Miami University golf team receives new indoor training facility

Sitting and working in the Starbucks coffee shop uptown in Oxford, Miami University head golf coach, JD Fletcher, felt his phone ring. He looked down at the name. 

“Rick McVey”

Fletcher pulled the phone to his ear.

“Hey, JD. I’m in. We’re going to do this.”

Fletcher broke down. What he had been pitching for his team was finally something real.

Thanks to the lead investment from McVey, a former team co-captain and 1981 MAC champion, (also the name on the McVey Data Science building in the north part of Miami’s campus), the RedHawks golf team will open a 3,500-square-foot facility named The Rick McVey Indoor Golf Center in the spring of 2027.

The Miami golf team is coming off a Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship under Fletcher, who was a former RedHawks golfer from 2015-2019. And they’re not only looking to repeat the success they had, but to further the sights of the program in the process.

What team practices look like in-season and in the offseason depends on the date. When the weather is good in-season, training happens at Hueston Woods Golf Course. 

The usual practice regimen consists of early team exercises, followed up with players breaking off individually to work on their own needs. 

“I have a couple of drills or aids that I go back to,” junior captain Liam Nelson said. “I call it my player practice DNA. I have a couple of things I know will always get me in a good spot, and go to those first, and then usually it’s some kind of performance drill, whether it’s a wedge ladder on Trackman or some kind of putting completion thing. Then, in the winter and spring season, we’re in the indoor facility, and that’s hard to do.

“Everyone has a 90-minute block with one or two other guys, so we usually do these things called JSC’s, which is a parameter test. It measures distance and how far side-to-side you hit it and a couple of putting (drills). But that’s a little harder. You’re usually, until maybe 5 or 6 o’clock, limited to 90 minutes just because you can only get two or three guys in there at once.”

But in the offseason, when the weather is dreary and cold, practices are moved inside to a 700-square-foot space inside Yager Stadium. 

The area has just one hitting bay and one putting green “the size of a small living room,” Nelson said. 

It’s a facility that created a team capable of winning the MAC championship, but not one that can help sustain that prestige.

“We honestly have the worst facilities in the conference right now,” Fletcher said. “We won the MAC championship last year, so I think these student athletes are definitely deserving of something new. I’m really excited for everything to come to fruition down the road … (We’re also) really appreciative of what we have. I don’t want to sound snobby by saying that. It’s just kind of a fact.

“But we use our time really well. And when it does get to mid-March and April, we do a good job of traveling and doing training trips, seeing a lot of alumni and donors, playing their courses and trying to get out of Oxford when there’s snow on the ground. That also helps with our guys’ preparation. But our guys are really good with their time; they work really hard, and they all have a plan.”

However, that will all change in the spring of 2027. 

“I am thrilled to join my fellow golf alums and friends of Miami golf to make this critical facility available for Miami golfers,” McVey said. “Coach Fletcher is building a winning culture for Miami golf, and the indoor practice facility will accelerate the competitiveness of the RedHawk team for years to come.” 

The facility, costing approximately $1.3 million, will be in a retrofitted university building off Wells Mill Drive. The project is privately funded from a donation pool consisting of 14 to 15 total donors.

Instead of just one putting green and one hitting bay, the new facility will have three hitting bays, all fit with TrackMan technology, and two Science and Motion Sports (SAM) PuttLab systems across a 50-foot putting green.

TrackMan is a program that captures more than 40 different parameters split between how the club impacts the golf ball and how the ball flies afterward. In a similar vein, SAM PuttLab uses ultrasound and laser technology to analyze the putting stroke, delivery and roll of the golf ball along with numerous other measurements.

Along with the state-of-the-art tracking technology and practice space, the team also hopes to have a bigger locker room, along with a recovery room fit with couches, massage chairs and all kinds of equipment to keep Miami golfers in peak condition, both mentally and physically.

The first time any updates about a new facility were brought into the picture was in 2011 between the Oxford Country Club and Hueston Woods, but nothing materialized. 

Then, in 2023, two years after becoming head coach of the Miami team, Fletcher met McVey at the legendary Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a friendly round of golf. Fletcher brought up needing a facility upgrade following a major roster loss in the program.

“At the time, we had lost our highest-ranked player in the portal due to the facilities, and the kid went on to play on the PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) Tour,” Fletcher said. “I was like, ‘Rick, I don’t want this to ever happen again. Miami is an incredible place where you can get an amazing business degree, have great (athletic) facilities, (the) best college town, (a) great campus; it should never happen here.’ And that really hit home with him. He had also taken a look at our current space and said it wasn’t up to caliber, so (he) and I have worked really hard on creating a space that we think will last forever and be really competitive not only in our conference but in our whole region.”

Fletcher received the good news, and since then, he has been working alongside McVey, Deputy Athletic Director and Chief of Staff, Chauncey Winbush, Assistant Vice President of Development, Brad Okel and a handful of others to gather funds and work on the business side of the renovation.

The larger space allows the players to all be in the facility at one time. Giving players more room to practice will be good not just for the skill work, but team chemistry as well. 

Giving players reasons not just a facility to be proud of, but a facility they want to be in longer, has the potential to bring the best intangibles from the team.

In the end, the goal is for the facility to be an aid to culture.

“There will never be an excuse to go practice on your own,” Fletcher said. “You’re going to have a private facility hitting Pro V1s, hitting on the best technology 24/7 365 days of the year if you want to. That’s what I’m really excited about. There will truly be no excuse. And obviously we understand this facility comes with a standard, and (the players) need to know that we have this and we’re expected to win. There’s no rebuild years, none of that stuff. This is why we have it.”

While those currently with the program, like Nelson, will only have the building for a semester or maybe only a year, the impact on the program’s trajectory can’t be ignored.

For the freshmen coming into the program following the opening, and the recruits being shown around the building after, they will have four years with the best golf technology available in a facility designed for their comfort. Winning will be even more paramount than it already is, but the benefits of the higher standard in a top-notch facility will pay dividends for the RedHawk golf program.

Player retention will be paramount in an ever-evolving transfer portal world, and the new Rick McVey Indoor Golf Facility has provided the Miami golf players and staff with a confidence boost.