The Monarchists sit down with ODU women's golf coach Mallory Kane and discuss recruiting internationally, fundraising, budgets, local golf and the usual Monarchists stuff.

If you have a moment, please take the time to support the great charities doing work Coach Kane admires.

Folds of Honor - https://www.chkd.org/Support-Us/Donate-Online/

America's Gold Star Families -https://www.americasgoldstarfamilies.org/

Blue Star Families - https://bluestarfam.org/

Children of Fallen Patriots - https://www.fallenpatriots.org/

For more information on how to donate to Old Dominion Athletics please visit https://www.olddominionaf.com/

For women's golf specific giving please visit https://www.olddominionaf.com/giving/sport-specific-giving/womens-golf/

Hi, I'm Jay Harris and you are listening to the monarchist podcast.

Hope you enjoy it.

I'm Erin

And I'm Mike

and you're listening to the monarchist podcast today.

We welcome Mallory Kane, head coach of our old dominion women's golf team.

Mallory played at the university of Georgia and coach for six seasons at

Western Carolina before joining ODU in 2016, Mallory's joining us live

from Scottsdale Arizona, where she coaching Yana Miller Covo and the

division one women's golf championship.

Welcome to the show Mallory.

Thank you guys.

I appreciate you having me on.

well, a congrats on a great year.

We know you're in Arizona supporting Jana.

The first ODU women's golfer to make the division one national championship finals.

How does it feel to be the first coach to lead the player there?

Well you know, it's not about me as the coach, right?

It's about her as the player.

I mean, she's the one that she's really the one that got me here.

So we're just excited.

We played our practice round today and just incredible venue at gray Hawk

in Scottsdale and just feel, it feels like you're playing in a national

championship with the, the, the signage with the, just the, how great the

golf courses and seeing all the, all the top teams and top players around.

It just feels really special to get, to be a part of it.

And obviously a big Jay as I call her has had a fantastic year and just kind

of went through the gauntlet to get here.

It's so tough to make the national championship in golf and she's,

she's jumped every hurdle, so to speak, to get here and.

Hopefully we can really enjoy the next four days and she can

put on another great performance.

so what's that course like what kind of features does

it kind of play, will it play.

Greyhawk so gray Hawk golf club in like Northern part of Scottsdale.

And it's hosted a lot of big events.

It's had some PGA tour events.

It's had a big international junior tournament here.

Phil Mickelson and a lot of the other Phoenix based pros play out here.

Great practice facility desert golf, you know, big green fairways, but

if you're off of them, you're in the desert, you're in the cactus.

The greens are undulating.

Bunkers are really deep.

It's definitely a shotmakers golf course.

You've got to keep it in play.

You've got to really keep your your head about you.

Cause it tempts you, it tempts you to want to kind of go for it.

Every hole has a little go for it and it, and you've just

got to stay super disciplined.

Keep the ball in front of you and yeah, just be patient shot by

shot all that boring golf stuff.

Fall to me.

That's boring.

I can talk to you about that course all day, but I'll let Erin keep us.

Nice.

Well, let's take, let's roll back in time a little bit here, Mallory.

So we know that you grew up in Summerville, South Carolina.

How old were you when you first picked up a club?

And at what age did you know that a career in golf was a possibility.

Well I did grow up in Somerville, near Charleston.

We moved a little bit because my dad was an air force pilot.

So we were also, he was also based up at Andrews, you know, up near DC and

then over in Warner Robins in Georgia, but ultimately back in Charleston

he was a great golfer himself.

He had a great eye for the game.

And so he kinda got me into it when I was about 10 years old, you

know, I played other sports, like a lot of little kids do soccer.

This and that, but just loved going out and playing with my dad.

And he was very helpful with, you know, getting me the right equipment

providing me with great instruction and just great opportunity you

know, to play in tournaments and get, you know, the necessary, I

guess, exposure and experience that you need to progress in the game.

I would say he was probably a little ahead of his time as far as, you

know, being a parent of a very successful, you know, kid in sports.

You know, he really limited me actually in as much as I could play

and practice, he always wanted me to be excited to go to the golf course.

He wanted it to be something that I truly enjoyed and wanted to do.

Maybe a little different than nowadays when parents can be a little

too overbearing and too involved.

He was the perfect mix for what I needed and No.

Once I was in high school, I played, I played on the boys' high school

team at Somerville high school.

We didn't have a girls team at that time.

And that was a great experience.

I absolutely loved it.

Really challenged me in a lot of different ways.

Cause I was playing in the, you know, in the back tees with the,

with the guys made me a lot tougher.

It made me a lot stronger and then started doing a lot of junior

tournaments around the country.

And you know, received offers from gosh, a ton of division

one schools around the country.

I was very lucky I could have picked, you know, just about anywhere to go to school.

Very fortunate and you know, it was probably then that, that I realized

that, you know, I can take this with a scholarship to the university of Georgia

and, and possibly turn it into some type of, you know, lucrative career.

So you mentioned Georgia.

Do you have a favorite moment or memory of your time?

Oh, gosh the 2005 sec football game, and it probably wasn't

even, it's not a golf memory.

We had lots of, we did win the sec championship my sophomore year

by a record margin over Florida.

Then we did play in four national championships.

And I did win a tournament individually on Vegas, but I'm such a football

nut that my best memories of school were probably probably spent at

football games and it tailgates.

And we had, you know, great those a great time football at Georgia

when I was there as Matt Stafford and no Sean Moreno and Todd Gurley.

And so, sorry, sorry, not Todd Thomas Brown.

I mean just a great group of guys that were on the football

team and a good time to be a fan.

so I'm well aware.

I was at Tennessee at the same time you were at.

Oh, man.

I didn't know this about you, Mike.

Yeah,

we didn't tell you.

We didn't tell you before we asked you to come on the podcast or it was strategic.

Yeah.

It's changes things now.

but I am an overdue alum as well.

So don't hate me.

Oh, all right.

Mallory.

Before you accepted the old dominion job, you were the head coach at

Western Carolina for six years.

What you leave and head to Norfolk.

Well I will always be grateful to Western Carolina

because they provided, we provided me with my very first opportunity.

