Jan. 27, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher
For Carson Jacobs, his first passion formed in the rink.
Starting at 4 years old, Jacobs loved to lace up his skates, clutch his hockey stick and aim for the net. For most of his childhood, he spent his free time playing inline hockey at the skating rink in his hometown of Hendersonville or flying on the ice at Centennial Sportsplex across the street from Vanderbilt.
“Hockey had always been my favorite sport,” he said. “I guess when you’re a kid, hockey is a little more fun than playing golf. A little more action going on.”
It wasn’t until he was 11 years old that the well-rounded athlete, who also played baseball, basketball and lacrosse, started really swinging the clubs. Soon after though, Jacobs found greener pastures – literally – on the golf course.
The more drives off the tee, the more putts on the green, the more confident he became and the more success he enjoyed. And the fewer hockey games he played.
As he entered Hendersonville High School, he decided to turn his attention solely to golf – and it paid off in a big way.
On the junior circuit, he posted a pair of top five finishes. He helped Hendersonville High to back-to-back championships his junior and senior seasons and placed third individually at the state tournament in 2011. He was a NHSGCA All-American as a freshman and a two-time County Player of the Year.
“When I looked at it, (golf) was what I wanted to do long term,” he said. “I feel like golf was going to give me the best chance to do that as far as college and on past that. I had it narrowed down going into high school of just hockey and golf. It was a hard decision because I really like hockey. But I guess I made the right decision.”
It certainly appears that way in his third year at Vanderbilt.
The junior had a great fall season, finishing in the top 15 in all four of the team’s tournaments. He tied for fourth at the Dick’s Collegiate Challenge Cup – paced by an opening round 64 – in Nashville. He ended the fall with his best three-round total of the year with a 204 at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational for second place. The only golfer ahead of him was senior teammate Hunter Stewart by one stroke.
“I’ve been doing this 12 or 13 years,” coach Scott Limbaugh said, “and I have not seen a young person progress the way he has progressed… It is a story that as a coach you dream about. You recruit five-star players and all these players are polished. His story is one that means a lot to me. It is nothing we’ve done. It is the environment we helped create but he owned it.”
The path to where he is now – ranked 13th in the country by golfweek.com and on the short list for to make the United States team for the Palmer Cup next June – wasn’t without obstacles to overcome.
Jacobs struggled to crack the lineup his freshman year. He played in just four tournaments and 11 rounds. The start of his sophomore year wasn’t much better as he played in just one tournament in the fall.
“When I got to school I felt like I got hit in the mouth like a lot of kids do when they get to college sports,” Jacobs said. “It is a whole different level. There was a lot for me to learn. I think everyone would say the first step in becoming good is believing in yourself. I think I have always believed in myself. I was just missing some physical pieces and stuff, different parts of my game.”
Limbaugh and assistant coach Dusty Smith appreciated the fact that Jacobs played many sports as a kid. They thought it made him mentally tough because he had been “through the fires.” But, at the same time, when Jacobs got to Vanderbilt Limbaugh said he was an “athlete playing golf.”
“He wasn’t necessarily a golfer for this level and there’s a difference,” Limbaugh said. “We like athletes playing golf. He just wasn’t polished enough.”
Jacobs didn’t sulk, though. Instead, he wanted to hear the truth from Limbaugh – and he wanted to know how to get better.
Limbaugh and Smith implored one of the top swing coaches in the country to help with the “physical pieces.” They introduced Jacobs to Todd Anderson, who is the Director of Instruction at the Sea Island Golf Club in Florida. Anderson, named the 2010 National PGA Teacher of the Year, worked with former Vanderbilt standout Brandt Snedeker.
Anderson developed a plan for Jacobs that pinpointed his weaknesses (his short game) and focused on building consistency within his game. This required lots of practice over winter break his sophomore year – in unfriendly temperatures, even for a former hockey player.
“He was virtually an unknown commodity in college golf at this time last year – not virtually – he was unknown,” Limbaugh said. “In the middle of December last year he was out there practicing on his own and Coach Smith looked at me and said, ‘Coach, he’s passing people.’ You see movies where that guy is in there shooting jump shots at 2 a.m. while everybody else is sleeping  well that is what Carson was doing last offseason. It was cold and he was practicing. It was colder and he was practicing and working and had a plan. He was like, ‘I’m going to play. I will play. I’m not going to give our coaches a choice.'”
That’s just what he did.
He won the team’s first qualifying tournament in February, ensuring himself a spot in the lineup – a spot he hasn’t relinquished.
He immediately started to play better, playing in every tournament last spring. He won his first tournament at the Talis Park Challenge last March in Florida, sharing medalist honors. He ended the year with a promising 2-over 212 at the NCAA Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., placing 42nd – the highest finish on the team behind only Stewart. His summer included advancing to match play of the U.S. Amateur and tying for 21st at The Players Amateur.
“Not that I have anything figured out at this point but I feel like I am making steps in the right direction,” Jacobs said. “We got a plan together of what we felt like I needed to do in my game to take it to the next level. There was a lot of long, hard-working days and stuff in the cold when it is not exactly fun to be out there. I think we’re seeing the benefits of that right now.”
