David Inglis loving college coaching career after seeing playing dream die

Scot who is now based in Chicago features in our ‘Where Are They Now?’ series

He was crowned as the British Boys’ champion just three years after Sergio Garcia landed that title and had his sights set on joining the Spaniard in climbing right to the top of the ladder in the professional game. Dreams can quickly die in golf, though, as David Inglis discovered when the Scot realised he didn’t have the "skill set” to make it in the paid ranks.

But they say every cloud has a silver lining and that has certainly been the case for Inglis. He turned to college coaching, starting as an assistant at Northwestern University in Illinois, where former world No 1 and Ryder Cup-winning captain Luke Donald is the standout golfing alumni, before stepping up to become head coach and now feeling as though he is one of the luckiest people on the planet.

“I’ve been coaching golf at Northwestern now since 2010, so this is my 14th season,” Inglis, 41, told Scotland on Sunday, speaking as he was about to watch the ‘Wildcats’ play in the opening event of the spring season in Palm Springs in California. “I started as assistant coach for the first four years then got fortunate. Mainly probably on the back of recruiting Matt Fitzpatrick to come to Northwestern, I was offered a couple of other assistants’ jobs and it opened up an opportunity at Northwestern, where Pat Goss, who is now the director of golf, said he’d love me to stay and take over as the head coach in 2014. That was a dream job in my eyes and it’s hard to believe that was ten years ago.

David Inglis, right, chats with Northwestern University head of golf Patt Goss, who worked with Luke Donald during his spell with the 'Wildcats'. Picture: John Konstantaras/Northwestern Athletics

“Time certainly flies and now Chicago really feels like home for me. I love Northwestern, I love where we live. I’ve obviously got a young family now and it just feels like it’s all meant to be. I love the job. It’s such a fun and rewarding job to work with a bunch of young, motivated players who really want to pursue a career in the game and also want to do well in the classroom.”

Inglis, who hails from Roslin on the outskirts of Edinburgh and cut his golfing teeth at Glencorse, landed his British Boys’ title triumph at Hillside in 2000. Three years later, he beat Ryan Moore, who went on to win five times on the PGA Tour, in the second-day singles as Great Britain & Ireland pulled off a memorable Walker Cup win over the Americans at Ganton in Yorkshire.

“Yeah, I’m really proud of what I achieved and I’ve got really fond memories of my own golf,” he admitted. “I’ve got my British Boys’ medal hanging in my office. And I do think that a lot of that background gives me a nice perspective in the career I’ve now got in coaching golf because I’ve really been in the shoes of these players and understand these formative years are so important, which is why I’m trying to apply the things I’ve learned from maybe the mistakes I’ve made to help these guys and see if we can help push them on.”

Albeit after a short spell, Fitzpatrick used his success as a freshman as a springboard to become a major winner as the Englishman landed a spectacular victory in the 2022 US Open at Brookline. Donald, of course, David Lipsky and Dylan Wu are other ‘Wildcats’ currently playing on the PGA Tour. That’s where Inglis had hoped to end up himself but, in his own words, reality killed off that dream.

Scottish Amateur champion Cameron Adam, one of three Scots currently on the golf team at Northwestern University, with David Inglis at the Windon Memorial Classic at Evanston Golf Club in Illinois last September. Picture: John Konstantaras/Northwestern Athletics

“There was a bit of a rude awakening when I started playing professional golf as it was evident, at least from a skills standpoint, that I was a little bit outmatched and realised that was probably the beginning of the end for me as professional golf was a failure for me,” he admitted with refreshing honesty. “As a younger player, I was good at competing and felt I was good at handling the pressure. I certainly wanted to play professional golf more than anything, but, in the end, probably didn’t have a good enough plan for my development to really seize that opportunity when it came. I was lacking the skills you need to play the game at the highest level on tour. It’s just one of these things when you look back and think how you would have done things quite a bit differently. But, at the time, you felt you were doing all the right things and didn’t hear anyone else telling you otherwise.”

Inglis contemplated going “down the PGA route to become a club professional” but, fuelled by his own spell at Tulsa, where, in addition to enjoying lots of success on the golf course, he earned a degree in business administration, his desire was to get into college coaching. “I would have moved anywhere and taken any job for any amount of money,” he said. “I just wanted to get started on that career path and, during a spell working at a golf club in West Palm Beach in Florida, I was actually volunteering at a local high school as an assistant coach. When I got the opportunity to come to Northwestern. I knew it was too good to mess up and I put everything into the job.”

His current crop of players include Scottish Amateur champion Cameron Adam, as well as two of his young compatriots, Archie Finnie and Niall Shiels Donegan. “I think our track record of helping players develop with the eye of playing professionally has been good,” he said. “As a former player, working with great players and having a team competing for championships gives me a competitive outlet nowadays as I’m not really playing any competitive golf. Obviously the job is a lot more than that and I have really seen the benefit of higher education and coming to university and that being a catapult for their careers if golf doesn’t pan out for them. But the exciting and rewarding part for me is being around these guys who want to pursue their dream and perhaps play professional golf one day.”