Jesse Haddock has died

Haddock was great. Didn't know golf well, but had some great tips about competing. I still find myself to this day repeating them in my head and when I coach juniors. I coach my son's high school team and most of what I tell them I stole from Jesse. I have worked with toms of really good instructors that knew the swing and the game a thousand times better than Jesse, but I swear I use more of what I got from Jesse then any of the others put together. Most of his comments tended to start with the word "Players". As in "Players don't ...." ..." Or "Players....". He always felt like if you wanted to be a "player" or thought of yourself as a player then you better act like a player. From the moment you got out of the van at a match or anytime you were even practicing, then you do things like a "player".

Loved him. Will be there Monday.

DownEastDeac said:

Seems like I recall Haddock and Gene Hooks had a falling out and Haddock quit. We brought in the golf coach from Oral Roberts, and the culture fit with the players and golf alumni was a Matt Doherty-esque disaster. Wasn't long before Oral Roberts guy was out and Jesse was back in; not even sure if Oral guy made it to the start of a golf season.
Or maybe I've dreamed the whole thing up, but that's what I vaguely recall.

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Great memory to recall this fiasco. Coach didn't belong anywhere but Wake and everybody knew it; just took a while to figure that out. I had great respect for Dr. Gene although I am told he could be difficult. Dr. Gene was operating with limited financial resources back in those days. A good football season was often 3-7 with four unwinnable non-conference games. The old I-85 Wake Forest 0 schedule.

My Uncle played for UNC in that era and spoke very highly of him!

Jesse was a class act. He had great people skills and a remarkable ability to remember names.

BudatWake said:

Another great coach run off from WFU. All Jessie could do was recruit and coach great golf teams.
RIP coach

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Jesse was not run off actually Bud. He backed himself into a corner with Dr. Hooks in that he demanded more money "or else" and it was something Dr Hooks did not have at his disposal in the mid to late 70's. Dr James Ralph Scales was not known to give the athletic department much in the way of money when it came to our Big 2 programs of football or basketball back in those days, much less a non-revenue sport like golf [no matter that it was our best program on both the ACC & national scene and was just coming off 2 national titles]. When Jesse made his "or else" demand and there was no money to give him, he basically had to leave to save face. So off he went to Oral Roberts in July 1976 & in came Ron Roberts from Ga Southern. Ron ran off many of our already committed or signed new golfers with his pledge he tried to make them sign on being committed to him [Jodie Mudd, Wayne DeFrancesco just to name a few]. Then whatever wrongs were righted, Jesse came back & led us to the 1986 national title at Bermuda Run, his 3rd.

advancedeac said:

Jesse was a class act. He had great people skills and a remarkable ability to remember names.

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And his players all loved coming back for him and supporting the program. He was the best coach we have ever seen in any sport at Wake Forest!

RIP Coach!

TheReff said:

Ron ran off many of our already committed or signed new golfers with his pledge he tried to make them sign on being committed to him [Jodie Mudd, Wayne DeFrancesco just to name a few]. Then whatever wrongs were righted, Jesse came back & led us to the 1986 national title at Bermuda Run, his 3rd.

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No way, had no idea about that! Thanks Reff! Funny, I love watching 'ol Wayne-o's swing analysis vids on the internetz before he started charging for a subscription. I might need to do so and see what he thinks of Tiger's new move and what the hell is wrong with Rory (methinks he's trying to get more on top of the ball and not drop the club so much inside and it's taking some time for the consistency to kick in and the results will come soon...maybe not in time for the Masters though.).

Why the Deac Not said:

Nice find! Didn't realize Clarkey was there for more than a semester...thought he was dismissed at the end of the first for perhaps not applying himself. This makes a bit more sense.

RIP Coach! That was one helluva dynasty for a while. For a good stretch (late 80's till '94 when Arnie played his final Open), it seemed like there were about 8 or 9 former Wake players on the PGA Tour.

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Darren was talking about this at the US Open last year. He and Curtis both joked about not graduating from Wake, and Darren said something about his lifestyle not fitting in well at Wake. Sounded like he liked partying but wasn't into the whole academic thing.