Methodist Has Gone Hogge-Wild Since 1987

 BY JIM PETTIT

To hear Jerry Hogge tell it, the phenomenal success of the Methodist College professional golf management program would have happened with just about anyone at the helm.

            “Anybody could have done what I did,’’ Hogge said.

            Hogge directs a Methodist men’s and women’s golf dynasty that has produced 23 national team championships, 18 national individual champions and 118 All-Americas along with dozens of other accolades. The professional golf management program, or PGM, annually turns out some of the nation’s best-trained golf professionals to fill the shops of private clubs and public courses throughout the nation.

            Methodist is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III school, which means it does not award athletic scholarships.

       Hogge’s modest protest is like saying any house painter could have turned out the Mona Lisa. In truth, the difference between the ordinary and the spectacular sometimes rests with the vision as much as the effort involved. That’s where Hogge excels.

            Methodist men’s coach Steve Conley, for example, guided his teams to nine national titles in the 1990s. “Steve became the golf coach the year I came,’’ Hogge said, “and we fed off each other. Methodist had a winning golf program, but Steve took it to another level. He got people to come in and play golf, and we told them we would give them a good education.’’

            The women’s team, currently guided by Kim Kincer, has lost only two national titles since it was founded in 1985.

            “I’m a terrible manager,’’ Hogge insisted. “I’m more like a visionary. I can see where I want things to go. Fortunately, the school gave me the leeway, and we’ve had such good people to get us there.’’

            But golf is a far cry from the way Hogge saw his life unfolding as a young man.

            “I grew up playing football, basketball and baseball in southern Virginia,’’ Hogge said. “I grew up on a farm and golf was for people that I thought were rich or had money, so I played sports that didn’t take a lot of money.’’

            A running back in football, Hogge went to Elon College but ran into a disappointment. “I tried to play football at Elon, but realistically, I wasn’t good enough,’’ he said. “I didn’t have the speed, the skill or the size.’’

            One day,  Hogge’s suite mate, Jimmy Daniels, invited him out to play golf. Hogge had never played before, but had enough athletic swagger to believe he could beat the small, wiry Daniels in any sport.

            “We went out to Shamrock golf course in Burlington,’’ Hogge recalled. “The first hole was a par 5. I made five and Jimmy made six. I told him, ‘Jimmy, there ain’t nothing to this game.’ We had bet five bucks. When it was over, I had shot 126 and he shot 73. That’s when I sort of got addicted to it.’’

            Hogge took some student loan money and bought a set of golf clubs, but had to sell them when he went to graduate school.

            His first job after college was teaching at Kennesaw Junior College in Kennesaw, Ga.

            “They had a young assistant golf pro at Pine Tree Country Club at that time whose name was Larry Nelson. He had just quit his job as a draftsman at Marietta Lockheed. I got to know Larry very well. I like to tell people Larry became a professional golfer and a millionaire and I became a golf professional.’’

            After two years at Kennesaw, Hogge came to one of life’s crossroads.

            “The president of the college wanted me to give a girl an ‘A’ so she could finish with a 4.0 grade point average,’’ Hogge said, “and I refused to do it. I told my wife that I was getting out.’’

            With encouragement of Nelson and another mentor, Bill Strausbaugh of Columbia (S.C.) Country Club, Hogge quit and entered the golf business as an assistant pro at Argyle Country Club in Silver Spring, Md.

            Hogge gained more experience as a golf pro before entering into a West Virginia resort partnership that encompassed skiing and dining facilities as well as golf.

            “I didn’t know anything about the restaurant business and we had a 450-seat dining room and two satellite food operations as well,’’ Hogge said. “I was thrown hard into the management side of resort operations.’’

            Hogge and his partners sold the business in 1983 and he did consulting work until a Fayetteville friend and former college roommate, Gene Brewer, enticed him to explore some golf opportunities in Fayetteville. Twice, Hogge interviewed for jobs in Fayetteville, but they went to other candidates.

            The third opportunity was as director of the Methodist College golf program. Hogge accepted and joined the staff in the fall of 1987.

            “Dr. (Methodist president Elton) Hendricks told me at the time that Methodist would never build a golf course, would never build a golf building and would never play football,’’ Hogge recalled, chuckling. The school, of course, has constructed an 18-hole golf course for its PGM students, has a separate office and classroom facility, and even plays football.

            Hogge established five goals he wanted to accomplish: 1) develop a curriculum good for PGA professionals; 2) establish a 100 percent job placement program; 3) build a golf course; 4) build a building; and 4) gain accreditation from the PGA.

            “I thought we could do all that in three years and it only took 14,’’ Hogge deadpanned. “I tell people I made more wrong decisions that turned out great than probably anybody in the world. It wasn’t rocket science. I just did what you would do in building a business. The school looked at it as education, which it was, but to me it was a business that I was trying to build.’’

            And build it he did.

            The school’s golf program is the No. 1 hiring ground for Titleist, which recruits many of its salesmen from Methodist graduates. “They call us the farm team,’’ Hogge says with noticeable pride.

            Methodist also maintains contact with all its PGM interns, visiting them in the field to monitor their progress as well as to get input from employers on ways the school can better prepare its graduates. The school also follows the careers of its golf graduates and Hogge talks to many of them each week to help them advance. There were three members of the program’s first graduating class in 1989. Last year’s was the largest, 63. Since 1989, Methodist has produced 400 PGM graduates.

            Methodist was once one of the few colleges in the nation sponsoring a PGM. It is still the only Division III school with one and its eight-person staff is the largest in the country, despite the fact that bigger schools such as Campbell, N.C. State, Clemson, Coastal Carolina now offer PGM programs.

            Still, as Hogge noted, not everyone is comfortable at a big school. “Our graduates are our best ambassadors,’’ he added. 

            Hogge was awarded the 2001 Carolinas PGA Strausbaugh Award for his contributions to improving employment conditions and relations for PGA members and their facilities. He also was the Carolinas Section’s 1999 Horton Smith Award and a finalist for the 1999 national Horton Smith Award.

            “I told my wife Barbara when we moved to Fayetteville that it would be a three-year stop,’’ said Hogge, who is 55 years old. “But it’s the most satisfying thing that I’ve ever done. It’ll probably end up being a career stop. Home is not where you want to go, it’s where you live.’’