Taylor Riggs entered his senior season at EKU on a mission. The mission: win the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference men’s golf championship. Riggs and the Colonels had been painstakingly close. In 2014, the Colonels fired a 7-under round of 281 on the second day of the Championship to move into second place. Riggs carded a 4-under 68 that day and was primed for a memorable final round. Mother Nature, however, had other plans. Storms rolled into Muscle Shoals, Alabama that Sunday and canceled the third round. EKU had to settle for a second-place finish. “That stung,” Riggs admitted. He had to wait a whole year for redemption. When the 2015 season finally arrived, Riggs was determined to capture the elusive OVC title for EKU and his Hall-of-Fame coach, Pat Stephens.
“We wanted to be one of those teams people remembered.”
The 2015 EKU men’s golf squad was a relatively young group. Riggs and Patric Sundlof were the lone seniors, and three of the Colonels’ top players – Jared Brown, Noah Combs, and Will Sallee – were freshmen. “I always tell people, that was almost my first year of coaching, because of those three,” Riggs said. The veteran Riggs helped guide the freshmen through their early days of college golf, but the freshmen helped him, too. In a different way. “A lot of times, when you’re a senior, everything is the last time,” Riggs said. “‘This is my last spring break, this is my last tournament here.’ But those freshmen didn’t allow me to get like that. They were so excited about everything. They wanted to practice all the time. They wanted to play. They wanted to do so many things together. I think that really helped our team, and I think it’s why we had a lot of success towards the end.”
EKU finished second at the Bearcat Invitational and third at the Kenny Perry WKU Invitational in the fall. When the spring rolled around, the Colonels continued to play good golf, notably taking second at the Greenbrier Invitational in April. Riggs, Sundlof, and sophomore Travis Rose led the way, but the freshmen trio of Brown, Combs, and Sallee contributed heavily to the Colonels’ success. “A lot of times, freshmen don’t know any better,” Pat Stephens said. “They’re not intimated by a team that might have a preseason All-American. These guys weren’t at all. They were focused. They wanted to come in and beat somebody. They were also self-motivated. I’ve always said, if you’ve got a team like that, all you have to do is put them in a van, take them to a golf course, open the door, and say ‘go get it, guys.’ “That was the type of team we had. They knew exactly what they needed to do, and they were so easy to coach. And, as we see now, they are coaches. Their leadership qualities are on full display.” On April 21 – just three days before the start of the OVC Championship – Stephens took his squad to Cincinnati to compete at Cobra Puma Invitational, hosted by Xavier. On the drive up, Riggs remembers asking Stephens “Why are we playing in this tournament?”
“He told me, we’re going to go up here and win this event, and then we’re going to drive to Muscle Shoals on Wednesday and we’re going to win the OVC. And I was ‘Okay. Sick. Let’s do it.’”
Stephens called his shot. EKU won at Xavier. Five days later, the Colonels lifted the OVC Championship trophy. It was the 12th conference championship in program history, and the first since 2008. Like in 2014, EKU torched the course on day two of the tournament, shooting an 8-under 280 to move from sixth to first place. Only this time, the weather held, and the Colonels did not falter. EKU never trailed on Sunday, winning the title by five shots. The celebration was memorable. As Noah Combs recalls, beloved volunteer assistant coach Tom “Geo” Giacchini cried tears of joy.
Three weeks later, the Colonels flew to California to play in the Rancho Santa Fe NCAA Regional. The day before they left, however, Riggs talked Stephens into playing a round with the team at Boone’s Trace National Golf Club. “He hadn’t played with us all season, and I told him ‘hey, this is going to be the last time we all get to play together for a while, why don’t you play with us?’” Riggs said. “And, sure enough, he did.” How did Stephens play? “He shot a 65. Beat us all. He hadn’t practiced from January until that day, and he shot a 65. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.”
EKU squared off against the best in the country at the NCAA Regional in southern California. After one day, the Colonels – who were seeded 13th out of 13 teams at the regional – sat in seventh place, ahead of four nationally-ranked teams. Combs led EKU on day one, shooting an opening round even-par 72. On day two, the true freshman from Pikeville was paired with Arizona State’s Jon Rahm, a junior from Barrika, Spain. “I didn’t know who he was,” Combs said. “Riggs told me he was the No. 1 amateur in the world. That kind of spooked me.” Rahm shot a course-record 64 that day. The next day, he won the NCAA Regional. Years later, he won the U.S. Open and the Masters and was the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world. “I feel like we talked the whole round,” Combs said of his pairing with Rahm. “He was a very cool guy, and a great golfer. It’s cool that he was nice to a freshman that he was way better than.”