I was 23 years old, six months from graduation, you know, no

work experience whatsoever ever.

And they hired me to be a division one head coach.

So very, very lucky that I was able to, you know, get the interview and

get in there and somehow convince them to hire, you know, a kid you

know, to, to head up their program.

So with that being said, you know, six years there was, I think enough time.

It it is a very rural place to live with very, very limited

resources for the golf teams.

So for me I really couldn't pack my things fast enough to, to get

over to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Like you said, I'm from Somerville and from Charleston,

I love being near the water.

I'm not a mountains girl.

I guess they're nice for the, for the occasional weekend trip or something, but

like I said, I've so appreciate my time there and, and we'll forever be in debt

to them, but ODU just offered so much more in terms of the golf program, the

resources of facilities where you live.

It was just a no-brainer I couldn't couldn't get there fast enough.

So since taken over, it's clear recruiting internationally is a

big part of building old demand golf.

How does that process work?

Like how hard is it identifying that these athletes from all over the world,

how do you sell them on the school?

How do you show them the school?

What,

Right.

without a visit.

Well, we have had a very ODU has had a very international women's

golf program for a while now, dates back even before my days there.

And what I try to tell people is, cause you know, I do get the occasional.

You know, questions of, you know, why don't we have more players

from the state of Virginia?

Why don't we have more players from the United States?

But what I encourage people is, you know, to think about is, you know,

kind of think outside the box a little bit more, be a little bit more

open-minded golf is played globally.

And so the globe is our recruiting map and the United States is the only place

in the world where you can combine high level amateur sport and higher education

while getting a scholarship to pay for it.

You know, that is what this great country offers.

You know, whether you like college sports or not, it is a wonderful opportunity.

And people around the globe know that and they appreciate it.

And so I look at recruiting, other countries, just like I look at

recruiting another state if you're a good person with good grades

and you're a good enough golfer.

We want you, and we don't care where you're from or what your

mom and dad do, or you know, what your religion is or your color is.

We look at the character of the person and the quality of the student athlete.

It's just that simple.

Now like you asked how, you know, how do we get there?

Like everything in life.

It's just so much to be found on the internet, right?

As far as research of scores and swing videos and rankings, a ton of

word of mouth we get a good player.

We ask her, Hey, who's the next youngster coming up behind you?

And we've had great success with that.

We get a lot of players very last minute.

We've been recruiting off the portal a lot.

We are not going to get players that were, that commit to us

a year or two ahead of time.

That's just not going to happen for us.

And we don't even try to We get a lot of late bloomers.

And like I said, situations that are very last minute.

So our recruiting strategy would probably scare some coaches to death.

The way that we do it, but it's been working for us, you know,

we will continue to do that.

And like I said, we don't care where the player is from.

It is truly about, you know, who they are as a person and can they get it done

in the classroom and on the golf course?

So once they reach campus imagine Norfolk is very

different than a lot of these places.

Are we dealing with a lot of culture shock or homesickness.

You know, I think there is always a little bit of that.

And I guess there's probably that for the 18 year old freshmen,

that's from Suffolk, right?

I mean, there, there's just a little bit of that, no matter what, when

you're 18 and a freshman and going off to school, but I think all of

these women that we have recruited, they, there's a piece of them.

That's obviously a little bit adventurous or a little bit brave to make this jump.

I mean, I know I, and I'm sure you guys would say the same thing.

I can only imagine at 18 going across the world to another country

to go to college, it was all I could do to go to the next state.

So they, they're very internationally traveled.

They're very mature.

And they're very sure of themselves as they make this step.

Is there the homesickness?

Absolutely.

Some culture differences.

Yes.

Usually the biggest thing is just food.

You know, food is different.

The Europeans always say, when they get here in August that we are pumping

the air, the air conditioning, like no other, and they're not used to that.

Eat too early in the day, too.

yeah, we do.

Yes, we do.

We do, our dinners are way too early.

Our portions are way too big.

But yeah, it's, it is you know, it is, it is obviously an adjustment, but I

think one of the things that we've had success with is because we are so diverse

because we are so international, that is actually what brings everyone together.

And they can really bond over that.

And we just try to make people feel like this is your second home.

You know, we're not here to replace your family.

We're not here to replace back home.

We want to be your, your second home and know that you've

got a second family and us.

So So far so good on that.

You know, we've had great retention rates and people are happy and

they're doing well and graduating.

So whatever Rachel and I are cooking up is working.

That's really insightful.

So obviously you and Rachel stay busy year round.

So when you invest time in scouting potential future

model, Your time is valuable.

It's scarce.

So you've got to maximize those resources.

You don't, it's not like you have a staff of 10, you know, there's two of

you that are, that are doing all this.

So you talked a little bit about what you look for with regards to

being a good student and being a good person, but obviously you're

recruiting folks to come and play golf.

So what golf attributes are you looking at that are going to give you the

confidence in extending a scholarship?

Well, the first thing that we want to look for is a good app.

You know, some people may argue that golf is not much of a sport

but you know, what do they know?

Yeah, so we looked, we looked for, we look for great athletes, first

people that have played other sports.

There's just something to be said for someone who's a well-rounded athlete

because that translates into how they practice, how they work out, how they

train, how they listen to coaching.

So that's probably the first thing we look at is just their overall

athleticism, just solid fundamentals.

If somebody has got kind of a, an odd something odd in their fundamental

fundamentals, that can be really difficult to coach when it starts to go bad.

If you have pretty basic simple fundamentals with how you

set up to the golf ball, it's easy to get you back to that.

When things kind of go a little bit sideways, I like to look for a lot of

tournament experience, someone that has played a ton of I really liked

that because it is through tournament experience that you get better.

And then probably the other, the last thing would be just PR making progress.

I love to see scores from years prior, you know, they'll send me three or

four years worth of scores and you can see, Hey, this particular player,

you know, she's a shot better here.

She's two shots better here.

You can see that she's trending in the right direction.

So, you know, in terms of their, their skills, that sort of what

we're looking at obviously you love somebody with a great short game.

