Former Palm Desert star Michael Beard eyes keeping Pepperdine men's golf elite
Michael Beard has built an elite men’s golf program at Pepperdine University since taking over as head coach in 2013.
Now the head coach of the reigning NCAA champions faces another challenge: Maintaining that elite status.
“It is probably harder to maintain,” said Beard, the Division 1 Coach of the Year in 2020 and a five-time coach of the year in the West Coast Conference. “I have so much respect for those guys who do it every year, like Illinois and Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. I don’t know. It’s a lot, man. We are going to try our best to do it.”
Beard, a former star golfer in the late 1990s at Palm Desert High School before playing collegiately at Pepperdine, brought his powerful Waves team back to the desert last week at The Prestige men’s golf tournament at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West. While the Waves didn’t perform as well as expected in La Quinta, finishing tied for 13th in the 24-team field, the Waves are still ranked fourth in the GolfWeek/Sagarin rankings this week and are serious contenders to defend their NCAA championship.
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That could have been two NCAA championships in a row for Beard and his team except for the COVID-19 pandemic. Pepperdine was the No. 1 team in the country in 2020 with an eye on that national championship, but COVID-19 shut down all NCAA sports championships that spring, including men’s golf.
Even with their best player from 2020, current PGA Tour player Sahith Theegala, leaving the program to turn pro, the Waves captured the NCAA title last spring, their first men’s golf national championship since 1997.
As strong as the Waves can be this year, Beard knows repeating won’t be along the same path as 2021.
“Last year was totally different than this year,” Beard said. “We’ve only got six guys. So we are totally doing things differently from last year.”
Keeping the same ideas in recruiting
While each year might be different, Beard is trying to remain true to the concepts that helped him rebuild a Pepperdine team that was struggling when he took over midway through the 2013 season. Since then, the Waves have gone to the NCAA finals three times.
“I have talked with Ryan Hybl, the Oklahoma coach, and he has won a national championship and he had continued to be great every year,” Beard said. “One of his kind of keys is just remember the kinds of kids and how you got there. I have seen other programs where they have won and then they kind of drop off for a little while. They went after kids that weren’t the typical kids they were getting.”
Beard’s father, 11-time PGA Tour winner and long-time desert resident Frank Beard, notices his son staying true to his recruiting philosophies.
“He won’t go after a player who doesn’t fit. I don’t want to say a mold, but their plan,” the elder Beard said. “I have had him tell me, we’d like that kid, but I haven’t met his parents yet. That’s how he goes about it.”
The recruiting has been helped by the Waves’ success in the last few years, with the lure of an NCAA championship opening some doors.
“It definitely gives you some credibility that you didn’t have before, that I didn’t have before or Pepperdine didn’t have,” Beard said. “I can tell you when we first started recruiting and we had the “P” on our shirt, and they would be like, what’s that, Penn State?
“Our main goal was just get out there first. Now people, at least in California, know,” Beard added. “I think we are definitely having conversations that we couldn’t have before. What have you got going on over there? What’s the secret? How do you do that? It’s been fun. But we are still trying to get the same kind of kids.”
As the Waves look for another national championship this year, the former Palm Desert Aztecs star knows the road to contending every year is a tough one for any school.
“My school will probably not like this, but we will never be at the level of the Oklahoma States and the Oklahomas and the Arizona States,” Beard said. “We are not. We have had a nice stretch, and I hope we are able to keep doing it.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Michael Beard aims to keep Pepperdine men's golf on top
