Jamie Green's office in the Karcher-Ingram Golf Center is unadorned, save for a "19th Hole" flag from a certain Bushwood Country Club.
"One of the greatest of all time," Green said of the 1980 classic film "Caddyshack," which takes place at the fictional Bushwood. In the movie, pesky gophers, naughty caddies and irreverent guests drive the club's exclusive clientele mad, culminating in the destruction of the course by a delusional groundskeeper.
In his career as a head golf coach, Green has become known for every trait not embodied by the movie's protagonists, with predictably better results. Instead of arriving at a new school and blowing things up, Green's easy-does-it personality allows him to understand everything about the situation he is in: his players' talents, his school's priorities and his team's strengths and weaknesses.
That strategy has carried him a long way so far.
Because aside from the replica flag, Green also has three consecutive conference championship trophies lining his office-a collection of trophies Duke hasn't seen in quite some time.
From Ohio Wesleyan to Charlotte
When former head coach O.D. Vincent decided to leave his post after less than 18 months on the job in December, the University's golf program showed signs of instability for the first time in decades. Vincent had been a splashy hire, brought in from golf powerhouse UCLA to continue a tradition of excellence on the links established by the late Rod Myers.
Myers passed away in 2007 after 34 years as Duke's head coach, and his shadow still looms large over every aspect of the program he built. But Green looks likely to reestablish that tradition because of his numerous ties to the University. For one, Green and Myers learned golf from the same man, albeit 35 years apart.
Green graduated from Ohio Wesleyan, a small school in Delaware, Ohio, in 1993. So, too, did Myers, some 32 years before, and both played for Dick Gordin, now the school's emeritus athletic director.
"I didn't have a great playing career, that's for sure," Green said. "There were a lot better players along the way, but I love the game, and [Gordin] got me so interested in the uniqueness of golf that I wanted to keep going as far as my career goes."
After leaving Ohio Wesleyan, Green took a job as a club pro in Hanover, N.H., where he landed an assistant coaching role at Dartmouth. By 1997, Green had officially relocated to the South-first at Auburn, then in Chapel Hill as an assistant at North Carolina and until recently, as the head coach at UNC-Charlotte.
Green truly made his mark at Charlotte, a program that was insignificant in college golf until shortly before he took the reins. Varsity golf was only founded at Charlotte in the 1970s. For comparison's sake, Duke won its first conference title-the Southern Conference championship-in 1922.
"I wouldn't call [Charlotte] a nothing program. That wouldn't be very kind, or accurate, because they had had some success and won some tournaments, but not a ton of tournament wins," Green said. "In fairness to the players there, they hadn't been given the resources. They really didn't have a full-time coach for 25 years of the program."
Despite the lack of results that preceded his arrival, Green put his charm and creativity to use to recruit both local players and international talent. Coupled with his clear abilities as a golf instructor and team manager, Green brought the 49ers success unmatched in their history.
In five and a half years in Charlotte, Green's squads won Atlantic 10 Conference championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and he was named conference coach of the year in each of those seasons. The school also attained its first-ever No. 1 ranking in his tenure.
One of his biggest coups as a recruiter was nabbing current junior Corey Nagy, a two-time honorable mention All-American, whose playing career has coincided with Charlotte's rise to national prominence.
"I am born and raised in Charlotte, and I grew up thinking I would never go to UNC-Charlotte because their golf program, for the longest time, was not very good," Nagy said. "But the more I talked to [Green], the more I hung out with him, the more I saw what he was focused on, which was getting all the players on the team better, and we really clicked. I admire him in many ways, and he's just really good at what he does.
"He's not in it to say, 'I am the head golf coach of this,' and 'I want to make this much money.' He is in it to build relationships and just make the team as good as the team can possibly be."
And when Duke came calling, it was that same passion and desire to get better that pulled Green away from a program he had built and toward one with assets Charlotte could never offer.
Answering Duke's call
Even before Green settled in Durham, he understood that Duke and Charlotte recruit on different levels. And for once, Green was on the other end of the recruiting game.
Duke offers a renowned golf course, a dedicated practice center, the chance to play a top-notch schedule and the opportunity to get a world-class education to every recruit that passes though Durham. Charlotte can offer none of those things.
With that in mind, Green said he and his wife were happy at Charlotte and could see themselves staying in the city for many years, but did not want to look back on this opportunity down the road and regret not taking the chance when they had it.
He mentioned the University's outstanding academic focus, its national and international prestige and the opportunity to work alongside women's golf head coach Dan Brooks, a five-time national champion, as draws he could not ignore. Green assisted Brooks at several summer camps while he was an assistant at North Carolina.
When Director of Athletics Kevin White offered Green the job, he didn't take it right away. But he didn't leave it on the table for long, either.
Green said he thought about it for several hours before accepting the offer. That all took place during the first week of the Spring, meaning that when classes resumed, Duke's golfers had no idea who their next coach would be.
For the Blue Devils' upperclassmen, Green is their fourth head coach in three years. Brad Sparling took over on an interim basis after Myers' death. Sparling was replaced by Vincent, whose place Green now occupies.
"That's three coaches too many, I guess," said junior Adam Long. "But I had a great experience with Rod [Myers], and then Sparling, and then O.D. [Vincent] and now Jamie. It could be a positive because instead of just meeting one great guy and great coach, I get to do that four times."
Green's personality and coaching style could make this transition smooth for Long and the rest of the team. Nagy described his former coach as the very opposite of a system guy who forces his own philosophy on his players. Green is flexible in his approach, knows different players need work on different aspects of the game and asks for nothing more than a strong work ethic, something he said Duke's players already have instilled in them.
That is why, Green said, he prefers coaching talented young golfers to playing himself-even though Nagy laughed at Green's suggestion that he isn't a good golfer.
"It's great to go out and play, but nothing excites me more than watching somebody else I'm working with kind of have that 'ah ha!' moment," Green said. "Everybody gets those, and they are fleeting and they go away, but to be able to develop some of those things, that does more for me than hitting a drive on the fairway or shooting 60-something.
"I didn't want to come in here and change a whole lot, especially in the middle of the season.... The last thing I wanted to do was come in here and start tinkering under the hood, changing things around and start pointing my finger in different directions."
Since arriving at Duke, Green has kept busy, and not only with watching his players in practice. Long said the players and coach were still getting comfortable with one another. The fact that Green traveled to a national coaches' convention and hosted recruits in the week before Duke's first tournament since his hiring has slowed progress slightly.
Nonetheless, Green will get to know his players and their games in the next few weeks as part of a grueling schedule that includes five trips outside of North Carolina, and he said associate head coach Ryan Ressa will be instrumental in doing so.
Green may be bringing a new attitude to Duke, but he brings no system with him, and that emphasis on hard work and individual improvement bodes well for the near future-even if Green, as he put it, will be doing more caddying than coaching at the beginning.
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