If she doesn't have a great short game, you know, you love to see somebody with

a long hitter or that is a long hitter.

But yeah, that, that would be what we would look for.

You know, like you said, from a, from a physical attribute.

all right.

So going a little bit deeper on that.

Let's let's say you get two golfers to pick from and yelling at one spot.

One's a great ball.

Striker.

The other one's the big.

And they're both great people and great students.

How do you make the decision?

Well ball striking, you know, ball striking is so much more consistent,

you know, cause with good ball striking, typically comes good course management

and that through the long haul we'll we'll pan will pan out you know, long hitters.

I really haven't recruited that many long hitters to be honest with you.

Although if my players are listening, they'd probably say what the

heck, we're all long hair coach.

We're all long hitters.

I'm sure they could all drive me

I was going to say, yeah, compared to me, man.

no, I mean it's, you know, consistency is so important,

especially with how college golf works.

You know, we play four or five events in the fall, six or seven in the spring.

You know, you have these back-to-back weeks where you're not

really getting in much practice.

It's just travel and tournaments really difficult conditions, different courses,

different grasses, the consistent place.

It's the player who ultimately is what you're looking for.

Absolutely.

So once you've made the decision you want to extend the scholarship offer,

how do you sell old dominion to the.

Gosh, you know, to me, that's the biggest thing that I

sell right off the bat is just that it's a great place to live.

You know, I love where we live.

I think it's a wonderful place to live, to work, to go to school,

to play golf, to have a family you know, yes, this is where you're

going to school, but it is your home.

It's your second home as we talked about and you're going to be there for

four years, so great place to live.

Obviously we have wonderful supportive people around our program and that

is probably our number one sell.

If you will.

Rachel May our, our team, you know, we are going to do everything

we can to meet you where we are.

We're very much about the individual.

I want people to be themselves to the fullest.

We do not try to put anybody into a box.

You're just as individual as your golf swing.

And we try to coach as such, we try to coach, or we tried to adapt to our players

needs rather than the other way around.

We don't have many rules.

We don't have many team policies.

We really just try to meet everybody where they are, because I have found

that when you can get these players to be happy and comfortable and really

trusting in you, they will be their best.

And that's in everything.

That's in the classroom.

That's on the golf course.

That's just in life.

So for us, it's all about creating that environment.

People are like, Hey, I'm valued.

You know, who I am as an individual is valued.

They're meeting me where I am.

You know, I can, I can, you know, speak up and contribute to the conversation.

And my coaches take me seriously.

My teammates respect me.

And I know that all that combined will lead to success.

so we know this is the last year of Lambert's point golf course, which

as a member of the Lambridge sport golf course association, I'm very sad about

what is the loss of that course mean for your program and how do we adapt?

there's a couple of things there, you know, for us, Lambert's point been

a real selling point in recruiting.

Because we can offer a facility.

That's I say, it's on campus.

I know that technically it is off campus.

But we sell it as a facility that's on campus that the student athletes

can walk to from their dorm.

And just a few minutes you know, it's, it's their home.

Every other team has a locker room.

Every other team has a facility.

And for golf, this, this is it.

You know, that's where our locker room is.

Our team lounge, our co coaches offices.

That is our, our little home.

It's where we meet every day.

And the facility itself, you know, like I said, we sell it

as something that's convenient.

For our players to get out and practice an actual, you know, day to day, you

know, practically, what are we doing?

We're going off campus.

We're going off campus to play in practice four or five days a week.

It is not somewhere where we have been getting in our absolute best work.

You know, I would save that for princess Anne for Bayville, for riverfront

Cedar point and of course, Elizabeth manner with their recent renovation.

So I think more than anything, it's it's we want our players to have a home.

You know, the basketball team has a nice home.

The soccer team has a nice home golf needs to have a nice home and

the, the players need to have their, their facility that they can go

to, to you know, put their work in.

But to also feel like, you know, they have something there on

campus that belongs to them.

I want to circle back.

Mike asked you about recruiting and obviously International's a huge focus.

So I'm looking at the roster and I see Czech Republic, Argentina, Japan, Italy.

What else?

I know I'm missing one more.

Nalgene.

I mean, so we're, we're all over the place.

So how do you, how do you show the school?

Are you going around campus with face time?

Like what if I'm going to recruit, which obviously I'm not because my golf

swing stinks, but if I were, and I lived across the Atlantic ocean, tell me what

kind of, what, what I would expect.

Yeah.

So we have a, basically just a template email that we have come up

with at this point that that has some links and some videos to different

facilities, parts of campus golf courses that we feel like best highlights.

What we do have to offer, not only from athletic facilities,

but just the campus in general.

So that's sort of our template, email, you know, email that we'll

send out and we'll FaceTime them.

You know, we'll send them pictures from practice and videos from practice.

You know, again, just back to the internet and the phones and everything

that, that you can do there.

But just really, you know, reassuring them that this is a wonderful place to

get an education and that the people here are really, what's gonna make

the difference for you as a recruit.

Everybody has a gym.

Everybody has a squat rack.

Everybody has a classroom with a desk and a smart board, and everybody has a

study hall, but at the end of the day, what's going to ultimately make the

biggest difference in your experience.

As a student athlete in college is the people you surround yourself with.

Obviously some places maybe just have budgets and facilities that are just

out of this world, and maybe that will make a little bit of a difference,

but leadership is still the most important and the support around

your players is the most important.

So we do what we can to show them.

Yeah, like you said, the FaceTime and stuff like that, and videos

try to get the, you know, a good, good feel for what they're getting.

But mainly it's just about getting them in touch with as many people as

possible so that they can feel well.

Well, it sounds like you've got to, you got it down,

pat, on how to connect with them.

Mike and I had the opportunity to come to a cool event that you had

recently, and you certainly connected with us and other friends of the.

Tell us a little bit about that event and kind of what the

thought process behind that.

Sure.

So many years ago, it started with the men's golf team.

A group of supporters ODF members sort of forged a little group

within a group, if you will.

And they call themselves the friends of golf and they started, I guess we're

coming up on 10 years now, a dinner at the Norfolk yacht club and this dinner.

