Passing the Torch

You don’t have to spend much time around Wichita State Men’s Golf Coach, Judd Easterling, to realize he is a high-energy guy. When you walk in the door he greets you by your first name and shakes your hand firmly. His enthusiasm echoes across the room. The kind of enthusiasm someone gets when they see an old friend for the first time in a long time. If you can’t see it, you can certainly feel it.

Introductions are a formality and it’s not long before the name-dropping begins. Mention some people or places in town, and Judd has a story about them. First time he ate there. First time he played there. Who did what last time he went there. Reflections of a man who was once a stranger in the same place he now calls home. His stone etched by the place he once tried to run away from.

If you really want to get him fired up, ask Judd about the Wichita State Men’s Golf Team and the direction they are heading. The blueprint has been built. If not on paper, all in his head. When it comes to the Shockers, Judd is like a scientist crunching formulas. He talks about recruiting. Talks about attracting more student-athletes to Wichita. How they’re gonna practice. How they’re gonna do well in the classroom. Most importantly, how they’re gonna win. Not just for the 4 years his players are on campus here, but for the 40 years following as well. The wheels are turning at all times when it comes to this team. His team. And on the eve of the 2020 Spring Season, Judd Easterling is like a racehorse trapped in the starting block. He can’t wait to get going.

But ask him about his old coach, Grier Jones, and Judd’s demeanor changes. He slows down a bit. Seems to be thinking more. This time not in the future, but in remembrance of the past and how all it’s little moments have led him exactly to where we are now. The pause, while only brief, is noticeable. A quick reflection before his mind jumps back to the present. Back to the question. He gathers his thoughts, smiles, and starts his answer about his old coach with the most complementary statement possible, “I might get a little emotional here”.

Judd Easterling made the 5 hour trek from Dixon, Missouri to Wichita, Kansas for the first time in the summer of 2001. A long haul trip for a kid from a no stop light town 30 miles from the Lake of the Ozarks and an hour from the closest mall. An opportunity crafted on many summer days at Dixon’s 9 Hole Golf Course when both the temperature and the number of holes played neared 100.

Judd grew up out there. His mom worked at the club and his grandpa introduced him to the game at a young age when he had to get creative with ways to keep his energetic grandson outdoors. He wasn’t sure if Judd would take to it, but golf seemed worth a try.

It worked.

Very typical of a midwestern boy from a small town, Judd played multiple sports. Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and legion baseball in the summer, but his true love affair was with golf. The blood pumped a little faster for the Easterling’s when those Ozark temperatures rose enough to get outside and swing a club.

By the start of high school, there wasn’t a golf tournament in Central Missouri that Judd Easterling hadn’t won. He attributes it to a combination of lack of competition and his own natural ability to compete and win. Regardless, the bottom line was always the same. If Judd Easterling was in a golf tournament, he expected to hoist the trophy.

His junior year, he won the Missouri 2A State Tournament in a landslide. His senior year looked to be much of the same. Until it wasn’t. The defending champ needed just a par-par finish to win back-to-back titles. He went bogey-bogey. A scar that still itches on occasion. In his own words, a moment that he will always credit for his passion to work harder and get better. A moment and mentality that certainly caught the eye of Greir Jones.

In 2001, Grier Jones was wrapping up his 6th season as the head coach of the Wichita State University Golf program. His team had just won it’s 3rd straight Missouri Valley Conference title. No surprise for anyone who knew Grier, winning was in his DNA.

Grier won the Kansas State Golf Championship in both 1963 & 1964 as a junior and senior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel. 2 years later, in 1966, he won the Kansas State Amateur during his Sophomore year at Oklahoma State. In 1967 & 1968, he won the Big 8 Championship and added to his resume a few weeks later when he won the 1968 NCAA National Championship. The second ever NCAA medalist winner in Oklahoma State’s storied golf history.

After graduating, he joined the PGA Tour in 1969. There wasn’t any slowing down there either. That year he was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. In 1972, he won the Hawaiin Open & Robinson Open, both in playoffs, to earn his first 2 PGA Tournament victories. He finished 33rd at the Masters in 1972, 18th at the US Open in 1975, and 16th at the PGA Championship in 1978. For 20 years, he bounced part-time between the PGA Tour and part-time between being a teaching pro at Willowbend Country Club in his hometown. When the dust settled, he’d ended his career with 54 Top 10 finishes, 3 victories, and 14 major appearances during his time on tour.

