Colby Huffman was looking for someone who could benefit his golf team in multiple ways.
Before the start of the 2022-23 college season, Huffman, the head men’s coach at Butler, was in need of an assistant. He wanted someone who could help not only with swings and mental approaches, but also playing experience at different levels. He wanted someone who could take his team to another level.
Enter Shaun Micheel. Yes, the major champion who won his only PGA Tour title at the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
“I had reached out to some of my coaching buddies and asked for their opinions on some people,” Huffman said. “I eventually called Shaun out of the blue. He was interested to get into coaching.”
Micheel’s playing career isn’t over — he still practices plenty in between attending his daughter’s high school soccer games or visiting his older kids in college at Ole Miss — but he has started looking at what could be next. Huffman’s call, and the friendship the two had built before then, opened a door for Micheel to get into coaching and give it a shot. Now, the Butler men’s golf team has a PGA champion on its side, a major asset that Huffman hoped pay dividends well into the spring season.
A plaque in the rough on the 18th hole commemorates the 7-iron shot that Shaun Micheel struck from 174 yards during the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. (Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
“I’ve given a lot of speeches at clinics where I have offered my advice, and I never really got to see where that advice went,” Micheel said. “When you play in a pro-am and help that person out, you may never see that person again to see whether they got any better or see whether what you told them was a load of garbage.”
Micheel, 53, will now get to see that advice play out over the course of the season.
Huffman said he and Micheel met nearly a decade ago and have stayed in touch since. That’s why it was easy for Micheel to say yes to being an assistant, even though he still lives in Tennessee.
He won’t be at every practice, and he hasn’t been at every tournament for Butler’s fall season. He made his debut in October at the Xavier Invitational in Ohio. Although Micheel may not be as hands-on as Huffman, his impact can’t be understated.
It’s an early flight to Cincy for my first event as Assistant Coach for @ButlerUGolf with @XavierMGOLF hosting. pic.twitter.com/BxnEeMukh0
— Shaun Micheel…
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