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Men's Golf
Head Coach Mike Small has brought national recognition to the Illinois golf program in his decade as head coach.Small has guided the Illini to back-to-back Big Ten championships and his team to 16 team titles in that past three seasons. The month of June was good to Small in 2010. The month began with Illinois junior Scott Langley winning the NCAA Championship individually, then finishing in top 20 at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.On the course, Small claimed his record tying third PGA Professional National Championship at French Lick Resort in Indiana. Combined with the construction of the state-of-the art Demirjian Practice Facility in 2007, it is the unique combination of having a respected teacher/coach and a current playing playing professional wrapped up in one man that has the 44-year old Small lifting the Illini to a national contender. Small has the distinction of playing on a Big Ten championship team and coaching one. Small was a member of the 1988 team that claimed the title. Small was named Midwest Regional Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2009, his second time to receive each honor in his career, then repeated as Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2010. Despite a narrow victory at the Big Ten Championship, Illinois was the dominant team in the conference with four of the 10 members of the All-Big Ten team coming from Illinois, including Langley, who became Illinois' second Big Ten Player of the Year under Small. His team's have also garnered three Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors during his tenure. In 2009, Illinois won the prestigious Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. Over the past three seasons, Illinois players have set records for the best 18-hole (272), 36-hole (555) and 54-hole team score (831) and top individual 18-hole (63 by Chris DeForest), 36-hole (131 by Scott Langley) and 54-hole (201 by Scott Langley) individual scoring totals. As a former full-time professional, he can share with aspiring tour players what it takes to play at the next level. As someone who still competes and succeeds at a handful of tour events each year, he has had a chance to rub elbows with the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
Small builds Illinois program.Illinois reached the NCAA Championships for the fifth time in last nine years under Mike Small. Here are some other highlights of his nine seasons as head coach:• Coaching NCAA champion Scott Langley • Coaching five All-Americans, including Langley, a second team honoree in 2009 and first team honoree in 2010 • His teams have won 17 All-Big Ten and 25 Academic All-Big Ten honors. • Scheduling his club against some of the best teams in the country, including facing over half of the Top 25 in the 2009-10 season alone. • In 2006-07, senior Kyle Hosick placed 10th at the Big Ten Championships and was named a Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar. Patrick Nagle graduated with the second lowest career stroke average in school history (73.16), just one one-hundredth of a point shy of Steve Stricker.
Small continues to compete on a limited basis in PGA tour events. Although not playing full-time, he does so with some impressive results.
When he competes, he shows off his Illinois colors and attracts many proud alumni in the gallery.
Small's success has meant great publicity for Illinois golf. The summer of 2007 saw arguably the biggest of those successes when he won the low club professional at the 2007 PGA Championship and shared the award stand with its champion Tiger Woods on national television.
The summer of 2008 saw Small win the Illinois PGA title for the sixth straight year and seventh overall, both event records.
In 2009, Small won the PGA Professional National Championship for the second time in his career, qualifying for his eighth major championship, including his fifth PGA. He made the cut in the 2005 and 2007 PGA and missed the cut by a stroke in 2006.
A synapsis of his other professional playing accomplishments:
2007 -- Small won the PGA Professional of the Year award for the second straight year. He claimied the Illinois PGA championship for a record sixth time and fifth in a row, won his fourth straight Illinois Open, a day before competing the PGA Championship. He also won the Illinois Match Play Championship and qualifyied for his third U.S. Open
2006 -- Small was named the PGA Professional Player of the Year by the PGA of America after another brilliant summer. He made the cut in five of nine PGA Tour events, highlighted by a season-high finish of 38th at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. He also finished fourth at the PGA Professional National Championship, earning a berth to his third consecutive PGA Championship.
In addition to his success nationally, Small also won Illinois Open and Illinois PGA titles for the second straight year. He remains the only golfer ever to win both titles in the same year, a feat he has now achieved three times. It was his third Illinois Open victory and fourth consecutive IPGA title, as well as his fifth all-time.
2005 -- The summer proved to be one of the most spectacular in Small's professional career. In June, he won the PGA Professional National Championship, held at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C., earning an exemption for the second consecutive year to the PGA Championship, as well as earning six exemptions for PGA Tour events in 2006.
Small then reached a professional pinnacle in August when he made the cut at the PGA Championship at historic Baltusrol in Springfield N.J., marking the first time in four career tries that he advanced to the weekend in a major.
Small continued his summer run by winning his third consecutive Illinois PGA Championship, marking the second time in three years that he won both Illinois Open and IPGA titles in the same year.
His dramatic run concluded in September when he led a 10-member U.S. team across the Atlantic to compete against Great Britain and Ireland in the 22nd PGA Cup, a club professional version of the Ryder Cup.
Following the national club pro title, Small made the cut at the PGA Tour's Western Open for the third straight year. He then won his second Illinois Open Championship, storming back from a five-shot deficit to win the title on the strength of a final-round 67.
2004 -- Small repeated as the Illinois PGA Champion, claiming his third IPGA title in four years. Small finished 7-under par at Royal Melbourne and broke the course record with a 65 during round two.
He then went on to take runner-up honors at the PGA Professional National Championship, missing medalist honors by just one stroke after shooting 11-under par at the Longaberger Course in Nashport, Ohio.
For the second straight summer, Small made the cut at the PGA Tour's Western Open. He tallied three straight rounds under par at Cog Hill's Dubsdread Course, and had a hole-in-one during the second round of play when he aced the 180-yard hole No. 2. Small was listed on the leaderboard entering Sunday's final round, in sixth place, before finishing tied for 27th.
Small's memorable summer culminated in August when he traveled to Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., to compete in his first-ever PGA Championship, which also marked his third career appearance in a major.
2003 -- Small made an amazing return to competitive golf in the spring of 2003 after an arm injury and subsequent rehabilitation kept him from playing for nearly a year. He won the 2003 Illinois PGA and Illinois Open titles, becoming the first golfer ever to win both tournaments in the same year. His win at the Illinois PGA qualified him for the Western Open. Small made the cut at the prestigious PGA Tour event, finishing in 43rd place at 3-under par. He also finished fourth at the 2003 Northern Club Pro to qualify for the 2004 PGA Professional National Championship.
2001 & 2002 In the summer of 2002, he finished second at the Illinois PGA Championship. In the summer of
2001, Small won the Illinois PGA title, placed second in regional qualifying for the 2002 PGA Professional National Championship and set the course record at Stone Creek, carding an 8-under par 64.
Small joined the professional ranks in 1990. He played on a number of tours before joining the PGA Tour in 1995. He won two Nationwide Tour events in 1997, the Monterrey Open and the Cleveland Open. Small finished in the top 15 on the Nationwide Tour earnings list and earned his PGA Tour card in 1998. His top PGA finish was a tie for ninth at the 1998 Bell Canadian Open.
Small's father, Bill, was the captain of the 1963 Big Ten Champion Fighting Illini basketball team. Bill earned All-Big Ten accolades and won three varsity letters during his Illini career, which spanned from 1961-63.
Small's brother, Andy, was also an award-winning Fighting Illini athlete. Andy was a member of the 1990 Big Ten Champion Illinois baseball squad. He won four varsity letters as an infielder.
Small, his wife Ann, and their two sons, Will and Wyatt, reside in Champaign.
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