Back to the Auburn Tigers Newsfeed

'A great mom and coach': Mother's Day memories for Melissa Luellen, Dale McNamara

By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. - If recruiting rankings had been around in the 1980s, Auburn women’s golf coach Melissa [McNamara] Luellen would have been a five-star prospect. A can’t-miss kid.

At her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she received scholarship offers from as far away as northern California, and as near as the next room.

Such was the recruitment of Melissa McNamara, No. 1 junior golfer in the country in 1984 and the daughter of the University of Tulsa’s legendary coach, Dale McNamara.

“I just told her she could have breakfast, or not,” says Dale, laughing at the memory before turning serious.