OCU's David Meyers on a record roll

by scott wright

OKLAHOMA CITY — After three years on the Oklahoma City University golf team, David Meyers decided he wanted to test the waters of professional golf.

Meyers returned to his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2019 and entered qualifying school for the Sunshine Tour as an amateur. But Meyers didn’t qualify and was left without a plan for his immediate future.

In the time that Meyers was gone from OCU, coach Kyle Blaser left the program, and Andy Crabtree was hired to replace him.

A couple of months passed and Crabtree decided to reach out to Meyers.

“Have you thought about coming back?” Crabtree asked.

“You would let me do that?” Meyers responded.

“Yeah, man. You’re one year from getting your degree, and you need to do that,” Crabtree told him.

Meyers returned to OCU for the fall of 2019 and was playing well. Then the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the spring season of 2020, and Meyers was granted an additional year of eligibility.

Meyers won the final two tournaments in the fall of 2020, then he won the first two tournaments to start the season in 2021. Four straight wins — a feat that is difficult to accomplish at any level, including NAIA.

“He’s made it look easy,” Crabtree said.

Of course, Crabtree didn’t know Meyers at all when he re-recruited him to OCU, so the coach was in the dark, other than reading some statistics and talking to other players.

“I didn’t really know what I was getting into, because some people leave and they’re not appreciative, or things like that,” Crabtree said. “David is the most grateful, affable, humble star of a player and wonderful student you could ever have. He is teammate of the year. He is the whole deal.”

Now, Meyers is accomplishing things that few OCU golfers ever have.

Through the first 13 rounds of 2020-21, he had a stroke average of 68.23, on pace to break the OCU single-season record of 70.74 held by James Marchesani.

Meyers’ four consecutive wins brought him to nine for his career, tying fellow South African Rupert Kaminski for the school record. Meyers’ career stroke average of 70.30 is on pace to break the record — also held by Kaminski — of 71.29.

He’s a three-time Golf Coaches Association of America All-American, a two-time NAIA All-American and a two-time national player of the year semifinalist.

And Meyers has an all-around game to go with it.

He’s listed on the OCU website as 5-foot8 and 160 pounds, but Crabtree jokes that the weight might be a little generous.

Yet Meyers has no trouble keeping up with the longest of hitters off the tee.

“He’s exceptionally long with his irons,” Crabtree said. “In our home event at Gaillardia, he shot 16-under and hit 51 or 52 of 54 greens. He’s an incredibly steady, solid ball-striker. He has very good control over his ball flight and has a beautiful rhythm.

“He doesn’t have a weakness in his game. His course management is really good. He knows how to win, knows how to close, and he’s most comfortable in those situations.”

Meyers has always been a solid player, but credits his more recent success to a change in swing coaches while he was back home in South Africa.

“My ball-striking got a lot better, and I’ve been enjoying golf a lot more,” Meyers said. “I used to be really hard on myself, but now that I’m having fun again, I think that’s probably the biggest reason I’ve had such good success.

“I remembered playing as a kid and how I used to enjoy it so much. I think when you get to the college level, you can get burned out at times. I found my own passion in the game again and it’s really helped me the last year.

“I also think being in Oklahoma has helped me. We play in all different conditions. No matter where I go, if we’re playing in wind or playing on Bermuda or playing a tight golf course, a links golf course, I have that all year and experience that here. So my game is well-traveled, I would say.”

Meyers wants to give professional golf another try, though he’s not sure exactly when.

“I’m probably going to turn pro right after our national championship in May,” he said. “I might delay it a bit because I want to maybe try to play the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur again before I turn pro.

“But it’s definitely going to be this summer. I’m going to try to play a few minitours, maybe go to Q-school in Asia in December, then the next year, hit all the Qschools, whether it be the Mackenzie Tour in Canada or the Korn Ferry Tour.”

Meyers’ previous experience at Q-school for the Sunshine Tour — even though he came up short — proved to him that he had the game to be a professional player.

“I wasn’t in a good state of mind and I didn’t play well that week,” he said. “But being there, I saw that I was good enough to play professionally. Once I came back to America after seeing the level of competition, I said to myself, ‘You’ve got to try to turn pro, because you’re good enough.’

“That was an eye-opener. It made me believe that I could definitely do it.”

teams were ranked second in their respective regions when the first polls were released in early April. Senior Abigail Rigsby and sophomore Alexandria Bennett have been pacing OC, while UCO is led by Sydney Roberts and Emma Shelley, both strong players in the fierce spring winds. On the Division I level, Oklahoma State, led by Swede Maja Stark, has won three events, finished second twice and third once in a busy spring and could be a team to watch at the NCAA ChamAbigail Rigsby pionships. Oklahoma also has a strong team on paper but hasn’t performed nearly as well and will be looking to peak going into the Big 12 Tournament and regionals. Notes: Tulsa has won two tournaments

Led by Myers, the OCU men’s this spring led by Lorena Tseng, team will likely be in the hunt for Haley Greb , Taylor Dobson and its 12th national championship Lilly Thomas. since 2001. Let’s look at some of the other programs in the state be- Maja Stark On the junior college level, Redlands Community College is sides the Oklahoma and Oklahoma State ranked fifth and coach Taylor Neidy Silauter men’s teams that could be in the hunt for is building a power with five in-state players postseason glory this spring. bolstered by a pair of international additions

On the NCAA Division II level, both the in Katie Graham of Scotland and Marvelyn UCO and Oklahoma Christian women’s Karitka of Indonesia.