How Moses Greene overcame family tradegy and hardship on the way to golfing professionally
Few people in college athletics have experienced what California State University, East Bay freshman and local Bay Area golfer Moses Greene went through as a child.
After losing his mother in the fifth grade and being forced to live with his grandparents, Greene has found himself attending CSUEB on an athletic scholarship.
Greene remembers the death of his mother like it was yesterday. He recalls the pain and agony of the day and every minor detail.
“ It was my first day of 5th grade, I woke up around 5 a.m. and went to the Stanford Hospital and knelt by her bedside for an hour until she passed away at 6:20 am,” said Greene in an interview. “After everything settled down, I still wasn’t able to accept for years that she wasn’t there.”
Growing up without a father to take care of him, Greene had to move in with his grandparents, who were immigrants from South Korea. Greene admits that growing up as a Korean-American in a traditional Korean house is tough at times.
“We butt heads constantly with our different ideals and how we view certain things,” Greene said. “One thing we butted heads about the most was technology for sure. We saw it differently, for them it was just a way to contact people and for me it was not just a way to talk to people but also a way to explore and pass the time.”
Greene’s grandparents are responsible for him taking up golf. At first, Greene didn’t want to play golf. As a former football player, he thought golf was boring. He hated the game for the first two years, but his grandparents insisted that he keep playing. Now, Greene can’t think of anything better to do.
“I love the grind that comes with practice or having a bad day. The creativity of shot shaping and how no two swings are alike. It’s such a special game,” said Greene.
Greene says he first started realizing he had potential when he started working with his long term coach Erik Stone. Before Stone began coaching him, Greene didn’t see himself as a college-level golfer, describing himself as a ‘weekend warrior’ or the average golfer.
“It wasn’t until I started going to Erik that I saw immense growth in my game,” said Greene. “He helped my consistency in all aspects of my game. I soon found myself going under par and competing in larger events with talented junior golfers.”
Stone is also responsible for introducing Greene to the head coach of the CSUEB Men’s Golf team, Alan Sue. However, Greene admits that he almost didn’t attend CSUEB.
“The night before I was going to sign to play for California State University, San Marcos something inside me told me I couldn’t go there. The next day I signed with CSUEB,” said Greene.
Sue saw first hand the hard work that Greene had been putting in as a junior.
“Being an Alameda resident who played golf at Corica Park Golf Course, I would see Moses in the evening working on his game until dark,” Sue said in an interview. “Work ethic is the key to success and his is amazing.”
Sue also believes the adversity that Greene had faced when he was young has prepared him for college golf.
“Golf is a microcosm for life so with the amount of adversity that he has faced in his life and being as successful as he is, I think he will be relatively unphased by any obstacles that competitive golf could throw his way.”
Greene knows as well as anyone else that being a student-athlete isn’t all about sport.
Going into his freshman year at CSUEB, Greene declared as a Communication major. Greene still isn’t sure as to what field of communication he wants to focus on but believes that a Communication degree is something that he would be interested in pursuing.
“Talking and communicating comes easily to me and I figured I could do something with it should golf not work out. Right now I want to play golf professionally. It’s a difficult road that only a few people make, but I believe that I could make it out there and thrive.”
Greene looks to kick start his college career with the rest of the CSUEB Men’s Golf team at the Western Washington Invitational from Sept. 23-24th at Bellingham Country Club in Bellingham, Wash.