Lance Strickland has never spent time on a golf course year-round. Meridian Community College’s golf coach loves the sport he has played since he was old enough to beat around a golf ball with the back of his parents’ clubs, but he typically puts his clubs up from November to February because there is such a thing as too much golf.

Taking time off does not seem to have hampered Strickland’s abilities though, as he has developed into a skilled coach and amateur golfer. The 26-year-old is a former MACCC Player of the Year and also twice earned NJCAA PING All-American honors while playing for MCC. Now a coach at the school he once played for, Strickland continues to excel with a club in his hands, as he won the Mississippi Golf Association’s Mid Amateur Championship at Northwood Country Club in early October.

“I stroked the ball really well,” Strickland said on his performance at the championship. “Got around the golf course exactly how I wanted to. My putter really held me back, which was bizarre. I worked on my putting really hard for at least a week coming up. I prioritized putting, and it really didn’t give me the results that I was looking for. I felt pretty yippy all three days.”

Strickland took a two-stroke lead by shooting 68 (-3) in round one, but Brett Patterson’s strong finish at the end of round two allowed him to cut Strickland’s lead to just one stroke entering the final round after Strickland shot 70 (-1) in round two. Strickland found himself trailing Patterson by two strokes at the end of the ninth hole on day three, but he persevered on the back nine to beat out Patterson by one stroke after shooting 206 (-7) for the tournament.

Strickland said it was a special opportunity for him to bring a trophy back to his lifelong friends at Briarwood Golf Club, and he wanted to win for Robert Sanford, who was diagnosed with cancer last year. After winning the tournament, Strickland visited Sanford, who Stickland previously told he would win a state amateur one year, at Northwood so they could visit and take pictures.

Strickland had to battle in round three at Northwood to come out on top, but he has plenty of experience battling with himself out on a course from years of playing golf. He said golf is a personal battle for him every day.

“Golf is a good sport for developing internal strength and learning how to get through different battles every day,” Strickland said. “Life, every day you never know what may come up, and golf is the same way. You think you’re hitting the ball really good for a few days, and you wake up the next day and something is just off, and you’ve got to find ways to fix it and get around it.”

The coach will get some time off from battling with his clubs now that he is in his self-determined offseason. He has valued his time off from golf since his days as a three-sport athlete at Lamar, when he missed most of the golf preseason and regular season while playing basketball and baseball. He said playing other sports in high school taught him to be mentally strong and team-oriented on the golf course.

“I think playing baseball and other sports like that helps drive and motivate the team aspect in golf,” Strickland said. “Golf isn’t supposed to be a team sport, but we’ve made it a team sport. Especially the guys I have on the team right now, a lot of them were dual-sport athletes, and a lot of them want to win not only for themselves, but they really want the team to do well.”

Strickland went on from Lamar to play two years each at MCC and the University of North Alabama before earning a criminal justice degree. Former MCC golf coach Ronnie Key, who coached Strickland at MCC, brought Strickland on as an assistant coach in 2020.

Though the young coach had not considered trying to become a head coach, he applied for the job at MCC in 2022 after Key left. He said he decided to apply for the job because he did not want to see an outsider make changes to the program he cared about, but he quickly realized that he could see himself as a head golf coach.

“I haven’t looked back one time,” Strickland said. “It’s been a little bit hard at first, but things are really picking up for us. I think next semester is going to be really good. I’ve got a really good recruiting class coming in, and I think MCC golf is about to start heading into a new direction that I think is going to be better than ever.”

Strickland still gets out regularly to play golf, especially during MCC practices, and he occasionally participates in amateur tournaments. He said he wants to play the MGA’s State Amateur Championship forever, and he hopes to one day win the championship and to play in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson.

The amateur golfer and golf coach credits his parents and his friends at Briarwood for the success he has had in his golf career. He said he would love to play professional golf, but he gets enough satisfaction from coaching his MCC athletes and helping them get better.

“At the end of the day, I can go without playing professional golf,” Strickland said. “I love competing in amateur tournaments in the summer, but it’s more important to me to watch my guys grow and develop like I did. I would love for all of them to have the exact same experience that I had.”