Dianne Dailey’s Coaching Doesn’t End at Golf Course
By SCOTT MARTIN

Each year, when Dianne Dailey recruits for the Wake Forest women’s golf team, she strives to find what she describes as a sleeper – a young lady who might not have triumphed on the American Junior Golf Association tour, been nationally ranked as a 5-year-old, or lived in a house adjacent to the David Ledbetter Golf Academy.

But Dailey, who has been the head coach of the Demon Deacons’ program since 1988, is also looking for the elite players who have competed successfully at the highest level in AJGA events, high school showdowns and USGA junior championships. The blend of the accomplished with the promising works well.

“I’m looking for some young women who have already established their credentials,” says Dailey. “But I think it’s also important for the program, for the university, and for the game that I find some student-athletes who have potential but may not have focused full time on golf in their high school years.”

One of those diamonds-in-the-rough turned out to be Laura Diaz, now a star on the LPGA Tour. At Wake Forest, Diaz, who was then Laura Philo, entered the program without a dazzling résumé but earned first team All-American honors in 1996 and 1997. Her 2001 earnings totaled a healthy $751,466, which placed her ninth on the money list. Although an outright victory eluded Diaz, 11 top-10 finishes in 2001 proved that she can achieve remarkable and mercurial consistency.

“Coach Dailey is very organized and very interested in what you’re doing as a student and as an athlete,” says Diaz. “She’s very kind and knowledgeable and helpful. She helped me make the most of my time at Wake Forest.”

On the course, Diaz has been spectacular, but it’s her off-the-course statements about the LPGA’s need to pump up its sex appeal that has gained Diaz more attention than her play.

“I get a chuckle out of all the media attention she gets,” says Dailey. “But the focus should be on her golf accomplishments and the fact that she has worked her way to where she is now. She was my sleeper.”

Dailey points out that Diaz had to earn a spot on the Wake Forest team, only fully realizing her true ability at the end of her sophomore year when she shot at 69 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Thus far, Diaz is the most successful professional women’s golfer from Wake Forest. Dailey is clearly pleased with what Diaz has accomplished and hopes that all her golfers achieve that level of success. However, before attempting to break into the professional ranks, Dailey has her players focused on continuous improvement in the classroom and on the golf course.

The results have been impressive. After the fall season, Golf Week ranked her squad 14th in the country. The team’s GPA is the highest of any athletic program at the university. And several members of her squad have the potential to earn post-season honors. Chief among these might be Nuria Clau, a junior from Barcelona, Spain, and a former Spanish international junior golfer.

“Coach Dailey has helped me with my swing and my conditioning,” says Clau. “But she’s also interested in me as a person. She devotes a lot of time to the team and in finding new and better ways to teach the game. She promotes a family atmosphere.”

Creating that sense of home away from home is particularly important for Dailey seeing as four of her squad are from Europe. One year, her squad organized an intramural basketball team that reached the final; Dailey was a spectator at one game, urging the team not to get injured. One season, in an attempt to get the “no jeans while traveling” rule overturned, team members blindfolded Dailey, and led her to the mall where a clerk fitted her for a pair of jeans. While the “no jeans while traveling” rule remains intact, the jeans, which Dailey still wears, are as comfortable as the atmosphere in the team bus.

“Finding young women who will feel happy here is probably the most important part of recruiting,” says Dailey. “Wake Forest, its golf reputation, and the facilities here sell themselves but maybe I’ve developed a sixth-sense for finding the type of person who will really enjoy being a student at Wake Forest and develop as a person and golfer.”

Despite the commitment to golf at Wake Forest and the strength of the program, recruiting requires constant attention from Dailey and her volunteer assistant coach Victoria Boysen. Part of the challenge is that potential college golfers are committing earlier, often at the beginning of their senior year.

Stephanie Neill Harner was a talented Charlotte high school senior who received numerous scholarship offers from universities around the country. Her trip to meet Dailey still stands out.

“I knew immediately that Coach Dailey was someone I could trust,” says Neill Harner. “She does not use ‘hype’ to describe herself, her program, or Wake Forest, but instead is honest and sincere.”

Something else that should be attractive to potential recruits is the fact that Dailey won the 2001 LPGA Coach of the Year Award, in part on the strength of her team’s record in her 13 years at Wake Forest. This record includes 19 victories, nine NCAA Championship appearances (including a third-place finish in 1995 at Landfall in Wilmington) and two ACC Championships. The award also recognizes Dailey’s extra-curricular work for groups like the College Golf Foundation, the USGA and the National Golf Coaches Association.

“Very few people outside the profession realize that Dianne is a true advocate for college golf and college golfers,” says Sally Austin, the women’s golf coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “She does things the right way, has great teams year in and year out, and gives back to the game.”

One change that Dailey managed to pass at the NCAA level was the rule where potential college coaches who had been working with juniors could no longer coach the potential prospect past ninth grade, thus severing an important relationship. Now, college coaches can continue giving private lessons to juniors throughout their high school years. Dailey elicits kudos from her peers and even from alumni who were playing at Wake before Dailey arrived.

“She has really taken the program to the next level,” says Brenda Corrie Kuehne, who was an All-American in 1986 at Wake Forest and eventually became a member of two Curtis Cup teams. “As a former member of the team, it’s exciting to see the program doing so well.”

Despite the challenges of recruiting, maintaining the winning traditions, and dealing with a miasma of NCAA regulations, Dailey clearly enjoys her work.