Mix of talent, culture keeping things 'fun' for MSSU golf

May 11—At the age of 70, Mike Wheeler coached the Missouri Southern men's golf team to its first NCAA Super Regional Tournament during his 13-year tenure with the program.

Wheeler also helped the Lions' No. 1 golfer, Tradgon McCrae, become the program's first-ever MIAA Golfer of the Year. Wheeler himself earned top honors from the conference with the Coach of the Year award — the first time he has picked up that hardware. The team this spring won the MIAA Tournament for the second time in program history — 20 years after the first.

Now, Wheeler and the golf squad are in Winona, Minnesota, for the regional tournament. The top five players who made the trip are McCrae, Ben Marckmann, Luis Limon, Josh Hamnett and Ben Epperly.

"It's very cool to be up here," Wheeler said. "Six teams will advance from here to nationals. And we have every intention of being one of those six teams."

These Lions weren't riding atop the leaderboard at every event they competed in during the 2022-23 season, though.

"We had a lot of ups and downs this year," Epperly said.

Golf is a game of ups and downs and it's known to be infuriating at times. If you're off by just a hair with your swing, the ball could end up in a bad spot, setting you up for a tough shot the next time.

"It's definitely difficult. Especially when you're going out there for a 36-hole day when you're out there for 10 hours," Hamnett said. "You have to get in the mindset of, 'It's going to be a grind out there.' Even if you hit a bad shot you just have to forget about it and move on because you have plenty more holes to get one back."

"Another thing is, you're not just playing for yourself out there," Epperly added. "It doesn't do you or especially the team any good to get down on yourself and have it affect you later on."

But then there are moments when your team records four birdies on the final hole of the conference tournament, like MSSU did to overcome a large deficit. Days like that leave you feeling much better.

"It feels pretty damn good," Epperly said.

"Especially when you've been working all year and it finally happens," Hamnett added.

Wheeler added some comments on the thrilling victory in the MIAA Tournament.

"I was so pleased for the guys," Wheeler said. "They never quit and that's key to our sport."

"Everyone was excited but coach could have been the most excited," Hamnett said.

Wheeler also said this team has a little bit of a mixed bag of talent and culture. In the five-man group, there are two former junior college players and three international athletes.

"We're not your standard outfit," coach said.

JUCO CHAMPIONS

Epperly and McCrae won national championships at their former schools before coming to Southern.

Epperly was an NJCAA champion at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, while McCrae picked up his hardware at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas.

"They know how to compete at a high level and they don't quit," Wheeler said.

Epperly noted that he feels like he and McCrae, coming in with the championship experience at the junior college level, allows them to share that "what-to-expect" knowledge with the rest of the team.

"Having someone like Tra is massive at a tournament," Epperly said. "When you have someone that can go shoot five or six-under in 18 holes, it just takes all the pressure off your guys, which is massive.

"In order to compete at this level you do need that one guy that is going out there every single time and is dependable."

FLYING OVERSEAS TO DRIVE GREENS

Limon (freshman), Hamnett (junior) and Marckmann (junior) all came to MSSU from another country to play golf. Limon is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico; Hamnett is from Lancashire, England; and Marckmann is from Wuppertal, Germany.

It can be a complicated task just for these guys to get over to the United States versus someone in the U.S. just moving from one state to another. The expenses add to it from out-of-state tuition, not having a vehicle and paying for flights. The language barrier could be complicated for international athletes as well — especially in school.

"College (golf) is unique for these international players because it's the only place they can come and receive a scholarship and be paid to play golf," Wheeler said. "I'm not going to say they're better than American players because that's not true. But, I think they can be more motivated because they have a mission."

It wasn't the easiest process for Hamnett but he found help once he arrived at MSSU.

"It took quite a bit of time, but, you just have to talk to quite a few coaches and they get back to you and see what you can do," Hamnett said. "It was hard during COVID because (colleges) weren't taking a lot of people on because players were staying for their fifth year."

Hamnett added that arriving a week earlier than students in the U.S. helped the transition go a little smoother once he got to MSSU. He said Epperly also played a major role as a teammate by taking the international guys to and from practice all the time and spending time at one another's homes. Wheeler said the same thing by saying Epperly has been best friends with the international teammates since they all joined the team.

"They were playing right away when they got here," Epperly said. "So, they were expected to be in our top five as freshmen. That helped it be easy for them to get used to everybody over here."

REGIONAL TOURNAMENT

Tournament action begins Thursday morning and the key to success for the Lions this weekend is simple.

"Don't overcomplicate anything, it's just another event," Epperly said. "We have the mindset that we have nothing to lose."

Wheeler echoed those thoughts and added that if McCrae gets rolling and the rest of the bunch falls in line they have a good shot to be in the top six.

Marckmann will begin at 8:20 with Hamnett, Limon, Epperly and McCrae following in 10-minute intervals in that order.

Coach Wheeler noted that the course has seen a fair amount of rain recently but that the weather looks to be good on Thursday and Friday with some rain in the forecast on Saturday. He added that there will be little wind during the three days.

He hopes the greens will be playing fast on Thursday and Friday for the team.

This will be the team's first time on this course so Wednesday was used as an opportunity to practice and get to know how it plays.

Hamnett mentioned using Wednesday's practice round as an opportunity to find "good places to miss" on the course and which holes to attack and try to get birdies on while knowing which ones to shoot for par on. Epperly elaborated on that.

"There's sometimes trouble off the tee that comes into play more so with a longer club like a driver," Epperly noted. "We're trying to figure out what club is best to hit off the tee. ... We go up there and evaluate it. Sometimes we decide there's not much trouble and we should hit driver because it gives us our best chance at a birdie. Sometimes there is trouble and if we hit driver we may end up out of bounds or in the water so we use a smaller club to stay out of trouble."

GETTING TO KNOW THE GUYS

With guys from many different areas around the world, Hamnett has enjoyed getting to know everything about his teammates.

"It's interesting to learn about everyone coming from different places," Hamnett said. "Outside of practice we hang out together and just learn everything about each other."

The hanging out goes beyond practice so often that Epperly believes the MSSU team has "more fun than most" teams with all of the opportunities they get to spend time with one another.

Epperly even sees having Hamnett on the team as an advantage — an advantage similar to one the New England Patriots held on the football field for so many years before their quarterback left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then retired.

"I call Josh (Hamnett) Tom Brady because he's Mr. Reliable," Epperly said.

Epperly says Hamnett is Mr. Reliable — or Tom Brady — because he's always right down the middle of the fairway with his shots. Hamnett relayed some positive words for his buddy as well.

"Epperly has the best mindset going into everything, for himself and even pumping his teammates up," Hamnett said.

From relaying helpful info at tournaments, to just organizing practice and getting the guys together, Epperly and Hamnett said Coach Wheeler is their coach but also their "friend."

"I'm going to be 71-years-old here in the next month," Wheeler said. "I've spent a lot of time around young people and it's one of the joys of my life. ... We have a good time when we play golf."

As long as he can drive his players to events safely, he will keep coaching the MSSU golf programs.