{"id":30898,"date":"2024-03-27T14:24:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T18:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30898"},"modified":"2024-06-11T09:34:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T13:34:32","slug":"a-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/a-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sam

Lape finished in second place and claimed the regional\u2019s lone individual qualifying spot for the NCAA Championship at the NCAA Salem Regional this past May. \/ Jeremy Fleming \u201908<\/p><\/div>\n

In February of 2014, the men\u2019s golf program at Furman looked down for the count. The university had eliminated the sport due to financial concerns, and it was only a gallant fundraising effort by alumni and supporters that got the program off the mat and back into the game.<\/p>\n

The alumni and supporters have continued to do their part. Fred and Lyn Stubblefield of Charlotte, North Carolina, provided a major, $1 million gift to men\u2019s golf in 2015, and the endowed scholarship fund now stands at an impressive $4.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Furman golfers also have contributed to the program\u2019s success. The Paladin teams have gotten more competitive every year over the last decade, and the last few seasons have proven just how good the Furman program can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long process to get here, but it\u2019s satisfying to see it all coming together,\u201d says Matt Davidson \u201904, who was named head coach of the men\u2019s team in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to be competitive in collegiate golf, you simply need the players. And Furman has been recruiting the kind of golfers who can routinely shoot under par and win tournaments, players who have proven to be among the best in the Southern Conference and the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Will

Will Morlan \u201924 during the 2022 Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, South Carolina. \/ Jeremy Fleming \u201908<\/p><\/div>\n

Keller Harper \u201921 finished his career with four individual tournament titles and was one of only two players in conference history to be named Player of the Year three times. He also competed as an individual in two NCAA regionals and would have likely made it three had the spring season of 2020 not been canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018-19, Jack Crosby \u201922 won two events and was named SoCon Freshman of the Year. Last season, Sam Lape \u201923 shot 15-under-par and finished second at the NCAA Salem Regional, making him the first Furman golfer since 2001 to advance to the NCAA Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Junior Will Morlan also had a memorable 2022-23 season. His stroke average of 70.06 was the lowest in the history of the Furman program. He also won three individual titles in a single season, the first to accomplish that feat since Paladin legend Brad Faxon \u201983 did it 40 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWill had an amazing sophomore year,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cHe\u2019s a good ball striker who just gets better every year. He doesn\u2019t have any glaring weaknesses right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But golf teams don\u2019t win events and qualify for NCAA tournaments with one or two good individual performances. It takes four designated golfers producing their best scores over three rounds to be competitive at the team level, and Davidson has worked hard to add the necessary depth to the program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam Lape \u201923 \/ Jeremy Fleming \u201908<\/p><\/div>\n

That was evident last season when the Paladins were ranked among the top 60 Division I teams in the country and received an at-large bid to the NCAA regional for the first time since 2002. The Paladins won the Furman Intercollegiate team championship in 2021 for only the third time in school history and captured another Intercollegiate title this past fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for guys who work hard, have good practice habits and have room to improve,\u201d says Davidson, who was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 2023. \u201cWe\u2019re not as interested in what they\u2019re shooting right now as in what they could be shooting in another two or three years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s not to like about the current state of the program? The team returns key performers from last season, and the Paladins added another solid recruiting class in the fall. The program\u2019s three current scholarships are funded almost entirely by endowment. As a result of successful fundraising, the men\u2019s golf endowment is on track to fund the full NCAA maximum of 4.5 scholarships by 2026. The team has its own golf course and practice facilities, and the South Carolina weather is favorable for golf year- round. The indoor, state-of-the-art Davis and Faxon Training Facility, which is named for former golfers Faxon and Cindy Davis \u201984, opened in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur goals each year are to win the Southern Conference championship and make it all the way to the NCAA championship finals,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cI know that\u2019s ambitious, but if we play to our potential those things are possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Morlan credits both the supporters and the Paladin coaches for the progress the program made over the last few years. He said Davidson has made him a better player, both technically and mentally, and his teammates are well aware of the sacrifices people have made to keep the program going.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always talking about being grateful and not taking for granted what we\u2019ve been given,\u201d Morlan says. \u201cOur unbelievable facilities, the scholarship assistance, the fact that we can play this sport competitively. We\u2019re getting close to where we think the program should be. We\u2019ve got the talent. We can be as good as we want to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Men’s golf at Furman is thriving after donors stepped up to save the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":30899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1963,2662,2660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-furman-magazine","category-notes-from-the-field-spring-2024","category-spring-2024"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32584,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30898\/revisions\/32584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}