Golf Q&A: MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl
With Tom Lang
Mark Uyl is a former Big Ten baseball and College World Series crew chief and current executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, which manages all of Michigan’s high school sports rules and tournament competitions, including golf. Uyl also oversees leadership, education, and administration of over 1,400 college baseball umpires nationwide as Managing Director at the Collegiate Baseball Umpires Alliance.
He loves the game we love and introduced all three of his children to golf.
Question: Do you recall when you fell in love with the game of golf?
Answer: “I was playing baseball at Calvin College and had a couple buddies that were serious golfers. I started to go along with those guys. In baseball I batted left-handed, and I was bumming golf clubs from my buddies, so I taught myself golf right-handed. And still today, I hit all my full shots right-handed, but when it’s time to putt I do it left-handed. I’m a little bit blended that way, but I owe it to my college buddies.”
Q: Did you introduce your kids to the game?
A: “Yes, I have three kids and my middle son is far and away the best golfer in the family. He’s about a 6 handicap that seems to keep getting better. He played football and graduated from the Air Force Academy. There, you cannot have a car on base for the first two years, but they have a top 100 rated golf course on base, the Eisenhower Course with 36 holes.
“What got him through the first two years was, class, football, and he’d grab his golf bag and walk down the hill to the Eisenhower Course and played so much golf those first two years. It was kind of his mental health thing. He got very good very fast and it’s really cool for him, and golf can be credited a lot getting him through those first two years of the military academy. Golf was one outlet of normalcy for him. Exposing my kids to the great game of golf really paid off for him.”
Q: Do you see similarities or lessons to be learned between golf and your work as an executive director and/or umpiring baseball?
A: “Absolutely. You can’t let one bad shot affect what happens next. When umpiring, if you missed a pitch or a play in the second inning… just like early in your round of golf you have a bad swing or a bad hole, you can’t let that affect what comes next. I think that’s a really good lesson that whatever happened, you have to let that go, turn the page and be ready for the next opportunity that comes your way. There’s been a lot of cross over lessons with umpiring, and in my role at the MHSAA.”
Q: What are your thoughts on the growth of golf at the youth/ high school level ?
A: When the seasons changed (by court order) and swapped when boys’ golf had to go to the spring and girls’ golf moved to the fall, it gave us some challenges for high school golf. Twice as many of our schools have boys’ golf than they do girls’ golf. In the old set up it was a very logical fit with boys in the fall – the time of the year courses have more availability and extra room on the course so it worked out really well. And with half as many girls in the spring, it worked well with public golfers wanting to get out (on the course).
“So, when the seasons changed we saw some wanning numbers. Not many positive things came out of Covid but what I think it did was give golf in general a shot in the arm and we’ve seen our high school numbers rebound, and I think we’re in a really healthy spot.
Q: What types of decisions go into picking a golf high school state finals venue?
A: “First and foremost, course have to be willing to host. And courses would generally make less money hosting a finals on Friday and Saturday than if they had general public play. So, we have a group of about 10 courses who we are incredibly grateful for.
“Now, the venues are much easier to get in the fall season, October. It becomes much tougher in the spring with our championships falling in early June. There’s so much demand for golf that weekend, so we’re actually looking at moving our finals … and potentially going to a Monday-Tuesday schedule. At that time of year, a lot of schools are already done (with classes) as well, and course availability and local hotels are more open (weekdays). We’ll probably make a decision on that fairly soon… so stay tuned on that.”
Q: Any golf superstitions?
A: “Not really a superstition, but with golf and from umpiring baseball, I am very afraid of lightning. So, when the horn goes off or if it even looks like there’s some flashes in the distance, I am not pulling a Caddyshack. I am the first guy to get inside.”