Pretty much everyone in attendance was, was donated a significant amount of money

to the, to the golf teams, you know, fancy dinner, everybody was dressed up.

The coaches would speak a couple of the players would speak and just a great time

for everyone to just mingle and get to know each other, a really great event.

And that has grown over the years.

But what we got to thinking was, you know, we see these people in

November and we ask them for some money and then we just sorta like,

all right, see you next time November.

So the idea was, let's do something, you know, in the spring time where we get

these, the same group of people in some others as well to come out, you know, to

our place and to see our players rather than all dress up and had a fancy dinner,

let's see them in their environment and get people kind of mingling together

as we did on the range, the chipping green, the putting green, just get

the conversation, flowing that way.

So it was very much just kind of.

Brainstorming idea that we had, that we just kind of put together in a couple

of weeks, if I'm being honest, it wasn't meant to be anything really fancy.

You know, we had some food and some you know, some drinks for folks,

but really it was just about getting our supporters face to face with our

student athletes in their environment.

And I think that it really exceeded everybody's expectations.

You know, we were already brainstorming for next year.

Just some other things that we can do to make it bigger and better.

But I was so impressed with our supporters and the student athletes,

how they really just went for it.

You know, people were hitting balls, people were chipping in

putting, they were getting tips.

You know, everybody was just having a blast and that is

ultimately what it was all about.

And I love that about golf that you can do that together.

Right.

It's just difficult with other sports, you know, how do you do that in a football

or a, or a baseball, something like that.

But with.

You know, you can just be right there together, you know, sharing in it.

And yeah, I was so impressed with everybody that night.

It was really a blast and we definitely will be doing it more.

I could even see it as doing it maybe twice a year, once in

the fall, once in the spring.

Maybe something in conjunction with the football weekend.

I don't know the, the kind of the sky's the limit on that thing.

So thank you guys for being there and supporting, and I believe Aaron,

do you want our putting contests?

If I'm not mistaken?

did, but that, I think that there wasn't necessarily a great skill.

I think I had just happened to maybe get lucky.

That's right.

And he did.

So we're talking about donors, ultimately

donors lead to the team budget.

So how does that manage are you doing that on your own or are you working

with someone in the athletic department?

Sure.

You know, we do a lot in conjunction with, with ODAC and their staff.

They're extremely helpful in terms of getting us coaches and players in front of

the right people and kind of just helping us organize you know, maybe who to talk to

or when to talk to, but ultimately, yeah, you know, as a coach you know, the ball's

in your court and you can do as much as you want, or, or as little as you want.

For me personally, I've done a ton and we've been very successful with that.

And as we have seen, the more successful our fundraising has been, the more

successful our golf team has been.

It allows us to do the things that we need to do first and foremost is our schedule.

Our strength of schedule has gotten so much better in the last six years.

And that is because we now have, you know, the money to fly to the better tournaments

and our team has gotten better.

So we're getting invitations to bigger events.

Everything in golf is invitation, a lonely.

So you know, now I don't have to say no, I, you know, I can't afford it.

I'll just raise the money and we will fly to Las Vegas, or we will

fly to Texas, whatever it may be to play the best tournament.

And then up goes the national ranking.

The next part of it is you gotta have money to bring recruits

over on official visits.

We talked about that we're flying people in from all over the world, so

we've gotta be able to afford those plane tickets to get them over here.

So The budget that we start with at the beginning of the year is not nearly

enough for what it is that we want to do.

If we just spend that we would not be nearly as successful.

And quite frankly, our student athletes would not be having the, the, the,

the best experience they could have.

So yeah, we do work our tails off to fundraise, and we have wonderful

supporters, wonderful supporters.

These are people that just, not only do they give of their, of their money,

but they give their time always sending supportive messages, calls, just so

thoughtful in their support of our team.

And you know, again, it goes back to kind of that second family feeling.

I know that my players, you know, they, they know that and they feel that, and

it ha it helps them in doing better.

They really want to do better for those that support us.

so speaking of big supporters, September last year,

it was announced that Evo ODMs made a very generous donation to the.

The largest gift ever to a woman's sports program at ODU $525,000.

How has that helps the program move forward in the last year?

So Evie became a friend of the program through our women's

collegiate tournament that we host at the princess Anne.

She was a volunteer, she was a, one of our live scores and just came

out and, you know, did her shift.

But really just loved it.

She loved seeing, you know, these top division one women athletes on her

course, you know, playing so well and enjoying themselves that had just sort

of inspired her, I guess, to be a little more interested in us and interested

in our, in our team and our needs.

You know, Evie is, is such a huge supporter of women's sports

in general, but especially golf and especially golf in our area.

She was sort of a pre-Title non women's athlete.

If you will, you know, she didn't quite get the benefit that, you know, people

of my era certainly certainly have had.

And so for her, it's really about, you know, giving to giving to

women so that they can have the experience that she didn't quite have.

So the, the donation that, that her and her husband Hugh did for us, it benefits a

number of things first and foremost is the tournament that we have at princess Anne.

We have now actually changed the name to the invitational in her honor.

We felt like she was making such an, you know, an unbelievable impact.

We wanted to at least extend.

Offered to her.

And she, you know, definitely humbly accepted and we think it's you know,

that that piece of the donation directly supports the tournament.

So what is that?

It's the dinners, it's the breakfast, it's the tea gifts.

It's the coaches gifts, signage, just everything to kind of

give wow factor to the event.

I mean, as far as the regular season event goes, you'll be hard pressed to

find a better one around the country.

It is just very, very first-class.

We have so many volunteers that come out, we have live scoring every hall,

which is something that you really only see at the NCAA tournaments.

It's just a classy event and, and her donation has really just upped

everything that we were already doing.

She's got some other, other parts of that donation go, you know, directly to

supporting this, the team's budget which gives me, it's not, you know, directed

anything which gives me ultimately.

Just as much say as possible and where that goes.

And she understands how helpful that is to not have my hands tied with it.

So what they're doing is, is extremely helpful.

And I think that again, the donations go up, the program gets better.

And you know, I think it's really cool that the largest donation, you

know, to a women's sport came from a woman and came to women's golf.

