Past Is Prologue Ron Wagner '93
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Furman Magazine Volume 58 Article 19 Issue 1 Spring 2015 4-1-2015 Past Is Prologue Ron Wagner '93 Jeremy Fleming '09 Furman University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine Recommended Citation Wagner, Ron '93 and Fleming, Jeremy '09 (2015) "Past Is Prologue," Furman Magazine: Vol. 58 : Iss. 1 , Article 19. Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol58/iss1/19 This Article is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Furman Magazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Notes From The FIELD Past Is Prologue After years of struggle and disarray, Furman’s women’s golf program is returning to its roots—and its identity—as a powerhouse. BY RON WAGNER ’93 PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY FLEMING '09 ART CREDIT ART CREDIT ART 21 FURMAN | SPRING 2015 GREEN MACHINES What better way to be reminded of what Furman's women's golf team was, and is fast becoming again, by dressing in period costume? From left: Jacqueline Bendrick, Alice Chen, Taylor Totland, Mary McRaney, Valentina Romero, Laura DeMarco, and Reona Hirai. n September 23, 2014, Taylor Totland ’17 and the Furman women’s golf team dominated their home tournament, the Lady Paladin Invitational. Totland crushed a field of 96 by seven strokes with the best score in the event’s 42-year history as she and her teammates routed 17 other schools—including the likes of Wake Forest, Texas Tech, O Florida State, and Yale—by 22 shots. ART CREDIT ART CREDIT ART FURMAN | SPRING 2015 22 Notes from the Field DEMURELY DANGEROUS To many, women’s golf is inarguably the sport that defines Furman athletics and the arena where the university has achieved its greatest success as an incubator of professional talent. In addition to the players, the above photograph depicts coach Kelley Hester and assistant coach Jeff Hull. To casual fans, the reaction truth: The sport that arguably things were going,” says Dottie Betsy King ’77 won 34 LPGA was probably one of yawning defines Furman athletics and Pepper ’87, a three-time tournaments, including six ma- satisfaction—Furman has been inarguably the sport where All-American who finished jors. Beth Daniel ’78 posted taking pride in women’s golf the university has achieved its second at the 1985 NCAA tour- 35 victories with a major of for years. But many would be greatest success has been in a nament. Pepper is one of the her own. Both are in the World surprised to learn the victory steady decline for more than a most famous former Paladins Golf Hall of Fame. was Furman’s first at the Lady decade, bottoming out with the in any arena, a well-known These women’s domi- Paladin since 2005, or that the firing of a coach and concerns golf analyst who has worked nance—earning five of the six team hadn’t won a competi- that the school wasn’t funding for The Golf Channel, Sports LPGA Tour Player of the Year tion of any sort since 2009— the sport adequately. Illustrated, NBC, and currently honors from 1989 to 1994—is also the last year it won the ESPN, after an outstanding pro one no school will likely top. Southern Conference. In fact, LEGENDS ON “THE FALL” career highlighted by 17 LPGA And Furman’s professional Furman’s last appearance at the Furman’s slide was watched Tour wins, including two ma- golf resume doesn’t end there: NCAA tournament, which from with dismay by the legendary jors; 110 top-10 finishes; and At least 17 former Paladins 1974 to 1999 it competed in 80 alumnae who formed the bed- the 1992 LPGA Player of the have competed at the sport’s percent of the time, is going on rock of the program. “I lived in Year award. Remarkably, she’s highest level, combining to win seven years and counting. All the area until 2002. I prac- only one of several highly dec- 94 times and more than $30.5 of which reveals an unsettling ticed there and I saw the way orated former Furman golfers. million. 