Scott Swanson
Haley May signed a letter of intent Friday, June 1, to play golf for Corban University.
May is the first female Sweet Home golfer in recent memory – if ever – to move on to play at the college level, Coach Pat Davis told about 50 people who attended the signing ceremony at the Sweet Home High School library. May was flanked by her father, Alan May, and brother Christopher as she signed the paperwook.
May is a three-time state tournament qualifier for the Huskies. She placed 12th this year.
Davis recalled how, when May was a freshman, he and her father, an assistant coach for the Huskies, were watching her take strokes and “she was just crushing the ball.”
“I looked at him and said, ‘There’s college potential here. I haven’t had anybody strike the ball like that in my time here.’ It was just a question of whether we get there or not.”
He said May has “something that sets her apart from other players – and that gets us here four years later.”
May, who hopes to become a math teacher, was originally planning to attend Western Oregon until Corban coaches approached her at the district tournament May 7-8 and talked to her about playing for the Warriors.
“It’s pretty exciting. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to play in college,” she said. “My dad and I would get in arguments a lot about how I didn’t want to play golf in college at all, but he wanted me to at least keep my windows open. But I was insistent that I was not going to play golf in college. But then this opportunity came along.”
Assistant Coach David Patterson, who was present for May’s signing, acknowledged that the recruitment was “rather quick,” but he said it didn’t take long to see May’s potential.
“I got a chance to watch and meet her when they played the district tournament at Santiam,” Patterson said. “We got to watch nine or 10 holes. I was instantly impressed with her amount of raw skill and distance she possesses. It’s something you can’t teach. There’s a lot of workable clay in there.”
He said he expects May to be a “fantastic fit” for the university and for the team, which finished second to Oregon Institute of Technology in this year’s Cascade Collegiate Conference championship tournament for the second year in a row.
“She’s got raw ability. We’ll see how long it takes her to tap into that. It doesn’t have to happen right away.”
May said she’s now looking forward to college golf, particularly because she hasn’t played year-round thus far and she held down two jobs during her senior season.
“I’m really excited because I’ve never golfed all year round. It’s always been springtime and occasionally in the summer, so I’m excited to turn it into a fall sport and spring sport and play during the summer. I’m excited to grow as a family with this golf team and it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Patterson said said he expects her to be a “spark plug for our team.”
“This environment will be totally different for her. There will be no breaks. It’s a chance to really improve and develop. She’s got a lot of upward ability – more than she realizes.”
May plans to become a math teacher, she said. She said she was originally intending to attend Western Oregon, but she knows more people at Corban.
Davis said Corban is “fortunate” to land her.
“She has ability and she has skill and that’s really cool. The university is getting a young lady who can lead, who can play, who is happy all the time. She makes it work. She takes all that and brings it to the golf course.
“That’s how she played the game. She can be playing as bad as she can possibly play and that’s not a huge deal, because it’s going to get better. She knows she can be better.
“Those folks in the blue jerseys are the really fortunate ones.”