Urban Meyer Loves Golf, Learning From LPGA Pros

Winning big is something that is almost synonymous with the name Urban Meyer. Yet, when if comes to golf, the three-time NCAA national champion football coach says he’s more than happy to watch and take notes the best.

Meyer was on hand the first weekend of February to compete in the celebrity tournament of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, also known as the HGV and the LPGA Tournament of Champions.

“One of my favorite things is to play with the LPGA players,” Meyers said, after his second round, Friday, Jan. 31. “They’re so good around the greens, and they are really great to watch.”

Meyer had just come off the course at Lake Nona, playing with longtime NFL defensive end Dwight Freeney and American LPGA player Megan Khang. “Megan was terrific today, and Dwight was great,” Meyer said.

But Meyer is no stranger to playing with golf pros. He said, “I’ve played with Keegan Bradley, Patrick Reed, and once played with Jack Nicklaus at the Memorial. When you see how those guys pound the ball, it’s hard to keep up.”

Meyer admits that when playing with the best, he has to try to temper his own tendency to overswing.

“I learn more from watching and playing with the ladies. They don’t overswing,” Meyer explained, “and their mechanics are so good.” Meyer added that on Thursday, the opening day of the HGV, he got to play alongside Australian pro Minjee Lee. “Minjee was just killing it. Every time she (teed off), she’d hit it straight down the fairway.’

The 60-year-old Ohio native joined other retired sports legends at the four-day event, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson, and Brian Urlacher, Basketball Hall of Famer Ray Allen, and Hockey Hall of Famer Jeremy Roenick, among dozens of others.

Some of the LPGA pros that attend the HGV on a perenial basis include current world No. 1-ranked Nelly Korda, as well as other top-ranked golfers Yin Ruoning (China), and No. 3-ranked Lydia Ko (New Zealand), 2024’s HGV Tournament of Champions winner.

Other contestants this year included Lauren Coughlin (USA), Haeran Ryu (South Korea), Hannah Green (Australia), and Canadian star Brooke Henderson, who won the tournament in 2023, plus A-Lim Kim, a South Korean player who upset Korda to claim the 2025 trophy by a single stroke, on Feb 2.

LPGA players are invited to attend the Tournament of Champions if they have won an event on the LPGA Tour in the previous two seasons leading up to the event. Qualifying for the 2025 HGV Tournament of Champions allows each LPGA golfer compete for their share of a $2 million purse.

Celebrity participants contended for their own purse of $500,000 using a modified Stableford format. Longtime NHL star Joe Pavelski won this year’s celebrity competition.

Meyer, who last coached football for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021, has been an avid golfer most of his adult life and has gotten the chance to play some of the country’s most revered courses. Of course, I asked him about his favorite places to play.

“Well, Augusta is number one. Wade Hampton, in North Carolina, is number two.” Meyer also spoke highly of his time playing at Pebble Beach, in California, Calusa Pines in Naples, Florida, and TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home of The Player’s Championship.”

I asked Meyer about Sawgrass’s famous 17th Hole, and his reply was interesting. “You know, I’m not a great golfer. But at Sawgrass, I have always done well at that hole. Sawgrass is fantastic.”

Perks, pressures of winning a National Championship

When I brought up Augusta again, to get Meyer to describe why it’s so great to play there, college football came up.

“I’ll tell you a funny story,” He mentions hist first big title as coach, the 2008 National Championship, Jan. 9, 2009. “After we won the National Championship (and) beat Oklahoma and Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow came in and we were cheering as everybody gathered around. Then someone said ‘There’s a call from President-elect Obama.”

Meyer said that they put the call on speaker phone, Obama gave his congratulations to the Florida Gators team, and invited them visit to the White House.

“I told him, ‘we’re so honored, Mr. President. Thank you so much.” Meyer said that moments later he want back to his locker and was alerted to another phone call. “I look down, my phone is buzzing and it’s Fred Ridley, a two-time All-American (golfer) from Florida.”

Ridley, a longtime executive in golf, and president of the United States Golf Association (USGA) at the time is currently the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, where he took over the helm in 2017.

“Ridley said, ‘Congrats on the National Championship. You’re gonna be my guest at Augusta National. We’re staying at the Butler Cabin!”’ And I almost passed out, because I’m such a golf fan.”

Later, after the post-game celebrations, Meyer made it to the media room and was asked by one reporter about “the amazing phone call you just got.”

“I said, ‘I just got a call from Fred Ridley, and he’s invited me to play at Augusta!’ Then I got asked about the call with President Obama, and said, ‘Oh yeah, that was a good one too.’”

Just days before I met Urban Meyer, Ohio State had beat Notre Dame in the most recent NCAA FBS National Championship, led by coach Ryan Day, Meyer’s one-time offensive coordinator. After losing at home to Michigan the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Day was under fire from fans and football pundits.

“Ironically this morning, I got a call on the driving range from Ryan Day,” Meyer said “and we were just talking about all the stuff you have to deal with as coaches. The one thing that wil never change is the expectations of coaches and players at the Floridas and Ohio States.”

Meyer talked about the pressure he felt as a top-flight coach, and talked about how he shared his thoughts with Day on that call.

“I was giving him a hard time, joking around. But the truth is, when you win a National Championship, you think, Thank God we won it. Yet, when you win it all then come up 13-1 the next year, you’re pissed.”

Meyer likened it to being a big hitter on Wall Street. “If you’re an executive and make $2 million one year, that’s your regular comp now. The expectations keep getting bigger. It can wear you out.”