I think that I hope that others recognize that.

I think I hope others see that and they are inspired and encouraged

to try to do more of the same.

Yeah, it's pretty remarkable.

Speaking of the invitational, how do, how do you get those fields?

Like when did you put those invitations out?

How does that work?

So we'll, we'll take it back.

So when I got to ODU, we did not have.

What we call home tournament.

We did not have a home game.

And I mean, can you imagine, you know, any other sport not having

a home game, it's just crazy.

And I felt like that was a huge hole in our schedule.

We have great golf courses in this area.

We should definitely be hosting and our players deserve a home game.

Our fans deserve an opportunity to drive down the street and watch us play.

So, you know, we were playing all the different courses and I just

happened to, to make a form of very special relationship with Matt

Leibler and the staff at princess.

And they have been so phenomenal to our program.

So phenomenal to me personally just great friends, great friends,

and they, they certainly put together a, a first-class event.

And what they do to run our event really helps.

How do we get the teams?

Like I said, everything in golf is invitational only and we

send these invitations out like 12 to 14 months in advance.

And we're trying to get the very best teams.

And in hopes that, you know, if I invite such and such great team, that coach

will then invite me back to their great tournament, sort of as a reciprocal.

So I'm very strategic, you know, with who you invite.

And we've got teams literally from all over the country.

That want to come and play.

So 15 teams is what we have and that's an average standard size

college, regular season event field.

So first, full weekend in October is when we do it.

And it's just a great experience.

I know we we've already talked about doing something with the tournament,

you know, when the time comes, but yeah, it's such a fun, such a fun weekend.

Our players get really into it.

We have great support and people that do get to come out and watch a little bit.

They, they love it.

They, you know, a lot of people would never been to a college golf

tournament and they don't realize you just get right out there and walk

alongside and you're kind of in the action and yeah, it is a lot of fun.

And we're looking forward to doing it again this October.

I'm looking forward to it.

So if someone were to volunteer for that event, is that something they could do?

Yeah, we will.

We have a pretty good pretty already have a pretty good volunteer base,

but I would definitely love to have more ODU people if you will.

And supporting that.

We have lots of members from the club at princess Anne

Bayville, cavalier that come.

We have some local golf teams of volunteer and just personal friends

of mine and family, stuff like that.

But we would love to have more just true ODU people out there volunteering.

So, you know, when the time comes, we will definitely do as much as we can

to promote that through our website or whatever we feel like is the best

possible means of getting that out there so that people have the information

if they want to volunteer, or if they just want to come out and watch.

no, I'd be definitely interested in, I imagine some of our

listeners will be too, so make sure you send that to us and we can split the.

Yeah, the lives, the live scoring volunteering is the best.

You've got a golf cart for the day with a group and you just follow

that group and keep their score.

And it goes up onto the live website.

You know, it's a golf stout, which you guys have now

probably become familiar with.

And so you're just right there.

I mean, you're right there in the action with them.

And that's, that's usually the most coveted volunteer spot just

because it is so interactive.

Well, shoot Mike, I'm in, if you are.

I get to drive though.

So obviously Mike, golf's a lot more than me.

It's been a little while since I've spent a whole lot of time on

the golf course, but I've got some pretty funny stories from my time.

Not that I ever fell out of a golf cart with Cheetos or anything

like that, but what's your best golf story that you'd have Maori.

Gosh, I have a great one.

It's not the most appropriate, but I will.

I promise, I

That's okay.

We've got, you might set us up with the explicit little thing, so it's okay.

Well, I'll tell you the, yeah, I can tell you the part, part of the story.

But yeah, the the USDA started this four ball championship about

things in 2015, they started it.

And I got, I was fortunate enough to qualify with, with a friend of mine.

We went out and played and it, this incredible golfers or abandoned dunes

in Southwest Oregon just phenomenal.

And

dream vacations.

it was Oregon has organized some of the most.

Underrated golf in the country.

No doubt, great golf in Oregon.

So we go out there and we're, we're paired with two very young players.

I'm in my late twenties.

My partner's in her early forties and we're paired with a 12 year old and a

17 year old and a 12 year old was this girl, Lucy Lee, who actually became famous

for qualifying for the women's open at like 11 down in Pinehurst and eating ice

cream during her interviews or something.

And so we're playing and my partner makes like a 20 footer

for par, like the fourth hole.

And I'm standing over on the side of the green and I clap for, and

I say, Hey, way to go partner.

And one of the young ones standing right next to me and she looks over at me.

She goes, well, aren't you the competitive.

I said, damn, I can't believe this girl having nervous say that to me.

So anyway, we're, we're going along and all day I'd been the longer

hitter in our foursome and this girls up ahead of me were walking down.

I think it was like 15 or 16 and we're walking down there to the drives.

And she's already down by our golf balls and she's standing by our golf

balls are right next to each other.

She's standing right over top and she's looking at him and she's

looking back at me and looking at the balls and looking back at me.

So I get down, you know, get to the where she is.

And she goes, well, it looks like I got you on this one.

And I'm looking at this whole thing.

And I said, well, I said, you know what?

I said, it looks like you did.

But I said, my, you know, what's are bigger than yours.

And I'm sure.

The caddies were just, the caddies were about fell on the ground.

didn't know what to say.

I finally shut her up for the day.

But it was yeah, it was it was a good little one-liner that I shared, but it

it kind of extends a little further.

She ended up playing at the university of Oregon.

And my first year at ODU, we were down at ECU playing in a tournament and

Oregon was there and we get on the elevator with Oregon and she looks

over at me and I'm kind of looking at her and she said, big is that you?

And I said little, is that you.

Sure enough actually a great gal.

We've we've, we've kept in touch a great gal.

But that, that same, that same week right after that, they we, we miss the

cut and these kids, they killed us.

I will say they were phenomenal golfers and they've smoked us.

We missed the cut.

And one of the things that you got to do while you were out there was play the

other golf courses for free while you were, there were like $500 round value.

So I Peck.

Yeah, I was going.

And so I go out to Bandon trails to play.

It's just, I'm by myself, just carry my bag by myself, nobody at this resort.

