Golf coach arrives with experience
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ISSUE: 11/29/07 > Sports > Golf coach arrives with experience
The men’s golf team faced a unique problem earlier this semester when coach Brian Costello resigned in September. For a few weeks, the team was without a coach.
Fortunately, this was not the end of the story for the Bruins. Billy Henry, former assistant director of athletics at the University of Tennessee, stepped up to the green.
“I thought I could be of some help,” said Henry. “I have 30-plus years of coaching experience.”
And a help he has been. The Bruins finished 11th in the Western Carolina University Intercollegiate Nov. 5-6 at the Country Club of Sapphire Valley.
“I think we performed well considering the problems the team had,” Henry said.
The Bruins’ team total of 604 (300-304) in the 36-hole event put them 39 strokes behind team champion Western Carolina.
Henry also said he thinks the best is yet to come.“I think we are capable of [winning] the A-Sun championship. I will be disappointed if we are not contenders.”
The team will work on achieving this goal by continuing to practice. Their spring season begins Feb. 3 when Belmont will host the Belmont-Missouri Challenge. They will begin practicing in mid-January, Henry said. Until then, they will practice individually as NCAA rules prohibit them from conducting practices in the off-season.
Henry hopes they will work on their chip and putt shots. He said he also hopes to help them improve their short game.
In the spring, the team will be found on the road, traveling as far as Houston and Charlottesville, Va.
“These are good guys and I’m impressed by them,” said Henry. “I’m expecting better things of them in the spring.”
Following the Belmont opener, the golfers are then scheduled to play Feb. 25-26 in the Argonaut Invitational; March 24-25, Carter Plantation; March 30-April1, Larry Nelson Collegiate Invitational; April 6-8, Tennessee State Intercollegiate; April 21-23, Atlantic Sun Championship; and April 28-29, Cavalier Classic.
And, on another note, the coach has an additional tie to Belmont. Henry hired Belmont men’s basketball head coach Rick Byrd to his first head coaching position at Maryville in 1978.
