When Josh Brewer was fired as Georgia’s head women’s golf coach in May 2024, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next. But he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be coaching college golf, and he was really sure it wasn’t going to be coaching college golf at Eastern Michigan.
But Eastern Michigan took a flier, he took the call — and he took a trip to Ypsilanti. After all, he had the time.
And on May 29, 2024, he took the job.
“If I truly would have taken two days to think,” said Brewer, “I probably wouldn’t have come.”
But Brewer did come, and two years later — and against all odds — he darn near conquered, leading the Eagles, ranked 226th in Division I nationally just two years ago, on an unbelievable and underdog run to the NCAA Championships and the national semifinals.
Eastern Michigan women’s golf finished tied for third in the nation, just the sixth top-five national finish for any sport in Division I in the school’s history, and the first since the men’s cross-country team finished third in 2002.
When the EMU women’s golf team arrived at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California, last month, few folks — not the volunteers, not the fans, not even some of the opposing teams — knew what the “E” on their polo shirts stood for, and don’t even get Brewer started on how many different ways he heard people butcher the pronunciation of Ypsilanti.
“We started joking with them, like, ‘You will know us by the end of the week,'” Brewer said with a laugh.
And, boy, did they ever.
“It was a fun ride,” said Brewer, “for sure.”
Thirty teams qualified for the NCAA Championships in women’s golf. Those teams were: Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Houston, Iowa State, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Pepperdine, Southern California, SMU, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest — and Eastern Michigan.
If looks like one of those SAT questions: Pick the one that doesn’t belong.
But, truth be told, as much of an underdog story as this appears to be from outside Washtenaw County, this long has been the plan at Eastern Michigan, especially since the school’s chief athletic booster win, GameAbove Sports, started pouring millions into the men’s and women’s golf programs. Two years ago, GameAbove pledged $6.5 million to the golf programs, bringing its total commitment to at least $14.5 million.
GameAbove and Eastern Michigan athletic officials met years ago to craft a road map for future donations, and they asked themselves the question: Where can Eastern Michigan, which has never won a Division I team national title (it’s won 13 NAIA titles, and two in Division II), legitimately compete for a national championship? The answer was obvious: golf, in large part because EMU already had some good facilities in place, including a highly acclaimed golf course in Eagle Crest Golf Club.
Still, athletic director Scott Wetherbee didn’t necessarily think he’d be here talking about a run to the national semifinals in just Brewer’s second year.
“I don’t think I really imagined it would be this quick,” he said. “The plan was always a three-to-five-year plan.”
That’s the funny thing about plans.
They change.
“It still gives me goosebumps,” Wetherbee said. “A lot of people were rooting for us. You are the underdog, with the blue bloods. … It was just special to watch.”
Eastern Michigan became the first women’s golf program in the state not just to make it to national match play (top eight), but also to win a match — as it did against No. 4-ranked Texas in the national quarterfinals, before falling to top-ranked (and eventual national champion) Stanford in the semifinals. That’s saying something, given the quality of the Michigan State and Michigan women’s golf programs through the years. Michigan State head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll long has been an idol of Brewer’s. Eastern Michigan, for five days in late March at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Calsbad, became the darlings of Golf Channel.
When he took the job — sold by the vision of senior associate EMU athletic director Dan McLean, the general manager for golf; Wetherbee; and the GameAbove folks, led by CEO Keith Stone — Brewer was behind the 8-ball in terms of building the roster, so he got to work. And the work was slow. Recruiting was tough. Prospects might have been excited to see a 734 area code pop up on their cell phones, until they realized it was Eastern Michigan calling, and not Michigan. Many calls and texts went unreturned.
But Brewer kept dialing, and had some hits — none bigger than bringing in The Twins, Janae Leovao, currently the 118th-ranked amateur in the world, and Jasmine Leovao, ranked 182nd, transfers from Long Beach State. He got Baiyok Sukterm, the top-ranked NAIA player. And he brought Savannah de Bock with him from Georgia.
The Leovao twins and Sukterm earned all-Mid-American Conference first-team honors this season, and de Bock was second-team. Janae Leovao was a Golfweek All-American. Brewer was Golfweek’s coach of the year.
Just what GameAbove was hoping for, if not necessarily expecting.
“We are creating an unrivaled environment to attract top recruits and cultivate champions,” Stone said back in 2024, when announcing the latest mega gift to the golf programs, with money going for state-of-the-art facility upgrades, coaching compensation, additional staff, equipment and operational expenses, including for travel. “EMU golf is poised to become a perennial contender, bringing pride and recognition to EMU for years to come.”
