Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Many university students learn as much about life outside the classroom as they do about academics from their professors.
Some things, however, students just cannot learn inside a classroom--like playing golf.
While classes at Mississippi State's Bagley College of Engineering expose students to an educational foundation to help them prepare for professional careers, there's more to learn than calculus and laws of thermodynamics. Some graduates might even get stuck in their office on a sunny Friday afternoon if they don't know basics on how to swing a five iron or what "birdie" means.
That's what Tommy Stevenson, assistant engineering dean for diversity, thought when he created the college's Golf and Engineering Program.
"The whole purpose was to expose the students to golf in general," said Stevenson, who has played for about five years. "It's one of the most challenging sports I've every played."
Learning golf basics may be good to know for the sake of knowing, but it may also help in professional settings. Often business professionals golf together and make business decisions in between putts. Students who haven't been exposed to the sport may get left at the office while a business deal happens on the golf course.
"I always say I'd rather be on the golf course on Friday than in the office," Stevenson said recently. "Because I know how to play, I'm afforded that opportunity."
During the fall semester, about 80 Bagley students, faculty and staff began golf lessons at the MSU Golf Course. Students studying in the university's professional golf management academic program taught the lessons.
The first session involved golf language and discussed the business side of the sport. Other lessons included chipping, putting and other golf basics.
One student learning about golf was Rockell Ingram, a December electrical engineering graduate from Shaw. Ingram said few people in his small, rural Delta hometown played golf.
"I thought golf was a game for the elite," he said recently. "You associate it with a specific group of people."
Now Ingram associates himself with golf. He still considers himself a beginner but doesn't keep flipping the channel when it sees it on television. Not only does he watch it, but finds himself often thinking about the game. During one Sunday at church, Ingram showed his golf swing to a church member. Afterward, Ingram received an invitation to go golfing.
"He was just as excited as I was to know that I was learning to play," Ingram said, who understands how social the sport is. He said he also sees golf as a game where "regular" players can sometimes perform like the professionals.
"It's the only sport where you may not dunk but you can hit the same shot or share the same field as the professionals," he said.
The lessons aren't just for people without any golf experience. Electrical engineering senior Becky Stone of Vernon, Ala., said she'd played about three times before starting the lessons.
She started going because it was an inexpensive way to get extra instructions. She said she enjoys taking lessons from experts, but is patient about improving.
"It's a very technical game," Stone said. "And, I have a whole lot more to learn."
Perhaps some of the people learning better golf will also learn some of the lessons in life the game teaches, like patience and perseverance.
"You have to learn to recover from tough shots," Stevenson said. "In life, there also will be tough shots from which to recover."
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Dr. Stevenson at 662-325-2270 or tommy@engr.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.