50 years ago, the Wake Forest men's golf program made history with NCAA championship

Jay Haas laughed when asked if it feels like its been 50 years since he and his Wake Forest golf teammates won the 1974 NCAA championship.

Are you kidding me? Haas said.

Somebody mentioned it to me earlier this month and its just sort of surreal that 50 years have passed.

Haas, along with Curtis Strange, were the individual champions those two seasons in 1974 and 1975 as well as back-to-back team champions.

Coached by the cerebral Jesse Haddock , those Demon Deacons teams are considered by some as the best in the history of college golf.

The 1974 Wake Forest team won Coach Jesse Haddock his first NCAA championship.

The Wake Forest golf tradition, which goes back to even before Arnold Palmer played there, will be honored next weekend with a reunion on campus.

The highlight will be recognizing the two NCAA championship teams, but Haddock also won the 1986 NCAA title.

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Haas younger brother, Jerry, is the golf coach for the mens program and Jerrys son, Kyle, is a sophomore playing for the Demon Deacons.

Jay said he can remember it like it was yesterday when his parents drove from Belleville, Illinois to drop Jay off at Wake Forest as a freshman.

Curtis Strange, left, is a former Wake Forest star who won back-to-back U.S.

Opens in the late 1980s.

Debbie Antonelli is a former player for Coach Kay Yow at N.C.

State and is a hall of fame basketball analyst.

Jerry came with us, and I think he was like eight or nine years old at the time, Jay said.

I just think back about what an experience it was, and I was also thinking can I play with these guys? That 74 and 75 team was unique in that the top four players Haas, Strange, Bob Byman and Reidsvilles David Thore were there for both championships.

In 1974 in the NCAA championship play, the fifth starter was Bill Argabrite, and in 1975 the fifth starter was Tim Saylor.

We were so young, but we just jelled together as a team and coach was really about team first and that atmosphere was something he fostered, Strange said.

It was team first, team second and maybe individual accolades third.

Those teams were so deep that another young star, Raleigh's Scott Hoch, who would go on to have an outstanding PGA Tour career, didn't get much playing time until his junior season in 1977.

Strange said in the fall of 1973 that the Demon Deacons realized in the spring they were going to be really good.

Curtis Strange attended a memorial service for former Wake Forest head golf coach Jesse Haddock with his wife, Sarah, in March of 2018.

By the time we got to spring of 1974, we were locked in and the thing I remember most after winning that team title was how happy Jesse was because he had finally won an NCAA title, Strange said.

He had so many great teams in the 1960s but never won the big one, so we were all just happy for him.

I really dont even think we realized then what we had accomplished, but coach did.

Haas and Strange went on to have sensational PGA Tour careers with Strange winning two U.S Opens and becoming a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Lanny Wadkins, who also played for Haddock in the late 1960's and early 1970's, is also in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Haas, 70, says he never in million years thought about what it would be like in 50 years after the Demon Deacons won that first national championship.

Nobody thinks that far ahead, but its sort of neat to think back and remember so many good times, Haas said.

The remarkable feat and the remarkable tradition that Haddock helped foster is something the former Demon Deacons dont take lightly.

I was sort of an outlier from Illinois with my uncle (Bob Goalby) getting me there because he knew Jesse, Haas said.

And then Curtis was the top player in Virginia and was sort of always intense and I was sort of happy-go-lucky.

And then David Thore was from the country, but for whatever reason it all worked.

Kay Haddock, left, and Jesse Haddock, right, are shown in October of 2016 when the Jesse Haddock House was rededicated.

The spacious building that is at the Arnold Golf Complex on campus serves both the men's and women's programs at Wake Forest.

Several years ago, Strange said it was Haddock who brought out the best in him because Haddock knew how to get Strange fired up.

We all need a little discipline at that age, and he knew how to get you going, Strange said of Haddock, who died in March 2018.

Everybody was different, but he had a way of bringing out your best.

Also being recognized during the weekend will be the highly successful womens program.

Coach Kim Lewellen won the schools first NCAA womens golf title in 2023.

Wake Forest has won 10 national team championships in school history and golf has four of them.

"For such a small school, winning 10 national championships with four of them in golf is remarkable," Strange said.

"Little old Wake Forest has done very well through the years on a national level." As part of the weekend, Haas, Strange and Emilia Migliaccio, who helped the Demon Deacons to that womens NCAA championship, will be at a fundraiser for Roll the Quad , which is the Name, Image and Likeness organization that helps attract athletes to Wake Forest.

There will be a special football tailgate party for former Wake Forest golfers before Friday nights game with Cal that starts at 8 p.m., and the 74 and 75 teams will be recognized at halftime.

Stange said all six of those players from those two teams have committed to be there for the weekend.

Its really nice of Wake to remember those teams and I think all of us will feel some pride about it, said Haas, whose son, Bill, played for the Demon Deacons in the early 2000s and is the all-time leader in wins at the school with 10.

Jesse Haddock, who died in March of 2018, won three national championships while golf coach at Wake Forest.

Strange said as he reflected on his college days, it was the fear of facing Haddock at the turn during a tournament when Strange was struggling that kept him focused.

You didnt want to let him down and I think we all felt that because he was so invested, Strange said.

I could be a little hot under the collar at times and Coach Haddock used that a little bit.

I just never wanted to let him down ...

Im just excited that six of the guys from those two teams are expected to be recognized, but its hard to believe it was 50 damn years ago.

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