A Conversation With Mike McCoy
A Conversation With Mike McCoy
The 2023 Walker Cup Captain discusses his playing career, putting together a team, the Old Course and the state of amateur golf in an NIL world.
Mike McCoy has competed in 65 USGA championships and as a 50-year-old became the oldest U.S. Mid-Amateur champion in 2013. Earlier this year he was named the Captain of the 2023 Walker Cup team and next September will lead the United States at the Old Course at St Andrews.
McCoy was a member of the 2015 USA Walker Cup team at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in England where, at 52, he became the third-oldest Walker Cup competitor in history. More recently, McCoy dominated the 2021 Senior Amateur Championship at Royal Dornoch to win by seven strokes.
He’s an 11-time Iowa Player of the Year who played collegiate golf at Wichita State and is currently president of the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association. McCoy works in the insurance industry and has four children with his wife, Tana: Nate, Megan, Danny and Erin, in addition to two stepsons, Cade and Corbin Nichol.
At the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst, Mike and Nate became only the fifth known father-son combination to play in the same U.S. Amateur.
In advance of USA’s 2023 hopefuls gathering December 15-18th in Jupiter to practice, McCoy kindly answered The Quadrilateral’s questions about his career, next September’s matches and the state of amateur golf.
Geoff Shackelford: How did you get started in the game?
Mike McCoy: I grew up in Des Moines and lived fairly close to Wakonda Club. I started out there as a caddie. I had some uncles that played but my parents didn't play. My grandfather passed away before I was born but he actually was a golf professional. So mostly it was just that I happened to live close to a club, started caddying, and took to it right away.
GS: You've had quite a bit of on course success later in life. So what’s the secret?
MM: Just staying at it and to keep playing. I didn't give up, I guess. That was probably the biggest thing. And I’ve enjoyed competing and made a lot of friends doing it. I'd also always wanted to make a Walker Cup team and had come close a couple times. It's really hard because you really need to win something. I think after I won the Mid-Am and I was playing pretty well at that time, I just put my foot on the gas and doubled down and played more. Late bloomer, I guess.
GS: Have you been pretty consistent or did you ever have a time where you played less or got a little disconnected? Or has it been a pretty steady run?
MM: It's been pretty steady. I definitely played more nationally as I got older. I played a lot of local state-of-Iowa golf, then as I won a couple state am's and I got invited to the Western or the Sunnehanna, things like that, that's when I began to play more nationally. But it came after I had success in Iowa. It went sequentially, and then I played a little less local golf over the last ten years and more national golf.
GS: What are you most excited about in captaining a Walker Cup team?
MM: Probably getting to know the players. I've gone out and watched four or five events already. I'm starting to meet the guys and meet some of their parents and their coaches. I'm sure the match is going to be exciting. It's obviously a great venue. But it comes and it goes so fast. Just from my own experience, I spent what felt like a lifetime trying to make a team and when you get there, boom, it's just over in the blink of an eye. It's like, wow. So I'm really going to try to enjoy the process of getting to know the players and encourage them and enjoy watching them play.
GS: A committee ultimately decides the team roster, but I assume they will seek out your take on players?
MM: Yes, there is the International Team Selection committee. I’ll participate in the call but they make the decision. In fairness, they did ask some questions and wanted to know what I saw when I was out watching. I thought it was very collaborative.
GS: Going into this, what are you most anxious about?
MM: I know how difficult it is to win over there. When I played we prepared with one particular wind in the practice sessions. The day of the match it was blowing twice as hard from the other direction. We were lost, to be honest with you. We just didn't see that coming and our pairings were screwed up. So what I’m most anxious about is just how are we going to make sure the players are not at a disadvantage in terms of knowing the Old Course and having a good game plan of how to approach it for any kind of weather. So just try to level the playing field and take the golf course out of it by not making it such a big home field advantage for them.
GS: What's your history with the Old Course?
MM: I played a couple St. Andrews Links trophies when I was younger, and then I did play in the Senior British Open. Three or four years ago, I went over and qualified. So I’ve played maybe six competitive rounds and probably another ten social rounds. I wouldn't say I know it like the back of my hand, but I know it enough that it's grown on me and I have more affection for it each time I go there. I spent the week of The Open there this past summer.
GS: What did you see?
MM: I watched a lot of golf and walked the course after it was over. I love the feel of it and I know it grows on you, so I’ll hopefully instill some of that before we get there with the team so that they appreciate where they're going to be playing and the role St. Andrews has played in the history of the game.
GS: Will you be looking to players for advice?
MM: Zach Johnson's a good friend of mine and he won there. Obviously Tiger's played on some Walker Cup teams. He's done pretty well around there. I'd love the team to hear from some of those guys. And Stacy Lewis, who played great there in the Curtis Cup and wanted to win the Women’s Open, has a great affection for the course as well. I think I'll be reaching out and seeing if there's any thoughts that those players can share that we can share with the team. It's iconic and it's going to be a lot of fun. I know the R&A is putting a lot of effort into making it a successful event, and we’ve got a lot of friends from the US that are going to attend. It’s going to be exciting.
