By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
Golf has made Hall of Famer Amy Alcott rich and famous and now, in her early 50’s, she is giving back to the game she loves by coaching the girls golf team at Harvard-Westlake in North Hollywood, Calif.
* She is a member of the LPGA and World Hall of Fame.
* She won 29 tournaments, including five majors.
* She won $3,419,406 in career earnings.
“I had no intention of coaching golf, or even thought about it,” Alcott told MaxPreps.
However, one year ago Harvard-Westlake boys golf coach Scott Wood contacted Alcott and helped sell her on the idea. “It was just 25 minutes from my house,” she conceded. “He said that the girls were at the age where they really needed to be mentored. The more I thought about it, it would be a great time to pass my knowledge around. I knew it wasn’t Duke or Arizona State.”
Audrius Barzdukas, who is the Wolverines’ head of athletics, couldn’t be happier with Alcott’s 2007 record of 8-1 in dual meets and the direction she is taking the program. The loss came in their final meet when two of the top girls had to take part in an orchestra concert. Still, the Wolverines lost to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame by only one stroke in a battle of unbeatens.
He laughed, “We really didn’t have to check any references. She is teaching about more than golf and is a great fit for our school. She has really embraced the mission of our school – that it’s possible to be a good student, athlete and person. As good as she is at golf, she is a better person, teacher and mentor. Amy Alcott is a giver.
“We’ve been a so-so program. If we had a great player, we were good, but it’s been kind of like riding a roller coaster. She has begun to change our culture. She has raised the level of expectation. She has really created a program.”
Alcott called her first year “quite successful and I enjoyed it. It had been awhile since I’d been around 14- and 15-year-old kids. I enjoyed interacting with them. I really felt that they did more for me than I did for them. It reminded me of when I was in high school (Palisades in Pacific Palisades, Calif.) and had my whole career ahead of me. It took me back to a gentler place in life where I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
“I was kind of cocky as a young rookie (age 18) on the (LPGA) tour, but there is no room for arrogance.”
Looking back at her first year of coaching, Alcott believes she was able to help her players most in the areas of “chipping, putting, instincts and being team players.”
Of course, girls will be girls and Alcott had to clamp down on a few things. She found out right away that “Once they get out of the car, they want to either chatter or eat. I had to get them to lay off their text messaging while they were practicing. I had to pull the whip out once in awhile.”
Alcott’s biggest concern, however, always has been time – or the lack of it. She still plays an occasional LPGA event, designs golf courses and is completing her third book, “The Leaderboard – Conversations of Golf & Life.” She interviewed 27 persons – “some whom I knew and some whom I wanted to know.”
She revealed that this fall, “I now am going to be program head and I am bringing in someone to coach. She’s very good with young people. We’ll have two matches a week. My plan is to be there for a workout session one or two days a week and I’ll go out to several matches. I’ll work on their golf game and teach them how to think their way around the golf course. My big priority is that I’m really setting a vision.”
Longtime friend and former agent, Linda Giaciolli, who was instrumental in helping convince Alcott to coach, again will assist her in the background. She believes Alcott ranks among the all-time top five LPGA golfers “for the following reasons: managing the course, shot-making skills, insight into the game and knowing how to get from one hole to another with the least amount of mistakes.”
Though she calls Harvard-Westlake girls golf “a work in progress,” Giaciolli is quite pleased that the school is building an on-campus facility for chipping and putting plus a hitting cage.
Giaciolli revealed that the staff is adding a third person this fall: Lisa Grimm, who will do much of the overseeing during the actual matches. Grimm, who is director of the Urban Youth Golf Program for the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, says, “Working with the two of them is a privilege and honor. It sounds like a real fun program.”
Most of last year’s players return and there may be a talented transfer or two.
One of the returnees, senior Alexandra Green, told MaxPreps, “I was excited to meet someone of her caliber. You can see why she was such a great golfer, because she is so focused and such an amazing person. That really helps out our girls golf team. She helped me a lot with my chipping when I was really close to the green, like 20 yards.
“She helped the entire team get into game mode. We all became more focused. There is definitely more attention to the sport within the Harvard-Westlake community. The team definitely is going to be more confident this year.”
Green is certain that Coach Alcott will start every match the same way as last year – with a huddle and recitation, obviously borrowed from famous world traveler Forrest Gump. It goes like this: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” Green laughed that it was so true because the team had to deal with deer, geese and some unauthorized adults during its various golf course encounters last year.
The Wolverines play on a public course, the Encino and Balboa Golf Course, and Alcott quickly found out last fall how time consuming that was because she had to stand in line to pay greens fees and rent golf carts. “People would talk to me when I needed to be with my girls,” she pointed out. “Once you get out of your car, you’re open to everything.”
Despite the distractions, Barzdukas points out proudly, “The measure of what a down-to-earth person she is, is that she’s playing on a public course. You should watch some of the golfers’ and staffers’ faces when they see Amy Alcott cruising around on their course. It’s pretty priceless.”