Ex-Southeast golfer finds success in coaching

Jason Owen has led his team to a Division II title and been named national coach of the year

Southeast Missouri State hasn't fielded a golf team since 2005, but one of the program's former standouts is still making a name for himself in the sport -- not as a competitor but as a coach.

Jason Owen recently completed his fifth season in charge of the men's golf program at Cal State University Monterey Bay, located in Seaside, Calif.

Owen, also the director of golf at CSUMB, has turned the Otters into a perennial national power. He led them to the 2011 Division II national title and was named national coach of the year. CSUMB tied for fifth at the recent Division II national tournament.

"It's been really interesting. We've had a lot of success, that's for sure," Owen said in a telephone interview. "I didn't think I wanted to be in coaching, but it's been great."

Owen didn't think he wanted to be in coaching because he had his sights set on making a living playing golf when he graduated from Southeast in 2000 with a degree in sports management.

Owen completed his career as the most accomplished golfer in Southeast history. The three-time all-Ohio Valley Conference selection set program records for lowest season scoring average (71), most tournaments won in a career (7) and most wins in a season (4).

The Effingham, Ill., native then spent 3 1/2 years on the Hooters and buy.com tours but could not make things work financially. After leaving the tour, he worked as general manager of a golf club in Dexter, Mo., and taught in a PGA Professional Golf Management degree program at Arizona State University.

"I had a good college career and I'm super competitive," said the 36-year-old Owen. "The pro golf thing didn't work out. ... I was teaching the PGA program at Arizona State and my wife said 'you're just not happy.' I took the coaching job in 2008 and I've been happy. It filled the competitive void."

What led Owen to his current position is a story in itself. Owen laughed when recalling the stroke of good fortune that led him to the scenic area of California -- Pebble Beach is 10 miles away -- where he now calls home.

Owen said one of his students in the golf program he taught at Arizona State was a young lady from Indonesia who was under the impression she was also going to be on the Sun Devils' golf team.

But that wasn't the case, so Owen and his wife wanted to help the woman find a school where she could play golf. The road eventually led to CSUMB, where Owen's former student wound up playing three years.

The woman, who Owen had gotten to know well, and her family tried to convince him to apply for a coaching position at CSUMB.

"Once she got there, her parents begged me to come and take care of her, but we weren't ready to come at the time," said Owen.

He added with a laugh: "If anything, now I call her my daughter."

Owen finally decided to pursue the CSUMB coaching position when it opened up in 2008. He was hired despite having no prior coaching experience.

"It's really worked out well," Owen said.

That's putting it mildly.

CSUMB, which did not even have a golf program until 1998 and had experienced little success before Owen arrived, is now a perennial national power. In 2010 he led the Otters to their first trip to a national competition in any sport.

"The program was OK at best. They really hadn't done anything," Owen said. "My second year we won conference and made it to nationals and finished 11th."

That set the stage for Owen's third year at CSUMB.

"I told my wife when we got here that in three years we'll win this thing. She said, 'You're crazy. You can't go from nothing to winning the national title,'" Owen said.

But it happened.

"Oh man, that was amazing," Owen said. "To watch those five guys win the national championship ... to know all the hard work we all put in paid off. ... It was a great feeling."

Owen said he and his wife -- the former Allison Lent, also a Southeast graduate who worked as a student assistant in the university's sports information department -- get back to Cape Girardeau with their young daughter as much as possible.

"I spent 10 years of my life in Cape, so I consider that my home. Allison's family is from California, but they later moved to Sikeston and then Cape," Owen said. "The majority of my friends and her friends are from Cape so we visit when we can."

Owen said he hasn't gotten over Southeast's decision to drop its golf program for financial reasons following the 2005 season.

"I"m just so bitter over that," he said. "We were never great, but we had a couple of good teams and a lot of good individuals. That area would support it. ... I'd love to see them get it back."

Owen said he would love to come back and coach Southeast's golf team if the university ever decided to start up the program again.

In the meantime he's content in his current position, although he said eventually he'd like to return to this region to continue his coaching career.

"I've had offers to move on, but we really like it here for right now," Owen said. "We'd love to get back in that region, take over a program and see if we can't duplicate what we've done here."