Photo by: Anthony Vasser
Rice Memories: Landon Michelson
6/11/2020 3:00:00 PM | Men's Golf, Blog
Playing professional sports has always been a dream of mine from a young boy. My love for baseball gave way to my love of golf when I picked up a club at 14 years old. While I was still learning the game, many of my peers were earning college scholarship offers. I wasn't able to secure an offer from any school coming out of high school, so I went to a small D3 school in Birmingham, Alabama. There, I was able to continue my improvement and ended up being the fifth-ranked golfer in Division III. In order to try to reach my goals, I believed I needed to transfer to a D1 school and play against better competition. Justin Emil believed in me and offered me a spot on the Rice golf team.
Coming to Rice as a transfer my Junior year was a different experience than many coming in their freshman year. I was the same age, if not older, than most of my O week advisors and I didn't have the same deer in the headlights view of college as many of the freshmen did. My golf game, however, really struggled. But Justin always believed in me to keep working, which I always did. It was also my goal to help get the best out of everyone around me.
My senior year, to my surprise, I was voted captain. A great honor, given that my scores were not the best on the team. But I always wanted to be the hardest worker and set a good work ethic example for the players on the team. Something that made my senior year so special was giving back to the community. The first semester, we organized a golf ball donation drive to the First Tee, as well as a team clinic. The beginning of the second semester, as a team we helped volunteer at the Houston Food bank. Giving back to others was something that really helped bring us together.
We grew as a team so much that year. Preparing for conference, we all pushed ourselves to be the best golfers we could be. Competing with each other every day, which helped build camaraderie. When we got to the windy final round of 2014 Conference USA Championship six shots behind the leader and in fourth place, we knew we were exactly where we wanted to be. Everyone fought so hard and we came out one shot ahead of 18th-ranked UAB. The memory of Alex Levy and Tommy Economou running from the scorer's table to us on the range, as we were preparing for a playoff, to tell us that we won, was a memory I will never forget.
Rice allowed me to grow as a person. I failed countless times, but there was always such a great group of people there to help pick me up and support me. Justin Emil and Rice gave me the opportunity to play golf at a D1 level, something I am very grateful for and remain grateful for. I have spent the past three years with status on the PGA Tour Latinamerica and status on the Big Easy tour in South Africa this year. None of that would have been possible without the support and help of everyone associated with the Rice golf team.
Coming to Rice as a transfer my Junior year was a different experience than many coming in their freshman year. I was the same age, if not older, than most of my O week advisors and I didn't have the same deer in the headlights view of college as many of the freshmen did. My golf game, however, really struggled. But Justin always believed in me to keep working, which I always did. It was also my goal to help get the best out of everyone around me.
My senior year, to my surprise, I was voted captain. A great honor, given that my scores were not the best on the team. But I always wanted to be the hardest worker and set a good work ethic example for the players on the team. Something that made my senior year so special was giving back to the community. The first semester, we organized a golf ball donation drive to the First Tee, as well as a team clinic. The beginning of the second semester, as a team we helped volunteer at the Houston Food bank. Giving back to others was something that really helped bring us together.
We grew as a team so much that year. Preparing for conference, we all pushed ourselves to be the best golfers we could be. Competing with each other every day, which helped build camaraderie. When we got to the windy final round of 2014 Conference USA Championship six shots behind the leader and in fourth place, we knew we were exactly where we wanted to be. Everyone fought so hard and we came out one shot ahead of 18th-ranked UAB. The memory of Alex Levy and Tommy Economou running from the scorer's table to us on the range, as we were preparing for a playoff, to tell us that we won, was a memory I will never forget.
Rice allowed me to grow as a person. I failed countless times, but there was always such a great group of people there to help pick me up and support me. Justin Emil and Rice gave me the opportunity to play golf at a D1 level, something I am very grateful for and remain grateful for. I have spent the past three years with status on the PGA Tour Latinamerica and status on the Big Easy tour in South Africa this year. None of that would have been possible without the support and help of everyone associated with the Rice golf team.
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