At just 25 years old, Grant Saylor has already made a name for himself.
Grant’s most recent title is Manager of Golf at Quail Crossing. It’s one of three at the moment. He is also the head coach of the boys and girls golf teams at Memorial High School and the head coach of the mens golf team at the University of Southern Indiana.
All three jobs came in kind of quick succession. Memorial came first. He then applied for the USI job and didn’t get it.
“It was right after I took the boys team to state as a first-year coach and we were a top 10 team in the state,” Grant said. “I felt if I could do this with a high school team, I definitely can improve the program from what it had been in my college days. So, I applied and I didn’t get it, which I kind of expected. The reason was because of my age. They thought that I was possibly too close to the current guys on the team.”
The person who did get the job had to step down soon after. About a week before the first tournament, the athletic director called Grant and asked if he was still interested in the position. Of course, he said yes.
“There are three players on the current team now that I played with,” Grant said. “I think as a coach there, it’s a little more relaxed. They know I can relate to them and what they’re going through as a player and as a student. Some of the older coaches see it just from a golf perspective, saying ‘You need to do this, you need to do that.’ I understand that you’re going to struggle here and there. Everyone does. You’re a college golfer. You’re not perfect. Let’s figure out a way we can turn that bad round into an average round.”
Grant has been a golfer practically since birth. His grandfather introduced him to the game.
“The story is that basically I was able to swing a club before I was able to walk,” he said. “He cut down a real club to probably only a foot long. I guess the club was so heavy it would fall on my shoulder and I would have a bruise line from the club being so heavy. That’s kind of been the story that goes around in my family.”
He went on to graduate from Castle High School, playing all four years, but didn’t immediately jump into golf in college.
“I actually didn’t play my first year in college,” he said. “I was wanting to go to kind of a medium sized school, a little bigger than our high school, and I didn’t get any places that I was interested or the money issue. So I took a year off and I missed it. I contacted USI and they said they’d let me try out.”
By junior year, Grant said he knew it wasn’t in the cards to play on a professional level.
“If I were able to practice five days a week, 40 hours, 50 hours a week, then I would probably think about it,” he said. “I knew going into my junior year of college that there wasn’t a shot for me, just because if you’re not winning collegiate tournaments, then you probably shouldn’t look at it. If you do look at it, you’re probably going to drop $40,000 to $50,000 just on tournaments and expenses, pretty much. If you’re not financially good, it’s not worth it. I was focused on my career/job.”
That collegiate experience serves as motivation for his high school golfers.
“There’s a couple on the team that have pretty good potential, whether it’s playing in college or possibly going to that web.com or lower end tour level status,” Grant said. “My game is still kind of sharp, where I kind of challenge them and say, ‘Hey, I want you to beat me today. If you can beat me, then you’re doing something well.’ I’ll go out and shoot maybe one or two under or maybe even par and they’ll come out and probably shoot around even, one over. It still is able to push them a little, but I still have the playing aspect, too.”
He got his degree in sports management. He wasn’t necessarily planning on managing a golf course, but he always planned to use golf in his professional life.
“I’ve always kind of wanted to be a salesman of sorts, where I could get out on the golf course and play and sell stuff on the golf course,” he said. “I’m almost kind of in that position, but instead of playing, I’m kind of saying, ‘We want you to come play, become a pass holder out here and enjoy our facility. Right now, it’s not where we want it, but here in a couple of years, it’s going to be back to where it was. That’s what we’re looking forward to here.”
He’s new to his job at Quail, but is already setting lofty goals.
“The goal is to get it back to where it was in the 2000s,” he said. “This course was beautiful. The greens were solid. Everyone around here knows it’s going to take time. It’s hard to grow a green. It’s going to take a couple of years. If we can get to that point with no setbacks, we should be there in two to three years.”
Grant chose the title Director of Golf out of respect to other professionals in the game.
“My title is the Director of Golf. They asked me if I would be the head pro and the reason why I chose Director of Golf is more out of respect to the PGA professionals,” he said. “I didn’t go through all they’ve gone through, the PGA certification and stuff like that and I felt like if I took a head pro title, I’d be disrespecting them. So, I took more of a manager title.”
Growing up in Newburgh, Grant knows the ins and outs of the course. He hopes to have his name attached to the new era of Quail Crossing.
“I would like to be here,” he said. “One, it’s home. I only live a couple minutes away. It’s a course that when I was growing up, everyone loved the layout. Everyone still loves the layout. If the course gets to where we want it to, I’d like my name attached to that.”