Then in 1995, the phone rang. Wichita State was looking for the next man to lead it’s golf program. They were smart enough to realize he’d been raised in their own backyard. WSU offered and Grier didn’t pass up the chance to take it. When he hung up, Grier Jones was the Head Coach at Wichita State. Like always, his mind already working. Thinking about winning.

It didn’t take long for that presence to make an impact. In 1997 & 1998, the Shockers finished Runner-Up in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Then in 1999, everything clicked and WSU won the first of 3 straight Missouri Valley Conference titles. Direct results of mantras Jones instilled in his guys. Work hard. Compete. Bogey is better than double. Seventy-three is better than seventy-four. Keep grinding. Keep fighting. Don’t give up.

A mentality that took Wichita State Golf to a level it had never reached before. A mentality that certainly caught the eye of Judd Easterling

Upon arriving from Dixon, Missouri that first time in 2001, Grier Jones showed the Easterling family around Wichita for a couple of days. It was Judd’s first official visit to the place he was considering calling home.

The Easterling’s were blown away by the trip. Sure Wichita was the “city”, but it never really felt like one. In a way, it felt like Dixon. At every stop, people were friendly. People were curious about what brought them to town. Genuinely interested in the kid they may inherit. Grier didn’t wine and dine them with fancy restaurants or catering. He took them to Outback Steakhouse and Jimmy’s Diner. The very essence of the humble confidence that drives people in this town. They met WSU Head Baseball Coach, Gene Stephenson, who had taken the Shockers to 6 College World Series appearances during his tenure and won the whole thing in 1989. Living proof that a small school in Kansas can have a major impact on the National stage. He told Judd to reach out if he needed anything.

It was a fantastic trip. One that had the Easterling’s buzzing, but the excitement wasn’t over yet. As they were heading out, Grier made an offer to Judd that recognized all that hard work all those years at the Dixon 9-hole Golf Course. He offered him a scholarship to play golf at Wichita State.

Judd didn’t respond just then, he’d end up waiting a few days, but the answer was obvious. Judd Easterling was a Shocker.

The fall season of 2001 was the start of what would become an incredible collegiate career for Judd Easterling. One that would name him as a 2x All American, 3x NCAA Championship participant, and eventually land him amongst 19 other collegiate golfers as members of the Missouri Valley Conference All-Centennial Team. But that journey didn’t come without some trials and tribulations along the way.

In that first fall, Judd had a hard time adjusting. That wasn’t necessarily reflected in his scores or in his golf game, but it was waging a mental war in his head. He’d never felt the pressure he had at Wichita State and he’d certainly never played for someone who knew how to push his mental buttons the way Grier Jones did. Coach saw the talent and wasn’t going to let it go unused. Judd knew he had it, but didn’t know what it would take to unleash it. The pot nearly boiled over.

In early December of 2001, Judd was packing to head back to Dixon for Christmas break. Before he left, he walked into Grier Jones’ office and told him that this break wouldn’t be a temporary one. It was permanent. His plan was to leave for Christmas and transfer out of the program in the spring. Get somewhere more comfortable.

The old coach, unfazed by the situation, chatted with his young player. Asked him to stick around. Relayed that he wasn’t being hard on him just for the sake of being hard. He wanted the best for his guys and wasn’t worried about what that felt like in week 4 or month 4. This all had a purpose. Come back in 4 years and talk about what you think then. He laid it all out. Judd listened. The result is likely classified as the Golden Age of Wichita State Golf.

In 2003, Judd’s sophomore year, the Wichita State team qualified for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1979. It was hosted by Grier Jones’ alma mater, Oklahoma State, at the ever challenging Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Shockers, who went with more intent than just to show up, had a tough go at it. The team’s average score was 77 that week. They finished 18th out of 30 teams. Judd Easterling led the way, firing rounds of 78–72–70–80 to finish in 26th place overall. Just 5 shots back of the top 10.