And I come up on these, these two guys and I just said, Hey, you guys, I'm

a single, you know, can I join you?

And I said, sure.

You know, come on.

Turns out it was this guy, Josh Lesnik, who was the general

manager of Kemper sports.

Which manages a ton of phenomenal golfers around the country and then

Mike Davis with which, if anybody is a true, true golfer, Mike Davis was

just went out the president of the USDA, tiny guy with the bald head and

the glasses that sets the pins at the U S open that everybody always yells

at for the terrible greens, this guy.

So I recognize Mike, oh my gosh, I cannot believe this.

I'm like, I'm playing with these guys.

So I'm like, okay, you know, I better, you know, button up, you know, you

know, be on your best behavior.

So we're playing and we get around to like the fourth or fifth hole

hits a little comfort station.

So they go in to get something I'm thinking, you know, these guys, were they

going to get like an ice tea or like a Gatorade or something, you know, lame.

Double tequila, splash of lemonade.

And then Mike Davis, I shouldn't even be saying his name, but the

guy from the USDA will say gets a, gets a double, what did he get?

Double some kind of bourbon, double bourbon, neat.

I'm going, what a drink order on the golf course.

So I Mallory, you know, what do you want?

I'm going, ah, you know, just something with a whole montage or something.

So they order my drink to an hour drinking implying, and we'd

come back around to it again.

And like five or six holes.

Get her another double.

Well, now I'm a little loose lipped and we're playing and I'm a little

too just, you know, feeling good.

And I decide that I'm going to tell those guys this story.

So here I am telling Mike Davis, the USDA, the most like button-up man in all

of golf, this ridiculous story about my, you know, what's and yeah, so I told, I

told him the story, he died, laughing.

He thought it was hilarious, but to this day I'm so embarrassed.

And I said that in front of him.

But yeah, Bandon dunes, great place.

Good, good golf stories.

did you get out on the preserve?

Yes.

Incredible played.

All of them.

Incredible would go back in a heartbeat.

I would love to go with my brother for the summer solstice tournament.

It is a on summer somersaults, as long as day of the year,

you try to play every hole.

Every course, obviously you're walking caddies.

Most people don't quite make it, but it is start right there at sunup

and you just go and try to fit.

yeah, it sounds like.

Have you seen the a hundred whole walk charity?

I don't think so.

So you get a foursome together and you try to raise

money, you get pledges for how many holes you play and you try

to play a hundred holes in a day.

Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no.

I have seen that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm trying to get my group together for that so

we can go do it at sweetens Cove.

Yeah.

I've heard great things about Sweden scope.

Yeah.

It's phenomenal place

No,

All right.

2017 conference USA, champs.

Pretty cool.

Great accomplishment.

Is that your best ODU golf memory?

And if not, what is.

I mean, a conference championships are really special.

Obviously they're so difficult to win.

That was especially memorable because my now assistant Rachel was a senior and,

you know, for her to get to go out on top, like that was really, really special.

She had struggled that particular tournament, and I know it was just a

wreck over cause she so badly wanted to, you know, be able to help the

team as she did her whole career.

But just to see her teammates play as well as they did that last day to when it was

a lot of fun and it's memorable because you know, you're seeing it through their

eyes, you know what it means to them.

It sounds cheesy or corny, but I mean, that really is what it's all about.

Like you want to see them just truly.

And join.

And I remember I just kinda stood back and just watch them celebrate because

it was, to me, it was that, that was the memory that I wanted to have was

rather than being in the middle of it.

Just get to kind of stand back and see them.

Gosh, we've had some good ones.

So, you know, the we were 2019, we're out in Cleo and Washington

at the, the regional out there, you know, the regional, they

qualifies you for nationals.

And we were leading about halfway through the first day.

We just started on a tear.

I think we were like 6, 7, 8 under, through nine holes.

And we were beating Southern Cal and duke and South Carolina and all these teams.

And they had the not the electronic, not the digital scoreboards, but the, you

know, the why they have the masters that kind of where they do it themselves.

Sole dominion on top of all those schools.

And I was like, man, I wish we could just end the tournament right now and go home.

It was incredible.

Yeah.

You know, three

take a picture.

hell yeah.

It's like a picture.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, we we've, we've had, obviously in six years you got to kick

one out for COVID, but in five years we've had a conference championship.

We've taken three teams to regionals, which is essentially our regionals

is like the first two rounds of the basketball tournament.

Yeah.

And now we've taken two individuals to regionals and now

we've kicked down the door and we're at the national championship with an

individual with obviously the night.

You know, bringing the team here.

So, you know, sometimes progress can be really slow certainly in the game of golf.

But when you kind of sit back and look at it like that, it's

like, man, we're, we're doing it.

Like we're really doing it.

We're, we're taking the necessary steps.

But you know, the best memory is it's just seeing it through the

players, you know, graduation days, you know, their individual

victories or personal best rounds.

You know, that, that is really what I just love so much as a coach then

obviously when it happens in golf, it's extra special because golf is more

about dealing with dealing with your failures than dealing with, with wins.

Right?

So any little success that we get to share with our team I

just try to soak it all up.

So coaching.

We knew during tournaments and practicing, it's going to be totally different.

You're helping them fine tune things.

When they're at the range or during a practice round, what is the

coaching like during a tournament?

right.

Good question.

Cause a lot, a lot of people don't know this.

So during tournaments, you are essentially a caddy minus that

you can't carry their clubs.

So you can, you can read pots, you can rake bunkers.

You're helping with clubs, election, you know, looking at the yardage book,

looking at the whole location sheet, you know, kind of coming up with a

strategy for that particular shot.

So.

Every day is a little different, you know, depending on just where we are, what

the course is, what the conditions are.

It's just kind of an ongoing conversation of where I need to be, where Rachel

needs to be, which player needs, what some players we call it handholding.

They lacked a lot of help.

They like a lot of attention and others are, you know, just, just leave me alone.

I'm fine.

So yeah, it's always, it's always evolving when it comes to that, but

we try to help where we feel like where we feel like we can sometimes

in golf, you just gotta let them go.

