Jeff Hull had to walk all of about 50 yards to get from his old gig to his new digs as assistant coach of the women’s golf team.

JEFF HULL

Hull transitioned from his old job as PGA instructor and manager of the pro shop at the University of Georgia golf course over to the Boyd Golf Center in August, transitioning into a different side of golf instruction — a dream come true for the 45-year-old.

“He can be pretty tough, but it has been interesting in dealing with a team full of women, and he has actually shown his softer side,” women’s golf head coach Kelley Hester said.

While working at the course that the team practices at nearly everyday, Hull developed a relationship with Hester and her players. He had always wanted to get into college coaching, but loved the area in which his family lived, and therefore stayed a golf pro.

But then former assistant coach Margaret Shirley returned to her alma mater, Auburn, for the same role, leaving a vacancy for Hester.

“I had been around Jeff a good bit out here, he had helped us with club fitting, so he did have some sort of a relationship with the girls and our team,” Hester said. “I watched him teach and listened to him, and knew how good of a teacher he was. It was just a matter of talking him into it.”

It didn’t take much convincing for Hull, who jumped at the chance to get back into college coaching without having to move his family.

“He has been the swing instructor, a mental guy, and he has just been everything. He has been the best addition to this team,”  said senior golfer Milena Savich.

Hull got started in the golf business 22 years prior after earning All-American honors at South Carolina. He went on to work at seven different golf courses before becoming the PGA Instructor and manager of the pro shop at the University of Georgia Golf Course in 2008.

While working in the golf business, he has continued to excel on the course, having won the 2004 Georgia PGA Championship and 2007 Georgia Open.

“I think anytime you have some success playing it gives you credibility with anybody,” Hull said. “I can explain to them when they have a bad day, ‘Hey, look, I didn’t always win tournaments and have failed before.’ But I explain how to get from not succeeding to succeeding.”

While Jeff Hull has never actually coached an entire team, he has been working with individuals on their swings for years. But as a college coach, he now gets a lot more time to work with his pupils, allowing him to see quicker progress in their games.

“It’s better [being a coach than golf instructor] because there is more time spent with an individual to make their overall game better, you’re constantly doing everything to help make that person better all around,” Hull said. “Whereas when you’re an instructor, you get someone for an hour and work on something, and then they go away. They will come back a week or two later and very slowly building towards something, when this is much more intense.”

The two jobs differ not only in the area of working with the girls, but also in that of recruiting. Hull believed that this aspect of coaching was truly the biggest learning curve as his new position requires him to frequently travel to junior golf tournaments nationwide to scout potential players.

“The hardest part is that you can’t talk to anybody. You just have to sit there and watch. I don’t look just at scores. I look more at the player, what their golf swing looks like, how repeatable is it, how they act on the course,” Hull said. “Even though somebody better be a better player right now, you can see that this other play might be better down the road because they have either a better work ethic, better golf swing, physically better, things like that. It’s just an evaluation, it’s really kind of fun.”

Although Hull may not have experience in recruiting, he has been playing the game since he was five and the team really looks to him for his experience. Before every tournament Hull travels to the course a day early and uses his knowledge of reading greens to better his team.

“He will go walk the entire course, chart the greens and make a booklet for all of us, and give it to us,” Savich said. “So before the tournament even starts we are ahead of everybody.”

Along with green reading, Hull has specialized in handling golf equipment, which has been extremely beneficial for the girls.

“He has been really helpful and beneficial in tweaking the girls bag make up,” Hester said. “Maybe getting a different wedge or hybrid in their hand, just the configuration of their golf bags.”

The women’s golf team may also look to Hull for advice from his experience, but he realizes what he has been through and uses this to aid his team. Hull has explained to his girls that there is a process to the game of golf. One can’t think about the result, but has to always think about the process. He explained that that was the biggest change in his golf career. He harps on focusing the process, rather than thinking about what will happen at the end.

“I hate to say give them life lessons, but here is what I did wrong for the first ten or fifteen years of my career — don’t make those mistakes, lets go on a better track,” Hull said. “I learned that this worked or this didn’t work.”

Hester hasn’t been the only one to take notice of Hull’s work either as Golf Digest has named the assistant coach one of the top 10 golf instructors in Georgia.

Now with the fall season complete, it’s because of that instructing prowess that Hester is most excited about seeing what Hull can do with her team now that he really has time to work with them more on refining their swings and games until the spring season begins.

“We come into the season and immediately compete, and now we’re in the off season and can start to make a few changes and really use him to the fullest,” Hester said.