UNC's new golf coach comes home

Andrew Sapp left it more than a decade ago — 13 years, for precision’s sake.

But it never left him.

Andrew Sapp left his job as assistant men’s golf coach at North Carolina in 1998 in order to advance his career as a collegiate golf coach, but now he’s back home.

UNC hired Sapp this summer to replace former men’s golf coach John Inman, who resigned in May after 13 years as head coach.

Sapp led the University of Michigan’s golf program to NCAA Regional selections in each of his last four seasons and two NCAA championship appearances in his last three years.

“It’s very rare that coaches get to coach at their alma mater,” Sapp said. “When you have that opportunity, and when your alma mater is as wonderful as UNC, it’s hard to pass up — if not impossible.”

Sapp said he didn’t struggle with the decision to return to North Carolina — where he played from 1991-93 — despite building a solid foundation at Michigan.

Then again, the coach also added that UNC was the only place for which he’d leave Ann Arbor.

“It was definitely difficult to leave the players who I left behind, but it was coming home,” Sapp said. “Was it difficult to go to your dream job? No. No, it wasn’t at all.”

While the titillating idea of returning to his alma mater was enough for Sapp, the golf environment in North Carolina is also one to admire.

North Carolina provides a deeper talent base than Michigan does for recruiting, with golf-abundant locations like Southern Pines.

And consider that Sapp is returning to the ACC, which has competed for multiple national titles. The conference has churned out one NCAA champion and six runner-ups in the last 15 years. Sapp’s goals fit right in with that success.

“Our goals are going to be to compete for ACC titles, and if you’re competitive in this league, you’re going to be competitive at the national level,” Sapp said. “What you can expect from our players is they’re going to work hard.”

And that hard work has already begun. Sapp began to instill the techniques that brought him success as soon as he arrived in Chapel Hill.

Senior Matt Raudenbush said he’s already seen the benefits of Sapp’s tutelage.

“In the first couple practices we had, he started this putting program that he expects guys to try and do as often as possible, and so far that has helped me,” Raudenbush said

The program, Raudenbush explained, is in place to minimize errors and maximize gains made with a putter.

Raudenbush said they had to make 25 consecutive 3 1/2-foot putts on Tuesday, and each player had three attempts to accomplish it.
“You always need to work on putters,” junior Michael McGowan said. “That’s like 45 percent of the game right there. “I think that’s given a bunch of the guys confidence. I know it’s given me confidence.”

In theory, the exercise will continue to embolden UNC’s golfers when they’re holding a putter or wedge, especially because the program is unending.

“That’s been great,” senior Patrick Barrett said of the program. “Honestly there are days where you don’t really feel like putting, but you kind of have to because of the program. That’s just how it works.”

And in the same way, that’s how Sapp works — which is a change from how Inman coached.

“(Inman) was very forthcoming,” Raudenbush said. “If you needed help, you could go to him and ask for help. But he didn’t say, ‘Well, we’re going to do this or that.’ He didn’t have any specific plans at all; he just expected it would get done.”

Sapp has a more systematic approach to making sure his team gets what it needs, which in the case of putting, means instilling confidence.

According to Sapp’s plan, making a four-footer in a tournament should be easier after you made 100 consecutive four-footers the day before.

But there’s more to the new Tar Heel coach than putting practice and unyielding structure. He’s been a coach for 18 seasons, and if those years are any indication, it won’t be too long before the results catch up to him at North Carolina.

The North Carolina men’s golf team hasn’t won a conference title since 2006 — when they tied Georgia Tech for first place.
Sapp is back in Chapel Hill to change that.

“This is a place that is a special place, and you can see that by how long people have been coaching here,” Sapp said.

Sapp said hopes to one day retire from UNC, because now, he’s home.

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