf roster.
The three have been friends since elementary school, and when their final high school sports season — baseball — was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, something was missing.
“Competition is in my blood, so I had to find something to keep me going and ended up starting with golf,” said Phillips, who said he competed in baseball, basketball, track and cross-country at CCA.
“All three of us started playing every day,” said Studdard, who averaged almost 25 points per game as a senior for the Rams’ basketball team. “We talked about starting a golf team, and he started emailing everybody.”
That would be Phillips, who started emailing EMCC administrators a few months after graduating high school about starting a golf team.
“We didn’t have one, and I just kind of wondered why we didn’t,” said Phillips.
Phillips’ interest coincided with a desire at EMCC to bring back men’s golf, which had been suspended a couple of years earlier.
“I know it was a big priority to get a golf team back,” said Ashton Maddaloni, the Lions’ new golf coach and the new head golf professional at Lion Hills Golf Course, the 18-hole, 6,410-yard course in Columbus owned and operated by the college. “I was hired Sept. 1, but I came up here and visited and immediately when I got here I saw so much potential.”
She was talking about the facility, but she also believes it’s true of her roster.
“Luckily, I have a really good group that I think has a lot of potential to be good,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot from them that would indicate that they could be successful. They’re all very motivated to work hard, they listen, and they’re willing to learn.”
That’s true of all three ex-Rams, and for Teague, the challenge of learning it is one of the attractions.
“It’s a hard game to learn, and it’s fun to learn new things,” he said. “It’s one of the toughest sports I’ve played, and it’s just fun trying to get better.”
Like his friends, Teague played everything in high school — “It’s a small school. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have a team,” he said — including football, baseball, track, soccer and basketball, in which he averaged 12.4 points and almost 4 rebounds and a steal per game as a senior. Listed at 6-foot-4 on the Rams’ roster, he looks like the one of the three that would do best off the tee.
“Oh, I can hit the ball, it just doesn’t go in the right place,” said Teague, saying his short game is the strongest part of his efforts on the course.
Phillips’ favorite part of golf is something else entirely.
“I love how mad it can make you,” he said. “From stroke to stroke, it can bring you up, and it can bring you down just that quick.
“I like the fact you can play by yourself. You can play against the course; you don’t have to be playing against anybody.”
But it is a golf team, and they do play against other people. Despite all of them playing seriously for just more than a year, they each have very high expectations.
“I’m playing all right,” said Studdard, who listed putting as his strength. “I’m not where I want to be, but I’m getting there. I’ve still got some work to do.”
His teammates expressed similar feelings.
“I’m a perfectionist,” Phillips said. “I’m not where I want to be yet, but I feel like I’m getting there.”
Phillips has been EMCC’s low man in both of the tournaments this fall. He shot rounds of 94 and 83 at Hinds Community College’s Eagle Ridge Golf Club in late September to finish 51st, then fired a 76 and an 80 to finish 24th at River Birch Golf Club in Amory at a tournament hosted by Itawamba Community College.
Studdard was right behind Phillips in the opener with his rounds of 89 and 90, while Teague improved from 101 to 96 over his two rounds. At River Birch, Studdard carded 96 and 90 while Teague turned in rounds of 94 and 101.
“Consistency is the big thing,” Maddaloni said. “They all have different strengths, but I think consistency is the biggest thing, having a consistent miss on the golf course. Ball-striking consistency is huge in beginners, and we’re also definitely not where we need to be as far as the mental game goes.”
The CCA alums are used to winning: As seniors, on a team that went 9-3, had a first-round playoff bye and won a playoff game before losing in the MAIS Class 2A semifinals. Their basketball team went 18-7 and reached the postseason.
“They’re all athletic,” Maddaloni said. ”A lot of people don’t think you have to be athletic to play golf, but it’s definitely an advantage. They all played sports in high school … Being able to play a sport in college is a really big deal for them.”
She’s right, as Studdard noted.
“There are a lot of high school golfers that don’t get a chance to play in college, and here we are, didn’t play in high school, have played for about a year now, and we’re playing college golf,” he said.
All three plan to move on to a four-year school, with Phillips citing political science or business as potential future majors and Studdard and Teague both planning to major in business. Only Phillips mentioned possibly playing golf at a four-year school, but none of them thought playing golf at EMCC was a remote possibility a short time ago.
The spring season is the bigger one in college golf, but there is another fall tournament ahead for the Lions, who will compete in their next MACCC event Oct. 25-26. That two-day tournament, hosted by Mississippi Gulf Coast, will be at Windance Country Club in Gulfport.
Beyond that, the three longtime friends have modest goals.
Said Teague: “I just want to be at the top.”
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