Given Kent and Janet Moore’s long affiliation with the game, it’s not surprising that Kent draws upon a golf analogy when explaining why the couple are taking a major detour in their lives.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m on the 15th hole of life, and the tournament of life can be rained out at any time,” the 55-year-old said Friday. “And for the last three or four holes, it would be nice to do something for someone else.”
Even though both Kent and Janet have lived in Colorado for decades, earlier this summer they took the unusual step of accepting college golf head coaching jobs at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. And it was a package deal: Kent will coach the men’s team and Janet the women’s. In both cases, their first tournaments begin next Friday (Sept. 2).
The Moores — both accomplished amateur players and members of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame — will still live in Colorado for the majority of the year, but it’s safe to say their decision took some of their friends and acquaintances by surprise.
Still, many people make significant changes in mid-life, and in the Moores’ case, their religious beliefs and altruism weighed heavily in their thinking.
“We’ve been praying about what the Lord wants us to do with the second part of our lives — to give back,” Janet Moore said earlier this summer. “We love kids and we love golf. So when this door opened up, it’s a Christian school and it’s a perfect fit. So we feel very blessed, and a little overwhelmed, but real excited.”
Neither Kent nor Janet Moore, 47, has a great deal of coaching experience. They both coached for a while at a junior high school level and Janet helped in the high school ranks, but that’s a far cry from college golf, albeit at a NCAA Division III school that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships.
But what the Moores lack in coaching experience, they make up for with competitive know-how. Both played NCAA Division I college golf — Kent at Purdue and Janet at Arizona — and each has been among the best amateur golfers in Colorado at one time or another during their careers.
Janet Moore won five CWGA Stroke Play Championships during the 1990s and was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2001 at age 36. Kent Moore was enshrined three years later during a career that includes victories in the CGA Stroke Play, Match Play, Senior Match Play, Mid-Amateur and Junior Match Play.
And just this week, Janet Moore qualified again for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, meaning she’s earned spots in more than a dozen USGA individual championships overall. Meanwhile, Kent has played in eight such USGA events. (They’re both pictured above at the CWGA Stroke Play earlier this summer.)
While the Moores still plan on playing some tournament golf, a phone call came in June that quickly altered their lives. After thinking he had a new golf coach lined up only to see the hire fall through, Wheaton athletic director Tony Ladd called to get some advice from the Moores, whose son Steven and daughter Sarah have played golf for Wheaton.
During that call, “I said, ‘Why don’t Janet and I do it?'” Kent recalled. “He said, ‘Are you serious?’ and I said, ‘Yes, we are.’
“We always thought it would be fun to coach somewhere, but we didn’t think it’d be where our kids are.”
The Moores wanted to give their children their space. “We realize our kids went out of state for a reason — not to have mom and dad follow them,” Janet said. But because Steven had just one college season left and Sarah planned to run cross country instead of playing golf this season, Kent and Janet felt OK about taking over the coaching jobs. Since then, however, Kent said that Sarah Moore may play in some golf tournaments besides running cross country. Steven, meanwhile, is scheduled to get married in December but plans to play college golf for his entire senior season.
The Moores would only accept the jobs if it was a package deal, and that wasn’t an issue for Ladd.
All in all, the timing worked out as well as possible. Kent does some independent energy-related work and serves on some board of directors, but he has enough flexibility in his duties that it’s workable. And when Kent or Janet has other commitments, one can cover for the other.
“Our kids are growing up and we’re empty-nesters,” Janet said. “We had the second half of our lives to kind of give back, so this door opened up. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us.”
And, unless a new athletic director decides otherwise, the Moores are looking at this as a long-term commitment, possibly 10 years or more.
As you might imagine, the last couple of months have been a whirlwind for the couple. They bought a home for the time they’ll be spending in Wheaton, Janet said she’s solicited advice from people she knows with coaching experience, and there’s been plenty of team-related matters to attend to.
“There’s a lot of administrative things,” Kent said. “Having never coached, you forget all the NCAA rules involved. And there are some logistical things that are time-consuming.” As far as coaching the players, per se, “So far, it’s been OK. We’ll see how it is when the harder things come — like deciding who will play (in tournaments) and that sort of thing.”
But that hardly dampens the Moores’ enthusiasm for their new endeavor.
“Both Janet and I feel this is what we’re supposed to do,” Kent said.
