Florida Golf Monthly - Naples Beach

Steve Spurrier- In golf, like in football, you have to play smart and not beat yourself, and coach Spurrier sticks to this philosophy.

It's not surprising that University of Florida football coach Steve Spurrier is a stickler for detail when he plays golf. If you tee it up with the coach, forget you ever heard the words "mulligan" or "gimmee". They're not in Spurrier's vocabulary. His philosophy of golf is simple. "I like to find a couple of guys, go to a good course, hit 'em, find 'em, putt 'em all up and post a number. That's my idea of a good time on the golf course," he says.

To Spurrier, golf is a lot like football. In fact, he feels playing golf helps when it comes to coaching a team that's a standard annual contender for the national title. "Playing golf may actually help my coaching," he says. "Like in football, when you play golf, you try to eliminate as many mistakes as you can. You know that hitting a ball out of bounds is like turning the ball over in football, and the other team goes in for a score. In golf, like in football, you have to play smart and not beat yourself. Also, like in football, when you play golf, you have to have a game plan. You have to think everything out. When you've played a course a lot, you should be able to have a solid game plan every time you play."

But one basic difference distinguishes Spurrier's game plan for a round at Gainesville Country Club and his plan for THE GAME against the Florida State Seminoles. "I'm the type of golfer," says Spurrier, who carries a handicap that hovers around the 6-7 mark, "who will use a 3-metal a lot off the tee, rather than the driver, to keep the ball in play. I think that's all part of a sound game plan."

Such tactics may sound a bit off base for a coach who instructs his quarterback to heave the ball 50 yards downfield in the most unorthodox situations. "Actually, the 50-yard pass and using the 3-metal off the tee are similar strategies," says Spurrier, explaining his reasoning. "If you throw a ball 50 yards downfield, there's not a lot that can happen to you. Even if the pass is intercepted, it's unlikely that it would be run back for a score. I don't think either strategy is high risk."

Spurrier first met golf when he was a kid in Johnson City. Like many present-day golf aficionados of his era, he started as a caddie at the local country club. Caddies could play on Thursday mornings, so that's what Spurrier and his friends did. Their play was informal, more a means of having fun than a real avocation. Once he arrived as a student athlete at the University of Florida, however, he became more serious about golf. By the time he left school, he was hooked. Now, once the annual "letter of intent" day comes and goes, Spurrier's clubs are always within reach. In fact, the coach keeps a bag of putters in his office so he and the coaching staff can brush up on their strokes when they have a break, even during football season. "I play as much as I can starting in February," he says. "I'll often play in the morning and have football practice in the afternoon. I really play as much as I can."

Spurrier has found that being a college football coach really puts a damper on the amount of time he spends on the course, especially in light of the, "my handicap was down to a 2 or 3. I was able to play a lot more. I could play year round. We [the Bandits] had 22 games in two years, and that included playoffs. Once the season ended, I was on the golf course. During the season, I'd get out to play at least once a week. I could do that then, and I played a lot better because of it."

As one of the high profile people in Florida, Spurrier enjoys quite a few perks, and he doesn't seem to mind them at all. "I'm very fortunate," he says, "because there are a lot of clubs around the state like Marsh Creek, Marsh Landing, Black Diamond and Gainesville Country Club that are kind enough to allow me to be an out of town member at a reduced rate. It certainly allows me to play a lot of really, really good golf courses here in Florida."

Spurrier is also one of those who loves to travel in order to play the best golf courses the world has to offer. He lists Scotland and Ireland as two of his favorite golf destinations. "I went on a trip to Scotland and played the old, great courses," he says. "We played the Old Course at St. Andrews, Troon, Prestwick and Carnoustie. These courses certainly have the traditions and the prestige, but I really think the courses in Ireland are much better. [In Ireland] we played Tralee, Ballybunion, Waterville and Lahinch [where, by the way, Spurrier carded a 77, and you know he putted them all out]. I really think the courses in Ireland were more challenging."

Although the European courses may call to Spurrier, there's one golf trip that's guaranteed to make it on his calendar every other year without fail, and this year is an "on" year. In fact, if it didn't coincide with the annual Southeast Conference meetings, he'd make this particular golf journey every year. "There's a college football coach's tournament every year at the same time as the SEC meeting," says Spurrier, "but I think they can run those meetings without any help from me, so I miss them in the even-numbered years, and sure enough they run them again in the odd-numbered years. [We play] at Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Spanish Bay, and it's a great time. We even found a member at Cypress Point who is a Florida grad, and we get to play there. That's a great trip, and I really look forward to that one."

Okay. It might not be a trip to a bowl game, but in the off-season, a great golf trip more than satisfies Spurrier. For this SEC coach, golf serves as an exhilarating means to bridge the gap between seasons, providing him with both the excitement and the relaxation he needs to keep those competitive juices flowing until the football season begins.