Scott Swanson
Ron Moore is known for a variety of things in Sweet Home: civic leader, president of the Sweet Home Economic Development Group (which produces the Oregon Jamboree), community booster, youth sports coach.
But not for coaching golf.
“I’ve never coached golf,” said Moore, who has replaced Pat Davis at the helm of the Sweet Home program. Davis, who coached the Huskies for six years, stepped down following last season.
Though this is his first time as a golf coach, Moore noted that he’s spent plenty of time on the sidelines and in the dugouts of youth basketball, football, baseball and softball teams over the years.
And, he’s played golf for 40-plus years.
“I love to coach,” he said. “I heard about the position. I have experience, I really enjoy doing it, help the kids, so that’s why I went for it.”
Once he’d landed the job, Moore said, he went to longtime Sweet Home Coach Tom Horn, now retired, for advice. He got more than he’d bargained for: an assistant who’s a real pro.
That would be Mike Wilkerson, who was one of Sweet Home High School’s first competitors in the sport and who went on to become a PGA professional for 25 yers. Wilkerson recently returned to Sweet Home from Vancouver, Wash., where he’d been a golf instructor at nearby Royal Oaks Country Club in Battle Ground for 30 years.
“That’s good, having him there, with his experience,” Moore said. “The kids seem to like him.”
Moore himself played baseball and basketball for four years at Sweet Home, and played football through his sophomore year.
“I’ve lived in Sweet Home my whole life,” he said. “My wife and I’ve raised seven kids in Sweet Home.”
Daughter Sunhee, who graduated last spring, is at Western Oregon State University, but still at home are son Ty, a senior, son William, a sophomore, who is playing golf this year, and daughter Meeja, a freshman.
“It keeps me busy,” Moore said.
He said the emphasis for the golf team will be developing skills through a progression of drills introduced by Wilkerson. But he also wants to teach them respect for the game.
“My initial philosophy for the kids is to teach them the game of golf, teach them the ethics. It’s a lifetime game. It’s a sport that you’re a lot more – I don’t want to discount other sports, but there’s a different type of respect when you’re on a golf course, as far as not stepping on somebody’s line, not yelling at people across the course.
“There’s a different approach. You take off your ball cap at the end of the round.”
He said that he will have players tell him what their goals are, and he and Wilkerson will give them a “breakdown” of what they’ve seen in the initial weeks of practice, “what they need to do to be better golfers.”
At the end of the season, he will have the players give him a final report.
“Hopefully, we’re encouraging those kids to come back, come out all summer long and play,” he said. “Hopefully we can grow the program into something where we actually have problems with numbers, too many coming out.”