23 FURMAN | SPRING 2015 Notes from the Field JACQUELINE BENDRICK ’18 ALICE CHEN ’18 MARY MCRANEY ’17 Women’s golf began at finished in the top 10 six more in 2006 with the addition of and I cried. I cried and I cried, Furman in 1972, and by 1974 times, including a heart- outstanding freshmen Kath- and I didn’t know what to do.” the Paladins were a power. breaking second in 1987. The leen Ekey and Blair Lamb The Furman administration King, Daniel, and Cindy Ferro closest thing to a constant for ’09. Then Potter stunned the scrambled to find a replace- ’76 led Furman to third- and the program was Potter, who program by announcing he ment before settling on Jen fifth-place finishes at the took over in 1983 and worked was leaving for Alabama. Suh Hanna ’98, an outstanding Association for Intercollegiate so much annual magic with a and Sarah Sturm transferred player who competed on the Athletics for Women (AIAW) limited budget that it was easy to Tuscaloosa weeks later, and Tour, but one with no coaching national tournament before to forget just how difficult it is the unraveling began. experience. In some former Sherri Turner ’79 joined the to be so good so often with so “I went [to Furman] for players’ minds, it wasn’t the fold in 1976, and they toppled little. But Furman was about to the pros that went there and best fit. Lamb andStefanie Nancy Lopez and Tulsa to cap- remember the hard way. women’s golf history there, but Kenoyer ’11, now on the ture the first and only Division Potter coached the Lady Pal- the number one reason I went Symetra Tour, captured SoCon I golf national championship adins for 18 years, leading them there left,” says Lamb, who individual titles, but the Pala- in school history. to eight NCAA tournaments backed out of her Vanderbilt dins managed only one NCAA The feat that year was all in the 1990s alone. Around the commitment to play for Potter. tournament in Hanna’s eight the more impressive consid- millennium, however, cracks “I was an incoming freshman years, in 2008. Worse, Fur- ering Furman had almost no began to show. Furman, which and I thought they’re playing man wasn’t signing the elite scholarship money and no had never missed the national a prank on us. He said ‘I’m talent it once had. In Pepper’s recruiting or travel budget. In competition more than twice in leaving,’ and I got off the phone analysis, the lack of success in the ensuing years, Furman’s a row in school history, didn’t women’s golf survived the make it past regionals for four graduations of their early straight seasons from 2000 FURMAN'S SLIDE WAS WATCHED stars—as well as coaching to 2003. Whispers began that changes from Gary Meredith reality was catching up to years WITH DISMAY BY LEGENDARY to Willie Miller to Mic Pot- of getting by on a shoestring ter—and remained a national budget. ALUMNAE. "I LIVED IN THE AREA contender. Furman found its way back UNTIL 2002. I SAW THE WAY THINGS From 1974 to 1999, the to the NCAAs in 2004 and teams played in 20 AIAW/ 2005 behind Jenny Suh; an- WERE GOING." NCAA tournaments and other big jump seemed likely —DOTTIE PEPPER '87, WHO HAS 17 LPGA TOUR VICTORIES FURMAN | SPRING 2015 24 Notes from the Field TO EXPECT FURMAN TO MATCH DOLLARS WITH BEHEMOTHS LIKE ALABAMA IS UNREALISTIC, EVEN IN A SPORT LIKE WOMEN'S GOLF, AND THE FINANCIAL ARMS RACE THAT BEGAN IN THE 1990S HAS BEEN DIFFICULT ON A STORIED CLUB LIBERAL ARTS Along with her teammates, Reona Hirai ’18 is part of a promising new generation of Furman golfers. SCHOOLS. recruiting in those years was DOLLARS AND SENSE Alabama’s student paper, The athletic budgets, but the detrimental. “The players who To expect Furman to match Crimson White, at the time. school estimated it would save were there were not motivated dollars with behemoths like “To us, he was never given the $375,000–$400,000 annually and not happy,” she says. Alabama is unrealistic, even in benefits he could have been when it proposed the elimina- Ekey followed Suh and a sport like women’s golf, and given.” tion of the men’s golf team in Sturm to Alabama following the the financial arms race that Furman athletic director February of 2014 as part of an 2007 season, and in 2012, after began in the 1990s has been Gary Clark ’74, who has been effort to make up a $6.4 million Furman failed to qualify for re- particularly difficult on small on the job since 2000, admits budget deficit. It’s likely more gionals for the second season in liberal arts schools. Potter nev- the school embraced the status is spent on the women, which a row, Hanna was let go—a little er publicly blamed his leaving quo too enthusiastically. “Not is a lot to be sure, but a drop in more than a month after Potter’s on lack of resources, but some so much cuts as the budget the bucket compared to what Crimson Tide won the national of his players did. didn’t grow to keep pace with major Division I programs championship.