Brian Quinn is no stranger to the Temple golf program. The Owls’ coach is in his 11th season at the helm and was a four-year letter winner at Temple from 1987-90.
Quinn’s team is in transition, with several underclassmen as mainstays in the lineup, but Quinn said he remains optimistic about the future of the program.
Part of Quinn’s optimism is rooted in the fact that the athletic department will open a golf facility in the Student Pavilion on 15th and Berks streets during Spring 2017. The facility will be about 2,000 square feet and include a virtual simulator, specialized netting for swing practice and a putting green, Quinn said.
The addition of this facility follows the completion of the Temple Sports Complex at the beginning of this semester. The features of the planned golf facility will be similar to BQ Academy in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, which Quinn owns and where the team currently practices.
The convenience of having the facility on Main Campus will make life easier for the players.
“In my 11 years [as coach] at Temple University, this is the finest thing that anyone has ever done for the program,” Quinn said.
Funding for the facility will be 100 percent donation-based, Quinn said. He paid for the team’s uniforms out-of-pocket during his first year as coach, welcomes fundraising with open arms.
“We’re trying to get people to see what we’re doing here at Temple not just with the golf program but with athletics as the whole,”
Quinn said. “We have to get out there as an athletic department and let people know where we’re going.”
“Some of the universities we compete at have golf courses on their campus,” said Senior Associate Athletic Director of Communications Larry Dougherty. “So we’re trying to enhance all of our sports and this can really help golf.”
Dougherty added that his belief in Quinn makes him confident the team will make strides in the right direction in the coming years despite the departure of its most accomplished player in program history after Brandon Matthews graduated last spring.
“They have a young team now that Brandon graduated, but Brian’s a great coach and this will only help him,” Dougherty said.
Greg Frank can be reached at greg.frank@temple.edu or @g_frank6.
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