THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507080027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Women in Golf
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Sue Rusnock's reward for being golf coach at Salem High School comes when she's working behind the counter at Kempsville Greens and spots a former player, bag in hand.
``That's when I feel happiest,'' she said. ``When I see that playing on the team was more than an excuse to miss a little school, when I see that they might make a lifelong commitment to the game.''
Rusnock is the only woman coaching high school golf in South Hampton Roads. Her team at Salem is supposed to be coed, but no girl has ever tried out. A former basketball, field hockey and track star at Kempsville High in the 1970s, Rusnock has had five winning seasons at Salem, including a 7-1 team that was co-district champion with Cox High in 1993.
Coaching golf on Rusnock's level isn't easy. There are players on the team who are better than her, like ninth-grader Kevin Miller, a scratch player who takes lessons from a PGA-sanctioned pro. But there are others who don't get private lessons.
Rusnock's players say she is a solid teacher of the fundamentals, better than average at the short game.
Then there's discipline. Many high school players don't have it. During the season, Rusnock makes sure the whole team either plays nine holes, or hits balls, or practices putting and chipping on a daily basis.
Occasionally during practice, she offers prizes to those who need the fewest strokes to get up and down from a bunker. Or from elsewhere off the green. She takes the money from her $1,100 coaching stipend. And she liked last year's team so much she bought them dinner after every match.
``I like to see a team that goes out and enjoys playing golf and acts like gentlemen,'' Rusnock said. ``So even though we were only 3-6, last year's team didn't upset me at all.''
At the Beach District tournament last fall, Miller made a double-bogey on the ninth hole. Rusnock, sensing the youngster's concentration was broken, pulled him aside.
``It wasn't what she said as much as the way she said it that made the difference,'' Miller recalled. ``She told me not to worry about it, that I'd come back from bad holes before. It helped.''
Rusnock is a stickler for the rules. One day, four of her players were a couple of feet from the hole, about to declare their putts ``gimmes.'' She wouldn't allow it and felt vindicated when all four missed.
``Rules and etiquette,'' she said. ``Everyone wants to be a winner, but not everyone can be a winner. I try to instill in them that golf is a gentleman's sport. When they go out there, they may not be the best golfer, but they can know golf etiquette.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, Staff
Former Kempsville High star Sue Rudnick is the only female high
school golf coach in South Hampton Roads.
by CNB