FROM THE TEE

A Not-So-Final Farewell

In October 2001, Dr. Jim Cornell hired a former student-athlete, namely me, as head men’s golf coach at Central Alabama Community College. Those early days, months and years play over and over again in my mind.

For spring and fall in 1976, I was a member of the Alexander City State Junior College Men’s Golf Team. In those years, our golf team played either Willow Point Country Club or Stillwaters daily. I was among eight of the best golfers I had ever played with on a regular basis. I considered myself to be a good golfer, but on this team, I only qualified to compete a few times. The life-long friendships that were born then have grown stronger throughout my life.

I still remember playing Willow Point, including hitting a driver on No. 7 and begging the ball to hold the fairway; hitting a driver on No. 15 with the wind out of the north using body English to help the ball to stay left away from the pond lurking on the right. Hole No. 4 nearly always left me with a scary half wedge to a shallow green on the approach shot. Hole No. 2, praying for a two-putt when my golf ball was on the wrong level.

I remember threading a long iron through the pines on No. 3 and hitting a driver from the back tee of No.11 with the wind howling in my face. Trying to pull the correct club for the tee shot on No. 13, as a poorly struck shot or mis-club would find my ball at the bottom of Lake Martin.

For 25 years, between the ages of 21 and 46, I didn’t have physically play Willow Point, but I played it over and over and over in my mind hundreds of times.

When I took the head golf coach position, I thought I could put together a national championship team licketysplit. That wasn’t the case. Those first two years, found us at the bottom of the leaderboard; however, I was overthe-moon proud when the team qualified for the national championship in our district championship. We finished third. About 3 miles off the property on the trip home, I pulled over, got out of the van and opened the sliding passenger door. I told them all to get out of the van and, with a tear in my eye, told the boys how proud I was of them.

In my second year, Kyle Sullivan won the tournament at Brewton Country Club after making a double eagle on a par 5. The first individual win under me. While playing with me at Farmlinks that year, Kyle aced No. 5, hitting a beautiful 5-iron. We played and practiced at Farmlinks three or four times a week that year, as Willow Point was being renovated.

The following year, we played a tournament at Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope. Somehow, we won that tournament, and it was the first team win for me at CACC. Liz Kling, wife of Faulkner State Community College head coach, Leo Kling told me, “Coach Jennings, that’s what a CACC Golf Team usually does, finishes on top.” We began to win more and more.

Fast forward to 2022. With 71 team tournament wins, 30 runner-up finishes, 19 PING All-Americans, 17 Team Academic All-Americans and two national championship wins, I am in the final month of my college golf coaching career. Before coming to CACC, I spent my life working on my golf game, playing mini-tour events, assistant and teaching golf professional in Birmingham, Pennsylvania and Georgia, head golf professional of a public golf facility in south Atlanta and national sales manager of the

golf division for a headwear manufacturer in Atlanta before I was asked to coach the Trojans.

Before 2001, I found some level of success at nearly all of the work I had done but never felt those jobs were going to last me to retirement. Not until I came to Alexander City did I ever feel at home. My job was here; the people I now call friends, the healing hands that saved my life from cancer are all here, the student-athletes who I recruited, trained and transferred from here, Willow Point and Lake Martin are here, and so many other things here make me know full-heartedly that God is in charge. He will direct you to where you need to be and to do what you should do. I am so blessed by the opportunity that was offered to me by CACC.

Moving forward, my plans are to assist high school age golfers in multi-day clinics in player development, teaching them o practice efficiently and effectively improve their golf games. I also will help these younger golfers and their parents to get the attention of college golf coaches and to find college programs that best fit their needs.

A few colleges and universities have asked me to assist their teams with player development. Through these clinics, I won’t provide traditional golf swing lessons. I will help my students learn to get more bang for their golf

From the Tee lesson buck. I hope to push more junior and college golfers back to swing instructors for higher quality swing lessons. Many talented golfers struggle with timemanagement, course management and skill shots from 100 yards and in. A lot of hours are wasted on the practice tee. I’ll help students make the most of their time and practice effectively within their allotted time. I started a company called Jennings Golfhelp, LLC. I have a website at jenningsgolfhelp.com. I have a couple high school clinics scheduled and will set up more throughout the year, after retiring. I will continue to help the players at CACC. As the new coach would like, I will help the team as a volunteer assistant coach. Dave Jennings Many of you have helped to make the CACC golf program successful. I hope you will continue to support the Trojans. The golf team was very good before I came. I’ve had a bunch of good years, and I hope it remains very good after I leave. If you're bored and looking for me later this year, find me in Lake magazine in December. Thank you all for making me feel at home in Alexander City. Thank you for your prayers when I battled cancer. Thank you for your friendship. May God always bless you. ~ Dave Jennings retires this month as men's golf coach at Central Alabama Community College.