The Methodist University men's golf team won its 11th NCAA National Championship on Friday. Methodist as a whole has won 36 National Championships in golf. The success is helped by the fact Methodist has a PGA Golf Management program, one of 19 in the country, where students can concentrate in "golf," earn a degree and graduate as a PGA Professional. There aren't a ton of small colleges or universities with an 18-hole golf course on campus and a couple hundred students there for golf giving MU a niche market.
I had no idea Methodist was a "golf school" when I decided to attend in the fall of 2000. Little did I know that the women had won 10 of the last 12 titles and the men had brought back nine of 11 National Championship trophies. Unfortunately by the time a team won a trophy, they came back to an empty campus with not a lot of fanfare. Social media was limited to AOL Instant Messenger so maybe there were a few congratulatory messages, but I know the student-athletes didn't receive their due.
I was fortunate enough to work in the athletic department for seven of the 36 championships and witness one in person. The feeling is like no other... and I was just watching. They never let me hit the ball or even put the ball on a tee, but I took ownership. "We" won that championship! It's even better when the student-athletes are men and women you know. Don't get me wrong... I loved watching the Lady Vols win a NCAA Championship and the Ravens win the Super Bowl on tv... but it's a different kind of love when you can see people you know and care about win it all.
This year I saw the Championship from a different perspective. We were working hard in the office on Friday of the final round of the tournament, but tried to keep up with the live stats in the background. Methodist had started the day five strokes back... not an insurmountable lead, but not a cake walk either. After lunch we turned to the live video feed and there was a slight echo around the office with four different computers trying to follow along. Methodist had the lead and then didn't. We were tied and then we fell back and then we had the lead. It took forever for the other teams to finish before we knew that Methodist had won. They clinched it just after 3:00 p.m. and my social media feeds erupted for the rest of the night.
The @methodist_monarchs instagram account posted a celebration video that we shared on the Methodist Alumni Facebook page and it took off. Just on our page, we've had nearly 6,000 views, almost 200 likes and 83 shares not to mention all the likes and comments on the pages where it was shared.
My favorite part of the day was watching the reach of this championship. The team still came back to a quiet campus Friday night, but social media was buzzing all weekend. People who have never played golf were sending congratulations. People who are usually complaining about something MU did or didn't do, were sharing the video. The excitement was contagious as my feed was full of people taking ownership of the championship. Alumni especially were bleeding green and gold, anxious to claim their alma mater.
Methodist does a ton of great things besides win golf championships, but winning definitely had Monarch Nation overflowing with pride this weekend. Congratulations to Coach Conley and the guys and thank you for letting us share this with you!
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