The 2004 Shocker team relied on experience and confidence to build on their impressive showing from the year before. The team rolled through the spring season and claimed the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. Their fifth in six years. Judd Easterling was the captain, shooting an average of 72.6 that year and firing 10 rounds in the 60s. He’d certainly come into his own as a player and any ideas of leaving the team he now led were nothing but old memories. That spring, the Shockers went into West Lafayette, Indiana and finished 8th out of 27 teams in the Purdue Boilermaker Regional. Good enough to qualify them for their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. A first in 30+ years for the Shocker golf program.

The tournament that year was held at Cascades Golf Course in Hot Springs, Virginia. While the team didn’t make it past the first 2 days, Judd did. He started off with respectable rounds of 72 & 74. The good news was that he had made the weekend. The bad news, he was in the middle of a 144 player pack.

Then he turned it on.

On Saturday and Sunday, he posted scores of 66 & 70 to shoot 4 under over the weekend. Only 2 players had recorded better scores to par those final 2 days, the winner and the runner up. Ryan Moore and Bill Haas. Two guys who have a combined 11 wins on the PGA Tour. As the conditions had become harder, Judd’s game had gotten better, and he’d competed with the best of them. He finished the 2004 NCAA Tournament in 10th Place. The best weekend of his collegiate career and the best showing for a Shocker golfer at the NCAA Tournament in the history of the program.

2005 would be the culmination of an experience that seemed to have started and ended all in the same breath for Judd. That whole thing about time flying. He was a senior. The captain of a college team from a small midwest city that had started to make a name for itself across the golf landscape. Yet, for as much success as the Shocker team had during Judd’s tenure, that senior year would be disappointing.

The Shockers started the year slow and despite a late push, never seemed to regain the momentum of the last few seasons. They lost the Missouri Valley Conference by 7 strokes, the worst showing in 6 years. Then, despite their best effort, they lost in a playoff at the Notre Dame regional to miss qualifying as a team for the NCAA Tournament by 1 stroke. It was a heartbreaking end to a run in Shocker golf history that has yet to be duplicated. One that may never be. The end of a team career, but not an individual one for Judd Easterling.

Judd finished his senior year averaging 72.2. Half a stroke better than a year before. A fitting example of what his coach had told him 4 years earlier. Talk to me about how you feel at the end, not at the start. He finished 9th at the Missouri Valley Tournament and 2nd at the NCAA Regional. His game was peaking at just the right time. The reward was a 3rd straight trip as an individual participant to the NCAA Tournament. This time at Caves Valley in Baltimore, Maryland. This time, just him and the old coach.

Judd would go on to shoot rounds of 75,73, and 77 in Baltimore, failing to make the 54 hole cut by a wide margin. Just like that, an incredible collegiate career was over. It didn’t feel real.

While the final result wasn’t what Judd had hoped for, it was at the same time a moot point. He’d endured. He’d set out goals and achieved them. The coach had taught and the student had listened. After spending 6 days with Grier, just the two of them, it all made sense. Grier had been playing chess while Judd played checkers. He’d realized in that last trip that the process was the reward, not the destination. The work was where the magic was. As they boarded the plane to head home that night, Judd didn’t think about what he had shot at Caves Valley. He thought about that realization and the man who’d spent 4 years trying to get him to realize it. Something that has stuck with him ever since

When that flight landed back in Wichita, golf for Judd as a player would never be the same. His game had proven that he had a shot at the next level, his mind may have even gone there on occasion, but golf for the most part had always been for fun. Something you do to compete. Something you do to hang with your buddies. He’d spent the last four years playing some of the country’s finest courses before rushing back to campus for midterms and finals.

That was all about to change.

Every year, hundreds of players throw their names in the hat to try and make the PGA Tour. Former tour players who have lost their cards and are trying to gain them back. Stud freshmen and sophomores trying to see if their early collegiate success will translate into a long and lucrative professional career. And graduating seniors like Judd with a little bit of experience, big dreams, and a long road ahead. It’s golf’s version of a gauntlet and if you don’t find yourself near the top year in and year out, one that never ends.

