How golf friendship helped Clemson land Deshaun Watson

The January night when Clemson’s football team upset top-ranked Alabama to claim the 2016 College Football Playoff championship game, three men became permanently linked to the moment. Certainly, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney and junior quarterback Deshaun Watson, co-engineers of Clemson’s 14-1 season (28-2 in 2015-16) belonged in the bright-orange spotlight.

Steve Fuller might’ve seemed less a part of that to casual fans – until they looked closer at the right breast of Watson’s No. 4 jersey. There, Fuller’s name and his years as Clemson’s quarterback (1975-78) adorned a special patch commemorating another memorable era in Tigers football.

In 1979, Clemson retired No. 4 to honor Fuller’s All-American career, in which he led the Tigers to a 19-4-1 record his final two seasons, 11-1 as a senior. In nearly four decades since, no other player had worn No. 4 – until Watson.

The common denominator in this story is – believe it or not – golf.

A friendship was born in 2011, at Reynolds Plantation Golf Course in Greensboro, Ga. Without that relationship between Fuller, president of the S.C. Golf Association for 2016-17, and Swinney, No. 4 might not have been passed from one Clemson legend to another.

“It (Fuller’s ceding his number to Watson) started and ended on the golf course, it really did,” Fuller, 60, said when he toured the Tigers’ mammoth new Allen N. Reeves Football Complex with Swinney. Under other circumstances, he said, unretiring his number “would’ve been negotiated over the phone, and in my experience, those don’t always work out.

“There had to be a level of trust there, something you feel good about. In this case, I did.”

All because of golf and a friendship forged in the sport.

Flash back to summer 2011. Swinney was to play in his second Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge, where golf teams of college football coaches and former athletes compete for charity. In 2010, a team of Swinney and Fuller’s former receiver Dwight Clark finished next to last.

“I told (longtime sports information director and avid golfer) Tim Bourret I had to have a former player, so who’s got the reputation as the best golfer?” Swinney said. “And Tim said, ‘It’s got to be Steve Fuller.’ I reached out to him, asked if he was interested, and he said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”

Of course he was. Since finishing an NFL career that included a Super Bowl championship with the 1985 Chicago Bears, Fuller’s sport has been golf. A real estate developer in Hilton Head-Bluffton, he now lives and plays regularly at Colleton River Plantation Club, where he has maintained a single-digit handicap.

Fuller knew Swinney only casually, “nothing more than hello at a football game,” before both played at an IPTAY fundraiser in Augusta. “Dabo mentioned then he might get me to the Chick-fil-A tournament, said I’d enjoy it,” Fuller said.

In fact, Fuller had watched the 2010 event on TV. “His game and Dwight’s … didn’t quite work out,” he said. “Dabo’s a competitive guy, he wanted to compete,” especially with rival South Carolina fielding a strong Steve Spurrier-Sterling Sharpe tandem. “I’m not necessarily much better, but maybe more consistent.”

A self-proclaimed “bogey guy,” Swinney laughed at Fuller’s modesty. “I needed someone who could carry me, and he’s definitely done that,” he said.

Their first year, Swinney and Fuller placed sixth in the 12-team field. In 2013, they tied for third, two shots behind the winners. But more than simply a successful team, the two bonded.

“Golf has really enhanced the relationship,” Fuller said. “Spending three days every year, riding five hours in a cart, you get to know someone really well. We’ve had some interesting talks, about football, but more about family.”

Or both, since Swinney coaches his three young sons in several sports, while Fuller serves as an assistant football coach at Hilton Head High School. The men’s wives hit it off, and Fuller said his daughter, who has a degree in sports management, has accompanied him to Reynolds Plantation, where “she eats it up, sitting with coach Swinney, Spurrier, (Alabama’s Nick) Saban, that crowd,” he said. “She’s never happier than when we do that.”

Swinney said he discovered a kindred spirit 13 years his senior. “Steve’s very competitive, a great golfer but also a very interesting person,” he said. “He’s just a lot of fun to be with.

“Steve is committed to excellence in all he does. I wasn’t here when he was at Clemson (Swinney was nine during Fuller’s senior season), but that was his reputation in academics, his personal life. When you spend the time with someone like we have, you quickly figure that out.”

Thus, when Watson committed to Clemson in 2012 as a high school junior, Swinney felt comfortable about broaching the idea of bringing Fuller’s No. 4 out of storage – though not right away.

“Dabo casually mentioned it, said a lot of universities with retired numbers were including current players to bridge the gap, honor the older guy,” Fuller said. “He said, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘Sounds interesting.’ ”

A year later, Swinney “got more specific,” Fuller said. “I knew Deshaun wore No. 4 in high school; I also knew he was coming to Clemson if he wore No. 44 or No. 144. But Dabo said he was such a good kid, and he wanted to make him comfortable. He said it could help all of us, and he wanted to get the thing done.”

Fuller had been approached before about players “borrowing” his number, but had demurred. “This was the first time it felt right and seemed right, which is why it happened,” he said. Fuller’s old teammates supported that feeling – and again, he said, there was that trust between him and Swinney.

That summer, Fuller received a large package containing “a bunch of Clemson stuff, golf shirts” – and a No. 4 jersey with the distinctive “Fuller 1975-78” patch. Fuller says he went from “this is going to happen” to “looking forward to it.”

Swinney also made sure Watson reached out to Fuller – “he took pride in having that ‘Fuller’ on his jersey” – and the two quarterbacks have stayed in touch. You could say it all worked out.

Watson, like Fuller, was an All-American. Watson led the Tigers to the 2015 championship game before winning the title the second time, adding a new trophy to the 1981 one. The past three seasons, Fuller was along for the ride.

Swinney said he told Fuller, “Steve, I know you, but there are a lot who don’t know who you are or have forgotten your excellence,” Swinney said. “For three years, every picture (of Watson) reminded them … It’s neat that on a Sports Illustrated cover, there’s (the name) Fuller right there – two of the best to ever come through here.”

Swinney also can see a future where “two of the best” become even closer – on the golf course. A popular video shows Tigers football players, including Watson, trying golf – with little success. One day, though, Swinney believes the young quarterback will take to the sport, just as he and Fuller did.

Inside the Reeves Complex, Watson and other Clemson players can try state-of-the-art virtual golf, and practice putting on an outdoor course. “It’s the hardest sport I’ve ever played,” the coach said. “I hope they have a love of golf sparked, and once they get the bug, they’ll want to get better.”

Fuller can see Watson – as did he – getting to play “good courses with interesting people” in the NFL. The former quarterback says he would “certainly want to play with him.”

Swinney can see it now. “Deshaun will put in the work,” he said. “It’ll be a good release for him. No doubt, at some point he’ll be passionate about golf, and he’ll figure it out.”

Three generations of Clemson football, connected by golf. Again.

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "How golf friendship helped Clemson land Deshaun Watson."