Grant’s most recent title is Manager of Golf at Quail Crossing. It’s one of three at the moment. He is also the head coach of the boys and girls golf teams at Memorial High School and the head coach of the mens golf team at the University of Southern Indiana.
All three jobs came in kind of quick succession. Memorial came first. He then applied for the USI job and didn’t get it.
“It was right after I took the boys team to state as a first-year coach and we were a top 10 team in the state,” Grant said. “I felt if I could do this with a high school team, I definitely can improve the program from what it had been in my college days. So, I applied and I didn’t get it, which I kind of expected. The reason was because of my age. They thought that I was possibly too close to the current guys on the team.”
The person who did get the job had to step down soon after. About a week before the first tournament, the athletic director called Grant and asked if he was still interested in the position. Of course, he said yes.
“There are three players on the current team now that I played with,” Grant said. “I think as a coach there, it’s a little more relaxed. They know I can relate to them and what they’re going through as a player and as a student. Some of the older coaches see it just from a golf perspective, saying ‘You need to do this, you need to do that.’ I understand that you’re going to struggle here and there. Everyone does. You’re a college golfer. You’re not perfect. Let’s figure out a way we can turn that bad round into an average round.”
Grant has been a golfer practically since birth. His grandfather introduced him to the game.
“The story is that basically I was able to swing a club before I was able to walk,” he said. “He cut down a real club to probably only a foot long. I guess the club was so heavy it would fall on my shoulder and I would have a bruise line from the club being so heavy. That’s kind of been the story that goes around in my family.”
He went on to graduate from Castle High School, playing all four years, but didn’t immediately jump into golf in college.
“I actually didn’t play my first year in college,” he said. “I was wanting to go to kind of a medium sized school, a little bigger than our high school, and I didn’t get any places that I was interested or the money issue. So I took a year off and I missed it. I contacted USI and they said they’d let me try out.”
By junior year, Grant said he knew it wasn’t in the cards to play on a professional level.
“If I were able to practice five days a week, 40 hours, 50 hours a week, then I would probably think about it,” he said. “I knew going into my junior year of college that there wasn’t a shot for me, just because if you’re not winning collegiate tournaments, then you probably shouldn’t look at it. If you do look at it, you’re probably going to drop $40,000 to $50,000 just on tournaments and expenses, pretty much. If you’re not financially good, it’s not worth it. I was focused on my career/job.”
That collegiate experience serves as motivation for his high school golfers.
“There’s a couple on the team that have pretty good potential, whether it’s playing in college or possibly going to that web.com or lower end tour level status,” Grant said. “My game is still kind of sharp, where I kind of challenge them and say, ‘Hey, I want you to beat me today. If you can beat me, then you’re doing something well.’ I’ll go out and shoot maybe one or two under or maybe even par and they’ll come out and probably shoot around even, one over. It still is able to push them a little, but I still have the playing aspect, too.”
He got his degree in sports management. He wasn’t necessarily planning on managing a golf course, but he always planned to use golf in his professional life.
“I’ve always kind of wanted to be a salesman of sorts, where I could get out on the golf course and play and sell stuff on the golf course,” he said. “I’m almost kind of in that position, but instead of playing, I’m kind of saying, ‘We want you to come play, become a pass holder out here and enjoy our facility. Right now, it’s not where we want it, but here in a couple of years, it’s going to be back to where it was. That’s what we’re looking forward to here.”
He’s new to his job at Quail, but is already setting lofty goals.
“The goal is to get it back to where it was in the 2000s,” he said. “This course was beautiful. The greens were solid. Everyone around here knows it’s going to take time. It’s hard to grow a green. It’s going to take a couple of years. If we can get to that point with no setbacks, we should be there in two to three years.”
Grant chose the title Director of Golf out of respect to other professionals in the game.
“My title is the Director of Golf. They asked me if I would be the head pro and the reason why I chose Director of Golf is more out of respect to the PGA professionals,” he said. “I didn’t go through all they’ve gone through, the PGA certification and stuff like that and I felt like if I took a head pro title, I’d be disrespecting them. So, I took more of a manager title.”
Growing up in Newburgh, Grant knows the ins and outs of the course. He hopes to have his name attached to the new era of Quail Crossing.
“I would like to be here,” he said. “One, it’s home. I only live a couple minutes away. It’s a course that when I was growing up, everyone loved the layout. Everyone still loves the layout. If the course gets to where we want it to, I’d like my name attached to that.”
Proudly powered by Weebly