Judd would turn pro in the summer of 2005 and place himself at the bottom of that pecking order. It was an eye opening experience. He spent each week staring down the barrel of trying to make just enough money to get to the next town so you can start fresh and do it all over again. With no secret formula or process for how to keep the train rolling, he did the only thing he knew, work.

As he crafted his game, now with a professional outlook, Judd was playing well as he headed into the fall. He was traveling week-to-week with his caddie, his clubs, and a few bags in the back of an old sedan. It was a grind, mentally and physically, but he was getting by. They were placing in enough Adam’s Tour events to at least fund the dream. At that stage in life, all you can ask for. At this stage, fun memories to look back on.

That November, Judd made it to Q-School. He breezed through Stage 1 qualifying with a four day score of 9-under. A small sigh of relief as box 1 of 3 had been checked. Stage 2 was held in McKinney, Texas at Stonebridge Country Club. A place Judd had shot 6-under in a college event his Junior year. He’d started the first two days at a very respectable 2-over par. Close enough to have a shot and far enough back to really have to work for it. The 3rd round wouldn’t push him in the right direction. Judd shot 79–76 on the last 2 days to finish in the middle of the pack. Not good enough. The dream, at least for now, would have to wait.

In the spring of 2006, Judd started the vicious cycle all over again. Mini-tour event in one small town. Little bit of money to get to the next small town. Sleep in a small hotel. Repeat the cycle. Maybe the allure wore off. Maybe it was never really fun to begin with. Whatever it was, the routine had grown old and Judd had seen his share of the professional life. He looked out the windshield of his sedan one day and came to the realization he’d been trying to avoid. It was time to move on. It was time to get a job. He altered his route and turned towards Dixon.

There is a scene in the movie Moneyball where a baseball scout is talking to Billy Beane, being played by Brad Pitt, when he is a high school prospect. They are evaluating the idea of playing in the Major Leagues. The scout looks at Billy and tells him, “We’re all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children’s game, we just don’t know when that’s gonna be. Some of us are told at 18 and some of us are told at 40. But we’re all told. We’re all told”.

Judd was living that reality. His version of the kid’s game had ended. He moved back to his home state of Missouri and took a job with PepsiCo. His new objective set on climbing the corporate ranks versus a leaderboard. He jumped right in. Judd went from setting up merchandising displays in stores, to selling accounts, to managing a team of sales reps across the state. It was far from the luxurious life of a PGA Tour pro, but he’d applied that same mentality that Grier had instilled in his guys all those years ago and found success in an avenue other than golf.

Then, kind of like it had for his old coach nearly 20 years before, one night the phone rang. It was Judd’s Aunt. Her son, Judd’s cousin, was a standout golfer at the University of Missouri. Mark Leroux was the head coach of the Missouri Tigers. Judd’s aunt had been talking to Mark one evening when he mentioned he was looking for the University’s first Assistant Golf Coach. Judd’s aunt said she knew a guy looking to get back into the game. She called Judd to see if he was interested. Mark was expecting a call if so. This time, Judd wouldn’t wait a few days to accept an offer to join a collegiate golf team. He accepted on the spot.

In 2013, Judd began his career in coaching as the first ever full-time assistant coach for the University of Missouri Golf Program. His job functions spent mostly around recruiting and working with the players in practice. He spent all fall getting to know the guys and trying to identify those same buttons his coach had pushed with him. Make them better without them knowing they are getting better. It’s funny what time does.

When the spring season rolled around at the start of 2014, Judd found himself walking towards the first tee at Bandon Dunes in Bandon, Oregon for Missouri’s first tournament. He was there not as a player, not as a professional, and not as a local rep for PepsiCo. He was there as a Division 1 college golf coach. A title that just a few months before, seemed like a pipedream. A title from that day on, he knew he never wanted to relinquish.

Judd spent 2 years in Missouri helping to maintain a program under Mark Leroux that had become a Top 30 team in the country. At that time, like his players, Judd was also learning. Learning how to be a better coach. Learning more technical aspects of the game. How to manage the coach/player relationship from this new side of the table. All challenges he enjoyed. He applied the same amount of effort and energy to this side of golf that he always had to the playing side. In a short amount of time, Judd Easterling became a rising name in the assistant coaching ranks.

