Greg Charnes said his 40 years of experience with golf have prepared him for his new role as the men’s golf coach.

He has spent his life teaching golf, golf rules and golf course management.

“It all applies with college men and an average golfer trying to improve,” Charnes said. “Anything I’ve ever done will help.”

Charnes said he received a call from Athletic Director Jon Mark Hall about the position and decided to come out for an interview.

The previous head coach left this year to focus on his retirement.

“To my knowledge, the job was vacant when (Hall) called me,” Charnes said.

Charnes has lived in Evansville for many years, but retired in 2004 when he left Oak Meadow Golf Club.

He worked for Oak Meadown since 1977, but said he has played golf for 57 years.

“I’ve been playing competitively since I was 8 or 10,” he said.

Charnes said he doesn’t  know everything about the team just yet, but said it is going well so far.

“I just met the team on Sept. 3,” he said. “Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.”

Charnes said he is learning about the team as they learn about him and there have been no problems so far.

The team competed in its first tournament under Charnes Sept. 8 and ended up in the middle of the pack in sixth place.

“The whole team was a little disappointed in the first round,” Charnes said.

Charnes said the team was pleased with their third day scores and can take those into future tournaments.

“Now that we know we can do that,” Charnes said, “that’s the range of score we expect to be in.”

As far as season goals Charnes said he’d like to focus on getting to know the team in his new role before setting any concrete goals.

“We have to understand the potential before setting a goal,” Charnes said. “You have to be realistic.”