Southern Miss Hardwood Club Golf Tournament

Heading into his third season as Southern Miss head men’s basketball coach Jay Ladner is implementing a new off-season tradition on the links.

Today, the USM Hardwood Club put on its first-ever golf tournament comprised of 25 teams in a four-man scramble format.

Coach Ladner and company sold out the event weeks ago, raising in the ballpark of 30,000 to 40,000 for the program.

As is turns out in this who’s who of Southern Miss athletics, some of the events biggest supporters might also have the event’s biggest handicaps. USM Head Football Coach Will Hall said, “Oh, terrible. I don’t play, man. I handle failure as poorly as anybody in the world. I don’t have enough time to get good, so I don’t play.”

USM Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain said, “Man, it’s off the charts. They don’t have a number big enough. I don’t know. The last time I played, I can tell you that if I shot in the 80’s, that was a great day. So, there’s a reason that I just come and shake hands and don’t play a lot of golf.”

USM Head Basketball Coach Jay Ladner said, “You don’t want to know. They started asking handicaps, and of course, I had to get out of the tournament because I’m not very good. So, I’m just going to be driving around today.”

Head Baseball Coach Scott Berry says he doesn’t play golf and he’d rather be fishing.