College Corner: Eastern Michigan University
By Tom Lang
The Eagles golf program made the largest waves of any college in the state this year when the university named two new head coaches and opened the prolific $8 million GameAbove Golf Performance Center for indoor practice and team facilities.
Josh Brewer was tapped as the new women’s head coach. During his tenure at the University of Georgia, Brewer guided the Bulldogs to 16 tournament wins, 10 NCAA Regional qualifications, and four NCAA National Championship appearances.
Andy Walker was brought in from Virgina Commonwealth (VCU). Walker had just been named 2024 Black College Golf Coaches Association (BCGCA) Coach of the Year for NCAA Division I – and was a four-time national champion as a player (at Pepperdine) and coach.
“The (women’s) team improved throughout the first 10 weeks together, however, our goal is to not only win the conference, but to make the NCAA Regionals and nationals and we still have steps to take,” Brewer told me. “There’s a lot of positives and momentum, but at the same time we know we need to continue to build.
“The team has a common goal; they want to see Eastern golf get to the post season and be part of something very special that 15-20 years from now they return here and can share with their families. They’re working very hard, we just need to see better results on the golf course.”
The results for sophomore Savannah de Bock have been solid.
de Bock won the Golfweek Red Sky Classic – shooting a school record 65 – and finished as the tournament runner-up at both the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational (tie) and the Hurricane Invitational. She owns five (23.8 percent) of the 21 rounds of 69 or lower recorded in program history. In other words, she holds the top three scores all-time at EMU and five of the top seven all-time. de Bock shot par or lower in 14 of 15 rounds this fall.
Brewer just needs the rest of the young team to follow de Bock’s lead, but he’s enjoying the personal bonds they have created so quickly.
“I don’t know how they did it, but they developed an amazing bond,” he said. “We had a couple recruits visit, and the one thing the family members said was, ‘I can’t believe this group has only known each other three months.’
For the men, senior transfer Tim Chan has led the way, finishing third at the Bahamas tournament with a 14-under 202.
Chan was a junior college transfer the year prior when he went to VCU. Walker said he broke into the line up there the second semester “and he was a catalyst for (VCU) going so high in the rankings, with his low numbers.
“The last few weeks, there were a lot of low numbers in practice and he was shooting 65s, 64s,” Walker added. “And we went to Florida where the tournament got canceled, but he was leading at 4-under through nine, in the wind and rain.”
In EMU men’s program history, teams had shot 859 or lower in 18 tournaments. Already in 2024, the men have done so twice, shooting 856 at the White Sands Bahamas Men’s NCAA Invitational (Oct. 25-27) after opening the season at 857 at the Southern Dunes Invitational (Sept. 9-10). This squad is one of five teams in program history to record multiple scores at or under 859 with the 2016-17 and 2018-19 teams accomplishing the feat three times.
Walker is expecting even more improvement.
“I don’t think we’ve played really well at all,” Walker openly admitted. “Played mediocre for a few weeks. To not sugarcoat it, it saw some things I liked out there, and a lot of things that need to be improved upon and get better.
“I think a lot of guys are hitting golf shots that we like to hit, not the shot we should be hitting. Super talented team, but they don’t always trust themselves. Once or twice a round they get a little doubt and when they swing with that doubt, the results are never good ones. They guys got better as the fall season went on, so the off season will be about working on them trusting their swings and the more mental and emotional part of the game.”