Like you said, we do a lot of work back home with the swings and short game.

We do a lot of work in the practice round, coming up with a strategy.

If you've got great players, let them go play.

Sometimes that can be hard in golf.

You see a lot of over coaching out there.

I just try to let them be independent and believe in themselves and

if they want us, we'll be there.

So in this case where you're out in Scottsdale and, you know, I mean,

what was it less than a week ago, right.

We're qualified for that.

So, you know, you're going out a couple of you are going out there for this.

And I'm guessing probably Jada's first time playing this course.

Yeah.

So, so w what is that like?

Are you getting out there?

Can you get on the course to play it?

Are you looking at videos or maps of the course and studying that

stuff kind of the week prior?

What, what do you guys.

You know, the, the thing, the thing that you do ahead of time,

there's only so much you can do really, before you see the golf course.

I think you can really overthink it.

The best thing you can do is just, just get back to basics.

Let's make sure our alignment's solid, you know, let's make sure you know,

we've got our, our distances dialed in, you know, our short game is, is sharp

so that when you do actually get out there, we get a practice around that.

So we had today, you get an opportunity to get out and play the golf course.

You can hit some extra shots, putts and chips, get a feel

for the speed of the greens.

But if you're, you know, you want to get your game in as best shape

before that, just so you can make the most of your practice.

Dog.

That must be about, that must be my Georgia bulldogs down the hall.

Yeah, so it's yeah, the, the practice round, you know, you've

got your yardage book, which is essentially like a course map.

You try to figure out maybe where you think some of the holes will

be put and put to those locations.

Lots of chipping, lots of putting, getting your, your, your target off

each D are you gonna hit drive or are you going to hit three wood?

So a lot of conversation, a lot of note taking in the yardage book, the yardage

books nowadays are incredibly incredibly detailed with yardages and slopes and

just everything you could ever imagine.

So the practice rounds take a long time because you are hitting those

extra shots and taking lots of notes, but it's your opportunity to

study and come up with a game plan.

Appreciate that insight.

You know, I wasn't a collegiate golfer, so not, not knowing what that looks like.

That's helpful.

A lot of our listeners probably would appreciate that as well.

So our group started out as, as a kind of a tailgating group.

And over the year, a couple of last couple of years, it's really involved.

We helped with fundraisers for the school.

Last year, we did dollars for dinners.

We raised almost $10,000 for the baseball team.

And last year we did our second annual toys for tots drive.

So we're really passionate about trying to do things and raise money for

the school and out in the community.

It's, it's something that we're really proud of.

What's your favorite charity until Monarch nation?

A little bit about it.

Sure.

You know, I can't say that I have one particular one that I would

pick above the others, but for me, anything that supports military

families, obviously, like I mentioned earlier, my dad was in the air force.

He was a pilot for 25 years.

And he passed away about five years ago from ALS, which is horrific.

But his ALS was 100% connected to his service.

In the first Gulf war, a lot of people a very high number, I should say of

people who served in the first Gulf war, early nineties were ultimately

diagnosed and had passed away with ALS.

So they do believe that there was something connected.

There, they just don't know exactly what, but he was considered a

hundred percent service connected.

So I'm not necessarily a big fan of the ALS association.

I'm not a big fan of kind of how they have how they handle things.

But there are some smaller organizations that specifically help military

families that, you know, are dealing with veterans with neuromuscular

issues, which is what my dad had.

I will say we have phenomenal support for our veterans that,

you know, are now without a limb.

I think we do a great job with those.

I think where we, where we lack is the neuromuscular and certainly

those with any kind of mental health.

So support for those families is so important.

They need advocates, they need information, they need financial help.

Our family was just very fortunate because, you know, the finances were not

an issue, but that's not everybody's case.

And my dad had wonderful advocates as well.

So he always, you know, for as bad as it was, he always said that there were

other families out there certainly within the military family that needed help.

So anything, you know, that's helping support the families of our veterans I

think is, is really just a great cause.

Obviously we live in this great country despite your, your political affiliations.

And Lord knows our leadership or the divisiveness that we have

is, is one thing in our country.

But our military is something to be very proud of and the people that volunteer.

Their lives, their health, and ultimately the, their family's lives really, and

how their family's lives are impacted.

I think anything, any, any group I like smaller groups personally, cause I like

to really know that whether it's my money or my time or whatever it is that

I'm, that I'm giving is, is I know that the direct impact that it is having.

So one cool thing actually that we're doing this week that NCAA golf does

in conjunction with folds of honor.

Mike, you may be familiar with that.

It's a organization that was started by major Dan.

They do big, big events.

I can't remember they do it on Memorial day or labor day.

I think it's labor day actually, did they do it around the country

and they raise money, but we have a salute to service day on, on Monday.

Even though we won't be playing to the afternoon, we will be in

attendance first thing in the morning just to see the different things

that they're going to do with that.

And then each player on Monday will be given a pin and a kind of a little

story for depending on their golf bag about a fallen service member that

they will play an honor of that day.

And we'll have the some of the flags will be American flag.

So it's a great, great thing that they do.

Several players have bags with the name of a fallen service member on them

that they honor throughout the year.

So, great thing that NCAA golf does a folds of honor.

But obviously the folds of honor is huge and they have tons of great support.

That's why I always try to encourage people to try to find something smaller,

maybe within your area a specific family that you know, that you can really

know that your, your money and your time is going to actually help them.

Rock on.

Oh, we Def definitely our group.

We've got a number of veterans in our group by served 11 years in the Navy.

My dad's retired military Mike's father is as well.

So if you ever need any help with any of that stuff, our group

will be there to help you with.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

And my mom was a military service member as well, and she passed

away from something they think is related to the housing we lived in.

So

Yeah.

pretty much every woman, her age that lived in the

housing at the same time that she did all die from uterine cancer.

So I'm well aware of weird things happen with military and parents.

Yeah.

And the, you know, the VA, well, thank you, Mike and YouTube, the VA is supposed

to be there to support, but sometimes they can be very difficult to work

with and I wouldn't want to knock them because they do do a lot of great things.

And ultimately it just comes down to the, the people within

that organization that you get.