Following the spring season of 2015, a man with a familiar last name took notice of Judd’s passion and coaching ability. Tim Mickelson, the younger brother of Phil Mickelson, was then the head coach of Arizona State University. The Sun Devils were coming off a 2015 season where the program won 5 Tournaments and made it to the NCAA Tournament. A historically great program was seeking ways to keep themselves at the top of the ever evolving collegiate golf game. When Tim Mickelson thought of an assistant who could help him do that, the answer was simple, he made the call to Judd Easterling.

Judd made it to Tempe in August of 2015 and it didn’t take long for him to realize that things were a little different in the desert then they were in the Ozarks. It wasn’t just the weather either. Everything from the quality of courses, to the facilities, to the talent level was ramped up a notch in Arizona. Guys like John Rahm were walking through the door every morning and they weren’t there just to become the best player in the conference, they were there to become the best players in the world. He had a front row seat to that level of commitment during that first year. It was fun to watch.

In a way, you could say that Judd had found his home in Arizona. D1 Golf Coach at a major university in a major city with major talent walking through the door every year. A perfect scenario for a young guy with big aspirations in the coaching profession. Maybe a pathway to being the guy in that same Captain’s chair somewhere down the road. Maybe. Hopefully.

It had been quite some time since Judd had talked to his old coach. In his own words, “forever”. And while they may not have stayed in frequent touch post-college, Grier had kept up, even if he’d done so quietly. He knew Judd was making a name for himself in the coaching world and just before the spring season of 2017, he had found himself with an opening. Grier had tracked down Judd’s phone number from a former teammate and called with a proposition. He needed a new assistant coach. He needed Judd back in Wichita. He needed him to be a Shocker again.

At the time, the last thing Judd was thinking about was leaving. The Arizona sun had all but erased those memories of frosty spring mornings in Kansas and Missouri. But the past has a funny way of putting you both where you are now and at the same time on a path to where you need to be. Judd listened and deep in his gut knew there was only one place he would ever leave Tempe for. That was Wichita. He packed his bags again and made the 16-hour trek back towards the Sunflower State. This time with a little more familiarity than the last time. Hopefully the last trek for a guy with all intentions of firmly planting his roots at his alma mater.

You don’t have to read very far between the lines to understand what was going on there. In 2017, Grier Jones was entering his 22nd year as Head Coach of the Shockers. He was 70 years old. He’d spent the second half of his professional career building a highly respected program at a school that big programs had always labeled a “mid-major”. For 22 years, Grier had never accepted that label. The results had shown it. The players echoed it. The respect he’d earned in the college golf landscape validated it. Grier Jones, like everything else he’d ever been a part of, had made Wichita State far better than it was when he’d arrived. Yet in 2017, he was starting to realize that the sun may be setting on a legendary career.

Whether it was verbalized or not, the plan was in place. Grier would groom Judd to become the leader of the Shocker Men’s Golf Team. A plan not that much different than the one he’d orchestrated during their last go around. Shape this kid in a way that will make him better. Except this time, not for a 4 year window, but ideally a generational one. Playing for Grier is the growth stage. Filling his shoes is a life’s work. When the time was right, Judd would see his name right under his old coach on the short list of men to lead the Wichita State Men’s Golf program.

Judd’s title in the spring of 2017 was Assistant Coach. He made an impact right away helping the Shockers reclaim another Missouri Valley Conference Championship, their 21st in school history, and earn a berth to the NCAA Regionals. A prerequisite as far as he was concerned. What he appreciated the most though was the same things he appreciated the most back then. The little moments when he was able to key in on exactly what Grier was doing. To watch from afar. He watched him coach kids up in different ways. Watched him recruit. Watched him manage parents and talent and the ever changing emotional state of 18–22 year olds. Watching and noting the whole time.

In 2018 the Shockers would struggle. With a veteran laden team experiencing their first year in the American Conference, the results did not meet expectations. The team’s best finish that year was 7th and the season ended with a T-10 at the American Athletic Conference Championship in April, 3 weeks before school was out for summer break. Back to the drawing board for Grier and Judd.