The conference title and the NCAA Regional were memorable experiences for the 2015 Colonels, and crowning achievements for Stephens. The five-time OVC Coach of the Year was inducted into EKU’s Hall of Fame in 2020. Despite his list of accolades, Stephens takes the most pride in the success his players have found post-graduation. Five members of that 2015 team, particularly, have gone on to be successful coaches in their own right. Riggs – a native of La Grange, Kentucky – is now the associate head coach for the Iowa State University women’s golf team. He helped lead the Cyclones to a 22nd finish at the 2025 NCAA Championships, the best finish in school history. “The biggest thing I took from Pat is that it’s always good to do the right thing,” Riggs said of Stephens’ influence on his coaching. “I don’t think Pat necessarily said that a lot … it was just the essence of what he stood for. It’s how he ran his program. “I think the reason a lot of us have gotten into coaching is that Pat always instilled a love for the game into his players. Being a coach now, I think we have a big responsibility to make sure our players like golf more when they leave college than when they arrive at college. Pat did a good job at that.” -- Daniel DeLuca was a junior on the 2015 squad. He is now in his second season as the head coach of Belmont University men’s golf. “My favorite memory from that season was the grind and hard work it took to keep pushing all the way until the end,” DeLuca said. “We weren’t having our best season statistically, but we had a group of guys that pushed each other and believed we could do it. It takes years later really to see the bigger picture of all the work it takes for that moment. Now we try to get our players to buy into that every day process. The journey is much more important than the destination.” The Lexington native also commented on the impact Stephens has had on his life and career: “I’ve learned so much from Coach Stephens and owe him everything. He has a tremendous love for not only the game of golf, but the game of life too. The way he communicated with us one-on-one and as a team, all eyes turned to him when he spoke. We all know he is a great player, so we had a great deal of respect for him when he coached us and worked with us. I catch myself some days using a lot of his coaching philosophies and techniques with my players. I’m forever indebted to Coach and Coach Joni and the whole Stephens family. They are EKU.”
Kyle Congleton – a Richmond native – was a sophomore on the team in 2015. He created a dynasty at Madison Central High School, leading the Indians’ boy’s golf team to three straight KHSAA state championships in 2022, 2023, and 2024. “It’s one of those years I’d go back and do again in a heartbeat,” Congleton said of the 2015 season. “It really reminded me that being part of a team is about more than just playing … it’s about the people you share it with.” “One of the biggest things I learned from Coach Stephens was how to build a culture,” Congleton said. “He emphasized accountability, consistency, and treating people the right way. Coach also taught me that every player is different, and great coaching isn’t one-size-fits-all. He took the time to understand each of us individually – our strengths, our mindset, what motivated us. That’s something that I’ve always carried with me from coach.” -- Sallee is in his fourth season as an assistant coach with the University of Kentucky women’s golf team. The Lexington native holds fond memories of the 2015 season: “That season was filled with so many great memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” he said. “But my favorite one has got to be celebrating with the guys after our OVC Championship victory. We talked Geo into doing a cartwheel and he did it in front of everyone after the trophy celebration. It provided a great laugh for everyone.” “Pat had a lot of good qualities great coaches have,” Sallee added. “The quality I appreciated the most was his competitive spirit and he always taught us that a golf score will never define us as a person. That is something I try to embody everyday as I coach.” -- Combs was the last member of that team to join the coaching ranks. After graduation, he took a step away from golf and began working in insurance. When Stephens returned to lead EKU’s program in the spring of 2025, Combs was the first person he called to be his first-ever, full-time assistant coach. “Having this opportunity to come back and coach, I’ve found my passion and my love for the game again,” Combs said. “Now that I’m back in it, I feel like I love the game more than I did as a player.” “It’s cool that we’re all coaching and that we can pick each other’s brains,” Combs said of his current bond with his former teammates. “We’re able to bounce ideas off each other and relate with each other.”
Five members of the same championship team – all from Kentucky – achieving success in the coaching ranks. It’s a testament to Stephens’ legacy at EKU and across the state. “We share something,” Stephens said of his coaching tree. “As their former coach, it’s definitely a rewarding thing for me to see them following their dreams. I’m excited to see how successful they’re going to be, and how many lives they’re going to influence through the game of golf. “It was pretty obvious from the very beginning, the passion they had for golf and their leadership qualities. It was a shoe-in that they could be great coaches. It’s happening now.
“And for years on, I’m excited to watch what they can do as coaches.”