MyTURN
by JIM DUCIBELLA
I
t didn’t matter one iota that Dr.
Murray Rudisill wasn’t looking
for an opportunity to coach at
the college or—any other—level.
Opportunity came looking for him.
Already a faculty member at
Old Dominion University, Rudisill was
a well-known competitive player when
athletic director Jim Jarrett approached
him. Pete Robinson was tired of pulling
double duty as the school’s wrestling and
golf coach. Would Rudisill relieve Robinson
of his golf responsibilities?
“He told me there would be no fundraising, no scholarships,” Rudisill recalled.
“We’d play some matches in the spring. He
worked with my dean to make my job 25
percent coaching and 75 percent teaching.
Then he offered me $800 and said there’d
be nothing to it.”
Jarrett’s “nothing” turned out to be more
encompassing than Rudisill thought. When
the new coach asked Robinson what sort of
equipment he was inheriting, the old coach
replied with that same word again: nothing.
“I had to go out and get someone to
donate some shirts and some golf balls,”
Rudisill said. “We didn’t even have balls; in
fact, we had practically no budget.”
February marked 41 years since that
unnerving conversation. In that time, Rudisill has led the Monarchs to four Virginia
State championships and two Colonial Athletic Association titles. He has twice been
named Sun Belt Conference coach of the
year, four times CAA coach of the year and
five times won Virginia State coaching honors. He’s produced two PGA Tour players—
Jim McGovern and Joe Daley—and his share
of players who have successfully competed in
state, regional and national events.
To prosper at anything for four-plus
decades, flexibility must stand as among
one’s finest personal attributes. When ODU
moved from NCAA Division II to Division
I in 1976, Rudisill suddenly had to juggle
recruiting and more extensive travel with
his academic duties, not to mention raising
scholarship money.
40
What started as a part-time job has become a fulltime passion for Old Dominion men’s golf coach Dr.
Murray Rudisill.
In addition to players from the northeast
corridor, now he’s worked with golfers
who’ve hailed from England, Spain, Brazil
and the Netherlands. He’s even received
interest from a kid from South Africa.
Where once a golf coach’s word was gospel, now players arrive on campus tethered
to a mentor back home. Try changing a
player’s swing. As often as not, he’ll send a
video of the proposal to his personal coach
who will make the final decision.
“It makes it a bit more difficult,” Rudisill said. “Some guys don’t want you to help
them. They come in with swings that are
very good and that’s more true now than
a long time ago. We’re working more with
course management skills, more golf psychology and positive thinking. We focus
a lot more on the mental now than way
back when.”
Rudisill has even found himself in the
middle of the arms race known as facility improvement. For years, ODU didn’t
have a campus golf course. In 2005, Lambert’s Point, a nine-hole, links-style course
designed by Lester George opened in the
rear of the campus.
Rudisill worked a deal with PGA professional Mike Fentress where he could
transform two hitting bays into an indoor
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 6
practice facility if Rudisill could raise the
necessary money.
“We’ve now enclosed those, with heaters
and mats and nets and carpeting and it’s
really nice,” the coach said. “And we’ve got
all of the technology that goes with it. That’s
one of the big changes for our program;
we’re now able to hit indoors. Last winter
we got killed because of all the snow and ice.
We had an early tournament last February
and we didn’t even get out to practice. At
least now we can hit balls.”
Rudisill’s influence extends well beyond
the Norfolk campus border. Representing
the Tidewater, he served on the VSGA’s
Board of Directors. Along with Vinny Gile [