If you look at the recent alumni list from the University of Texas college golf program, it’s a veritable who’s-who of the game over the last decade: Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Doug Ghim, Beau Hossler, Gavin Hall, Cole Hammer, Parker and Pierceson Coody — the list goes on.
And John Fields, head men’s golf coach at UT, is the man who can say he knew them all when. Fields’ standout coaching career has spanned nearly 40 years, and his resume highlights include winning two national titles and being named college coach of the year three times.
But despite the large number of stars who landed in his program, Fields saw a few big names slip away over the years. And on this week’s episode of Subpar, he revealed some of his recruiting close-calls to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. At the top of the list? Six-time PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan.
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Fields said his first run at Mahan failed when Mahan opted to go to the University of Southern California.
“I did not do a great job of recruiting him,” Fields admitted. “I was kind of distracted with some other things, I don’t even know exactly what they were at this point in time. But he slipped away.”
But Fields got another chance when Mahan decided to leave USC after his freshman year and wanted to consider Texas.
Fields said he started going after Mahan pretty hard as soon as he could, and things finally came to a head at that year’s NCAA Championship, where Mahan’s father said Hunter would meet with Fields and the coach from Oklahoma State, Mike Holder, after the tournament.
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But as it turned out, Oklahoma State missed the NCAA cut that year, and Holder headed straight for Mahan’s house and got Mahan to sign on before Fields had a chance to make a counter offer.
“He can sell ice to Eskimos,” Fields said of Holder. “And he did.”
But Mahan isn’t the only what-if that haunts Fields’ coaching career. Another player he regrets not grabbing: standout amateur Casey Wittenberg.
“That one hurt like no other,” Fields said. After a posh visit via private jet to Oklahoma State, Wittenberg opted to go there instead of Texas.
“He said, ‘Coach, I thought I was gonna go to your place, I really did, but I just can’t turn Mike Holder down,'” Fields said. “I’m like, man, he got me again.”
Fortunately for Fields, those recruiting losses were few and far between. For more from Fields, including why Cody Gribble was the man he credits with jump-starting the golf program, check out the full episode below.