GS: It's a much tougher course to learn than Royal Lytham. What did you guys do in 2015 in terms of advance preparation?
MM: We'll probably get in there on Saturday morning and play somewhere like Dumbarnie or one of the other local courses. We'll probably do that on Sunday. Then on Monday and Tuesday we have set tee times because the public still has access to the golf course on Monday and Tuesday. Then Wednesday through Friday the course is closed and just the two teams havcess.
GS: Tha be incredible having the Old Course to yourselves for three days.
MM: It's a fine line. You want to keep everybody fresh but you also need to get to know the golf course without wearing them out before the matches.
GS: I'm going to assume Royal Dornoch is your favorite links course? What was that experience like winning the 2021 Senior Amateur there?
MM: It is right now, for sure! It was exciting. I went to Wichita State, so I've always been a pretty good wind player. I'd seen wind blow hard and played in a lot of tough conditions, so I was able to deal with it maybe a little better. It was a fun week. You knew it was going to be tough for everybody but I was playing well. It was just one of those magical weeks where you're in a great state of mind. They don't happen all that often. I was in a good place physically, mentally. My wife was there and we had a great time.
GS: When it comes to shaping a team, how much would you say the ability to play in the wind will factor in team selection? Or is it a bit more about just rewarding playing records and personality fits?
MM: Because it's a two-year process, there's going to be some automatic selections based on their WAGR [World Amateur Golf Rankings] and who wins the US Amateur. Some of those are predetermined, so it's pretty hard to jump somebody who's done the work and is right there for someone who is farther down in the rankings. I think we're going to go with the team that's earned that position and hope for the best in terms of how their game’s going to fit for a links course. I certainly don't have the discretion to pick somebody who I know is a good wind player.
Also, it’s such a different game. I know you write about it and it's so different even than the way we play senior golf and Mid-Am golf. These guys hit it right through the wind. It's just different. It was a much bigger thing in the eighties and nineties where you had to flight the ball and you had to do all kinds of things. Today, that creativity just isn't called for anymore.
GS: Tiger had some interesting comments before The Open on this. Obviously he missed the cut and it was an emotional day, so it wasn't like anybody was going to ask a geeky golf follow-up to see if his prediction of players not flighting the ball panned out. But he said before the tournament that he was curious to see the difference in how guys play the course with the current ball versus the year Johnson won or even in 2010 when Louis Oosthuizen won.
MM: I've been to a lot of golf courses and I had never seen a golf course firm as it was this summer. I went over to the equipment trailers and I was curious what people were doing. They were grinding all the bounce off everywhere they could. It was something to see, that's for sure. I doubt it will be that firm in September next year.
GS: In your role with the Trans-Miss and being a lifelong amateur golfer, what are you seeing with the state of amateur golf? Is it too early to tell the impact of changes in amateur status rules or the NIL stuff with college golf?
MM: It's probably a little early, although from what I've observed and just picked up—and I'm not privy to everything—but certainly there's a handful of players I'm sure that are getting taken care of. I don't know whether that's from the manufacturers or boosters at the universities. I really don't quite know exactly. It's not something I've asked. I think for the middle-of-the-pack college golfer who shows some promise, it does give them a chance to earn a little money, whatever that is. There are some very modest sums of money being given to these kids that allow them to go play a summer amateur schedule and not be at a disadvantage if they're not from a wealthy family. That in itself is a good thing by allowing more kids to get out there and compete. It feels like there's very little amateurism left the way it's going. It's just a totally different environment.
Then the pro game's pulling these kids so hard right now with the amount of money. They're also creating these expedited pathways to the PGA Tour. These kids are good and I think they really want to get out there soon as possible.
GS: Which is understandable.
MM: Yes, I get it. It really has changed a lot in the last year or two. The whole game's been turned on its head a little bit.
Geoff, thanks for a great article! I've had the chance to meet Mike and his wife on a few occasions and I can't think of anyone who is as genuinely nice and more humble than he is. I had the privilege to be the referee for Mike's 2021 US Senior Amateur match with Gene Elliott, his childhood friend from Iowa, that went to 19 holes before Gene prevailed. Gene went on to win the championship that year and Mike was as gracious in defeat that day as he was when he won this year at Royal Dornoch. I was also there to watch Mike play at Dornoch and in the 3rd round he shot 69 on a day when the wind was absolutely howling across the links. His ball striking was unmatched and he finished the round with a shot to a foot for a tap-in birdie. What probably isn't well-known is Mike's clubs were delayed in transit to Scotland and I believe he played the first two rounds with a set put together by the Royal Dornoch teaching pro. He never complained and just went and played. Mike did have his own clubs the final two rounds, but I guess it shows a great player can adjust to what might completely throw others off by having the right attitude and just let his talent take over. I too look forward to watching the 2023 Walker Cup and know our team will be in great hands with Mike McCoy as captain.
Absolutely loved this. No one is covering the Walker Cup like your heart (and mine) would like them to... so why not you! Thanks for this. I've known Nate quite a while and loved having them together at Pinehurst. What a game. Please keep up the Walker Cup coverage