In 2019 Judd’s title had changed, he was now the Associate Head Coach, but the results were unfortunately much the same. Since changing conferences, the Shockers had failed to grab any of their Missouri Valley magic. Their best finish that year was 10th place. They went back to the AAC Championship and again went back home with the season ending before final exams had even started. A trend in a direction that neither Judd or Grier were very used to. A trend neither were very happy about. One that needed to change.

A few weeks later, on a typical Monday in May, Judd was playing in Gregg Marshall’s Fundraiser Tournament for the Wichita State Men’s Basketball Team. He was booked in foursomes all day, both morning and afternoon. The routine was the same as it had been in previous years for him at the tourney. Chat it up with boosters, talk about the program, and build some excitement heading into the 2019/2020 season. Halfway through the evening round, his phone vibrated. He ignored it the first time. Not so much the second.

That same morning, after leading the program to 15 conference titles, 16 NCAA Regional appearances, and back-to-back NCAA Championship bids in 2003 and 2004, Grier Jones decided to call it a career. 24 years after accepting that initial phone call, he made his final one as Head Coach. The run was over. The sun had set. Grier was retiring and the man who would replace him was exactly where you’d expect him to be, about 4 miles away on the golf course.

The rest of that day is a whirlwind for Judd Easterling. For as much as he may have known this was the direction of the program, having it actually happen was a whole different story. He’d spend the rest of the afternoon doing media sessions and phone interviews, trying to explain the feeling of filling the shoes of a man you’ve always admired. Words can only do that so much justice.

The next morning, on Tuesday, the pieces were already moving. Judd flew in a potential assistant coach, Matt Walton, from Orlando, Florida. They ate dinner, toured town, and discussed what it would look like to be a part of the Shocker family. Less than 12 hours later on Wednesday, the two were back on a flight to Orlando. Matt to mull over his decision. Judd to recruit some kids in the area. Judd bounced around a few days before meeting Matt at a restaurant near the airport before the return flight home Friday night. They knocked out formalities and before dinner plates were served, Matt committed to joining Judd and the Shockers. Another new face.

For a program that had spent a quarter century under the watchful eye of one man, it had all but found its new identity in a span of 4 days in May of 2019.

Which leads us back to exactly where we are now. The lounge area of the Wichita State practice facility. 5 weeks out from a trip to Florida for the first event of the 2020 spring season. A facility at Willowbend Country Club in Wichita, Kansas that is far better than the shed Grier took over at the North end of Braeburn Golf course in 1995.

There’s monitors and heaters and cameras covering the walls. All tools ready to prepare the next generation of Shocker golfers to leave their mark the same way Judd did nearly 20 years ago. There’s quotes as well. Mantras about getting better and hard work and overcoming adversity. Mantras no doubt driven by Judd’s memories of his old coach and the everlasting influence he will continue to have on this school and this community. There’s names on plaques for things like low scores, medalist honors, and conference champs. The longer you look, the more you’ll see Judd’s name. The Shocker logo hangs proudly as well. As an alum myself, I smile at the progress.

Then there’s Judd. Sitting there patiently as he waits for us to arrive. Decked out in his Under Armour Shocker gear. Not quite golf attire, but not quite formal. Approachable. His demeanor is laid back, but it’s obvious the intensity isn’t far behind the curtain. If anything, he seems like a guy that knows exactly where he is, exactly what’s gotten him there, and exactly what he intends to do with it. A guy both confident in his ability and equally humbled by the opportunity. He just hopes he gets the chance to tell you about it. He’s ready if you ask.

Where this quest leads, nobody knows. Only time will be the judge of that. But wherever it goes, one thing is for sure. It’s a quest that will always be rooted in the hard work put in at the Dixon 9 hole. Rooted in the countless hours under the watchful eye of his mentor Grier Jones. Rooted in those late nights driving between mini-tour events and stocking shelves for PepsiCo.

It’s a quest rooted in all the little moments that have led Judd Easterling from a small town kid in Missouri to now the Head Coach of the Wichita State Shocker Men’s Golf Team.