Opening Their Home

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Before there was the Anthony Family Golf Team House at Vanderbilt Legends Club, there was simply April and Mark Anthony’s house.

And the generosity of an open door.

In 2015, B.A. Kline had a problem. The director of the Cabo Collegiate golf tournament in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, didn’t want to lose an event that annually attracts one of the strongest fields in men’s collegiate golf and boosts the local economy. But following Hurricane Odile months earlier, the area’s usually abundant hotel space was still in short supply. To carry on, organizers needed volunteers to host college teams in their homes.

Part of the tight-knit group that made the tournament a fixture, Mark Anthony volunteered he and his wife April’s home. He didn’t know Thomas F. Roush, M.D., and Family Men’s Golf Head Coach Scott Limbaugh, then in his third year and the early stages of turning the Commodores into perennial national title contenders. But having earned his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management, Anthony felt it made sense to take in Vanderbilt.

A decade later, Mark and April still welcome the Commodores each spring, Vanderbilt’s visits as sure a sign of the calendar as the lengthening days.

“I thought they’d come in, do their thing, and I wouldn’t see them again—but it didn’t happen that way,” Anthony said. “They stay with you for a week, and you get to know them. You get to know the parents who come down. One way or another, they become part of your life, and you enjoy going to see them, hearing what they’re up to, all of it. And before you know it, you build this bond with these people and want to support them.”

Bivouacking in someone’s personal space didn’t initially appeal to Limbaugh—or his wife Kate, who was accustomed to the acute scarcity of real vacations in any coaching family and had come to look forward to a few days by the pool at the team’s regular hotel. But with the Anthonys, the Limbaughs and Vanderbilt found more than lodging and food. They found camaraderie and care. A home has depth that even the grandest resort can never replicate. It’s always there, waiting for your return. Welcomed into a home, you belong.

So, when Mark, a former college golfer, and April, an avid golfer in her own right, saw an opportunity through Vandy United to support the game they love and student-athletes and coaches who had become family, the Anthony Family Golf Team House was a natural fit. The reimagined home of Vanderbilt men’s and women’s golf is a championship-caliber facility featuring a new lobby, hall of fame, team lounge, locker rooms, meeting rooms, fitness area, outdoor terraces and offices. But more than a collection of admittedly impressive rooms, it’s a place for student-athletes to come together and grow. It’s a home away from home.

“Little did we know that was the start of a friendship that would change Vanderbilt golf forever and bring some truly extraordinary people into our lives,” Limbaugh said of fate bringing the team and the Anthonys together. “Mark and April are amazing and so gracious. Their goodness toward the Vandy Golf family is unmatched.

“Not to mention, their house at El Dorado is probably Kate’s favorite place on earth.”

A Life Shaped by Golf

Vanderbilt can’t claim Ben Hogan as one of its own, but the late golf legend is unmistakably part of the story of the Anthony Family Golf Team House.

Mark Anthony grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. More specifically, he grew up on Shady Oaks, a Robert Trent Jones design and one of the most celebrated golf courses in Texas. He learned to play from his mother, an accomplished amateur player who taught him not just basic skills but the nuances of the short game or reading a putt. One of the club’s founding members took an interest in his development, too, an older man and a bit of an introvert who tended to sit alone in the clubhouse. But Hogan always had a word for Anthony, whether on the driving range or letting the youngster caddy for him. He even visited Anthony in the hospital when the latter needed surgery as a teenager.

When one of the game’s greatest players makes time to mentor you, it’s difficult to ignore the opportunity—and obligation— golf offers those who play it to give back.

Like the rest of humanity, Anthony never quite reached Hogan’s heights as a player. He jokes that the extent of his competitive legacy at Abilene Christian is that he made the team. But even if those rounds don’t have much of a direct connection to his career, including long periods working alongside April as they built highly successful health care businesses, playing college golf was instrumental in everything that followed.

“When you look back, it wasn’t about if you shot 65 or 75—it was who you were with and the experiences you had,” Anthony said. “My best friends today are the guys that I played college golf with. They’re the ones who I call when I need something, and they call me when they need something. Those bonds that we developed are lifetime bonds.”

Reconnecting Through Golf 

After graduating from Abilene Christian and working in the technology sector for several years, Anthony entered Owen’s MBA program. While the academic demands limited his tee times, he managed to work in a few rounds on the best public courses in the area—in addition to the very occasional round at Belle Meade when he could finagle an invitation.

He loved his time in Nashville and enjoyed the energy of Memorial Magic during one of the more successful stretches of Vanderbilt men’s and women’s basketball prior to the present renaissance. Some of his classmates remain close friends even now. But as the years went by and work and family claimed his focus and he and April became more and more actively involved with their undergraduate alma mater, he lost touch with Vanderbilt.

That changed when he called Limbaugh to offer their house during the Cabo Collegiate. Perhaps golf was always going to be the vehicle to reconnect. Mark’s second date with April was a golf date. Most of their vacations still revolve around or at least involve golf. He even helped start the smaller-scale predecessor of the Cabo Collegiate. And when the Commodores arrived for the first time, not as entitled spring breakers but uniformly polite and impressively respectful of their surroundings, he found a kindred spirit in Limbaugh.

“For April and myself, golf has always been one of our passions, and it’s been an avenue to reach out to a lot of young men and help put them on a course for success in life,” Anthony said. “What Scott has going at Vanderbilt is the epitome of what’s possible. You look at the kids who have come through the program and where they are, whether they’re playing golf or not, and these young men are going to be leaders.”

After the initial seed investment by former Vanderbilt student-athletes and Hall of Fame inductees Toby Wilt, BE’66, Brandt Snedeker, BA’03, and Lew Conner, BA’60, JD’63, along with their wives, Lucianne Wilt, Mandy Snedeker, BA’02, and Ashley Conner, BA’60, the Anthonys didn’t hesitate to take the baton and lead the way in supporting Vandy United’s vision for the team facilities at Vanderbilt Legends Club. It’s what you do for family.

“For both the men’s and women’s teams, when they walk in, they feel like it’s their home,” Anthony said. “They feel like it’s their place. They’re proud of it. They can go hang out, tell stories, study, work on their golf game, watch football games. It’s more than just a place to go hit golf balls. It’s a place they go to build bonds and relationships and get to know each other. They spent a lot of time in that building, and with what I’ve seen from programs that do it right, student-athletes really do become much closer when they’re together like that.”

Home is Forever

This past week’s dedication ceremony for the newly-christened facility at Vanderbilt Legends Club marked the second weekend in a row that Mark traveled to Nashville. A week earlier, after attending former Vanderbilt All-American Cole Sherwood’s wedding with Limbaugh and assistant coach Austin Cody, he flew back with them to attend football’s win against LSU. Another former All-American, Will Gordon’s wedding is up next.

So, yes, when you walk into the Anthony Family Golf Team House, that’s more than a name on the building. That’s a home for Vanderbilt men’s and women’s golfers for years to come.

“We care about them and we care about the program,” Anthony said. “We’re not making a gift and walking away. Our intent is to be involved with the program and support these guys in every way we can.”