But that's why I think some of these, some of these nonprofits, you

know, that are trying to really get the money, get the resources, you

know, to the families are so great.

All right.

So it's going to be hard, but we're going to switch gears and try to

Yeah.

Let me take a sip of my beer.

So let's switch gears.

So onto the fun question.

What is your favorite municipal course and the 7, 5 7.

And I strictly say municipal because a lot of folks like me don't have the access

to the beautiful courses our players do.

Sure.

Well I'm a nearby resident of Kemptville greens, so I will give them

my plug Mike and his staff out there have always been very kind to me.

And so yeah, I will give them my plug for best, best muni in the 7 5 7.

It's a tough track.

It's pretty tight through there through

It is.

It is.

Yes.

Lost a few golf balls out

10, always.

Makes me think I can hit that green and I should just hit an iron off the tee.

I don't know why still on the same note, what's your favorite course in the area?

You know, I'm just, I'm so biased.

For princess Anne you know, I love the old school track out there.

It's so unique.

I know it would be attracted.

My dad would have loved and just so proud of the event that we have out there.

It just you know, may sound a little silly, but I just, I have good

vibes every time I go out there.

Good feelings and so many great friends that our members and obviously the,

the wonderful golf staff princess and is just, it's a special place.

We've got 45 minutes to kill and you're on campus.

What's your favorite place?

Where are you going to hang out?

Oh gosh.

45 minutes on campus.

Well, the lady at zero subs on Monarch way, God bless her.

She makes the best Philly cheese, steak.

I love going over to white her speech.

You know, I just love walking over there.

We call it the top side of campus, you know, kind of over by the web.

Just kind of walk in those sidewalks where all the trees are.

It's a really pretty part of campus and it's usually very quiet you know, on

that front side of the web, but yeah, we have a sneaky, sneaky, beautiful campus.

I know all of our recruits say that when they come in and there's just lots of

little kind of areas that you can find that are just especially this time of

the year you know, spring and then into fall that are just very pretty and quiet.

And you just feel like, you know, you are somewhere special, but if I've

got 45 minutes, I'm going into zero subs for the Philly cheese steak.

The sunsets and Whitehurst.

Yes.

Yes, the subsets are awesome.

And wait, if people go, wait a minute, we have a beach on camp.

How many people are gonna listen to me, like there's a beach.

Yup.

I will add the sunsets from Lambert's point after you

finish a Twilight round, you're drinking a beer on their little patio,

pretty good way to spend an evening,

We always take the recruits up there on their visit to the highest point in

Norfolk, which is the number one green at Lambert's 70 feet above sea level.

And it, what a unique spot, you know, I mean the, the views there or pretty

cool early in the morning, see dolphins.

And like you said, late, late in the evening, you can

watch an incredible sunset.

or you can watch the sailing team practice

Yeah.

on the food note.

Favorite restaurant.

Norfolk, who we got some good ones.

I would have to go Luna Maya.

I am such a huge Mexican food fan.

They have great margarita is love there in chilada is Luna Maya sponsor me?

Us to, Hey, you know, you know who else said that they love

Luna Maya, Ricky, Ronnie, Ricky.

Well, he's smart.

A smart guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He said that he really liked that place.

All right.

We always ask about music as well.

So who's your favorite musical artists.

And is there one that you really want to see live that you just

haven't had an opportunity to.

I I'm a country fan.

Gosh Luke Combs would be great.

I've seen Jason Aldean solid Jason Aldeen I guess was that last summer in August.

He was here.

I know that we have this weekend coming up the patriotic festival down at town

point park, and I know Morgan, Wayland's going to be there and I love his music.

Luke Bryan in 2005, six, seven, when I was at Georgia would play at this

dive bar in Athens and was incredible.

Then he actually was better then than he is now that he's,

you know, Nashville country.

But he was a great live show, you know, back before he was famous, but

yeah, probably Luke Combs are Morgan.

But yeah, Jason Aldeen was a great show.

George Strait does an incredible show.

Gosh, I'm sorry.

Garth Brooks has an incredible show.

George Trey does a very boring show.

But yeah, I'm, I'm I'm country, but like good country, not some of this

new, some of this new stuff is, is not great, but I do love live music.

And I'm always down for for a concert outside.

Nice.

All right, we're going to get, this is a more controversial question.

So, and I was talking with Mike about this and we had some pretty differing opinions.

What is your favorite golf movie?

Gosh, you know, I'm going to have to go 10 cop.

You know, I'm a bit of a romantic, so I do like the love part of it.

And, you know, it's just so real.

Like that's golf, like so many times you don't just pull it off

and win and storybook, you, you, you screw up at the end and it

stinks and you got to live with it.

It's seen as so maddening, just

yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, happy.

Gilmore's funny.

I mean, I'll watch it caddy shack.

Funny.

I'll watch it.

I, wasn't a big fan of what is a legend of bagger Vance.

Yeah.

I'm I'm Tim cup from tin cup.

Yeah.

What are y'all?

So what do y'all argue over?

I don't know if I would say argue, but it depends on the mood you're in.

I mean, Adam Sandler was pretty clutch at that time when he made that move.

and I'm always always a fan of Carl weathers,

I said caddy shirt.

Gaddy shat again.

just the first one.

Now,

The other ones are pretty bad.

Thank you for joining us today, Mallory.

We're really appreciate having you.

We know you've got to get to dinner, so thank you so much for joining us.

We wish Jana the best of luck this weekend and hope she can bring back a title.

Absolutely.

She's she's certainly capable and we're all just so proud

of the career that she's had.

And she's helped put out to you on the map, certainly within women's golf.

I think being here just as a so special, and we're going to try to make the most

of it and hopefully we have more podcasts.

That are being taped from national championships across all of our sports.

This may be the first one, but let's, let's get everybody going

and, and do it at some more.

Absolutely.

And we'll be watching from afar and hopefully we can have you on

again, as we get closer to the fall.

So you can talk all about your outstanding event.

That's coming up.

I would love that.

That would be awesome.

You guys thank y'all so much.

I've enjoyed it.

All right.

Go monarchs.

Good monarchs.