Of course, with success comes some negatives, too — and those arrows came on social media from the fringes of the golf ecosphere who took exception with the Leovao twins. Some on social media, during Eastern Michigan’s historic run, painted a narrative that the twins were absentee students during the winter season, which coincides with the peak of the college golf season. The narrative was put out there that they were never on campus in Ypsilanti, and instead were living full-time in their home state of California.
Brewer and Wetherbee, talking to The News earlier this month, called that, essentially, a bunch of B.S. Here’s the truth, from Brewer: Yes, the twins took online courses in this past semester, and they spent a significant amount of time in California. Fun fact: So did the rest of the team. Eastern Michigan played four tournaments in California during this semester, including one it hosted. Yes, Brewer did allow the twins to sometimes travel to California separate from the team, and earlier than the team. But Brewer said the twins were on campus 13 class days during the semester; the rest of the team was only on campus 15 days because of the team’s travel schedule.
The twins were on campus most of the entire fall semester, they had an apartment in Ypsilanti (Sukterm was their roommate), they shared a car, they saw the Northern Lights, they visited apple orchards, they worked with the First Tee of Greater Detroit, they went through 6:30 a.m. workouts, when it was 10 degrees and snowing.
“I’ve given up fighting it,” Brewer said. “I challenge anyone, they want to come hang out for a year, good luck. Like, I’ll make you get up exactly when we do and go to bed when we do, and let’s see how you handle it.
“They loved their time (at EMU), and I hope there’s an NCAA ruling that let’s them have a fifth year. I would like for people to think they don’t go to school again for another year.”
Said Wetherbee: “They weren’t absent here. … We just chuckle at it. That’s not the case. They were part of our campus, part of our community. They really, really enjoyed it. They loved Eastern Michigan.”
The twins’ time at Eastern Michigan was a success, but it was brief. They’re done now, and Brewer is getting to work on putting more pieces in place to make sure the Eagles aren’t a one-hit wonder.
It’ll be a little different now, of course. Whereas before, his calls went unreturned — he jokes that when he first got to EMU, he was taking anyone who could tee up the ball and putt out 18 times — and now he has agents and golfers reaching out to him, in the wake of Eastern Michigan’s run to the national semifinals. He can be choosy now. Brewer also, like every college coach in this new era, has to recruit his own roster, though he doesn’t anticipate that being a problem. He has been assured by GameAbove — which has committed more than $35 million to the university and its athletic department since 2019, with more than a third of that going into golf (the men’s program, by the way, is top-100 now, too) — that the program will never lose a golfer over a lack of NIL funds.
“I promise you,” said Brewer, “I can offer whatever number I want to at the end of the day.”
Eastern Michigan, and Wetherbee, has to do some business of its own when it comes to Brewer.
When Eastern Michigan hired Brewer, it gave him a $150,000 salary — more than double what the school paid its previous head women’s golf coach. But EMU could make that investment, because $90,000 of that salary was to be offset by the contract he had at Georgia. That Georgia contract is done, so EMU and GameAbove are on the hook for full freight the last two years of Brewer’s deal.
“Obviously,” said Wetherbee, hinting at an extension for Brewer, “we’ll take a look at that.”
Sukterm, ranked No. 88 among world amateurs, and de Bock have eligibility left. Both recently competed in the British Women’s Amateur in Scotland, with de Bock, of Belgium, making match play (Brewer caddied for Sukterm, of Thailand). De Bock, ranked No. 234 in the world, made it to match play, and was in Friday’s quarterfinals. Erina Tan, who competed in the NCAA Championships with the Leovao twins, Sukterm and De Bock, just finished her sophomore season. Matilde Zocchi, of Italy, was the MAC freshman of the year.
There’s plenty left for another run for Eastern Michigan, and there’s surely more talent coming down the pipeline.
And, so, yes, Brewer’s glad he didn’t take that extra day or two to think about whether to take this job.
“This group just took everyone on a magical journey that needs to be celebrated and understood,” said Brewer, 50, an Indiana alumnus who got his start in coaching at his alma mater and Southern California as an assistant coach, before landing the head-coaching job at Georgia in 2012. Brewer led Georgia to the NCAA Tournament 10 times, and the NCAA Championships once, in 2023. “I mean, you’re in rare air to even be in that position, so getting back there is never guaranteed.
“All we can do is get ready, and in August, it’s a brand new year.”
Eastern Michigan top-five finishes nationally in Division I
Second: Men’s cross country, 1940
Second: Baseball, 1976
Third: Men’s cross country, 2002
Tied for third: Women’s golf, 2026
Fourth: Men’s indoor track and field, 1975
Fifth: Baseball, 1976
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Eastern Michigan women’s golf nearly won a natty. It wasn’t an accident
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
