It took some time, but Michael Loppnow discovered while playing golf at Wayland Baptist that no one has all the answers all of the time, and that it’s OK to ask for help. That was a slow lesson for Loppnow to learn, and for good reason.

When he arrived at Wayland in 2007, the golfer from Cape Town, South Africa, possessed lots of talent and loads of confidence. “My very first tournament we played, we won. I distinctly remember on the first playoff hole Coach (Tom) Harp helping me with reading a putt to move on to the next hole to keep our chances alive. He said, ‘I think inside right to right edge.’ I said, ‘I’ve been pulling putts all day, so I’m going to take a ball outside the hole.’ Coach Harp chuckled and said, laughing at the same time, ‘OK.’ I made the putt and went on to the next hole to win the tournament.”

Loppnow and Harp went on to have a great player/coach relationship, and Loppnow went on to enjoy an incredible collegiate career. He was named Sooner Athletic Conference and NAIA Freshman of the Year, was a regional champion and three-time top-10 finisher at nationals, tied for the lowest round in program history, and became Wayland’s first four-time all-American, including three first team selections. As a result, Loppnow is the second golfer (two years after former teammate Kevin Stinson in 2016) to be inducted into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor.

“I feel privileged. I’ve always been particularly bad (at) accepting awards. In my mind I’m not at a point where I’ve reached that final goal,” said Loppnow, who continues to play professional golf. “But I will say this is a fantastic achievement. It’s great to be part of school history. It feels good.”

Loppnow seemed to be destined for greatness at Wayland, starting with helping the Pioneers win his first collegiate tournament – the Peaks Classic in La Veta, Colo. – and continuing when Loppnow took top individual honors in his second-ever collegiate entry – the InterWest Wildcat Classic in Chico, Calif.

All was going great for Loppnow, including the fact that he loved his teammates.

“For teams, Jeff Dagg, Brent Kirstein, Kevin Stinson and J.J. Brumley was my favorite combination of guys I had the pleasure to play with,” he said. “Everybody had the same goal in mind: to go out there and win. The team dynamic was such that that was the main focus. We had a nice camaraderie because everybody was on the same page.”

That team went on to win the Grand Canyon Thunderbird Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz., in the spring of 2008, then Loppnow captured another individual title at the Region VI Championship in Lubbock, shooting 8-under 208.

“That very first regionals tournament was memorable, not only because I won individually, but the way I handled myself under pressure making a 10-footer with the help of (teammate) Mikel Martinson with the read on the first playoff hole,” Loppnow said. “That really solidified my confidence that I could keep going further.”

The Pioneers finished fifth at Loppnow’s first NAIA National Championships. It was the second-best finish in school history, behind Wayland’s runner-up showing the year before. Loppnow was awarded the Phil Mickelson Award as the NAIA’s top freshman golfer and was selected NAIA Second Team All-American.

Winning didn’t happen as regularly after Loppnow’s first season, although he still was impressive the remainder of his collegiate career. As a sophomore he tied for first then lost on the fifth playoff hole at a tournament in Oklahoma City. That same season he and the Pioneers repeated their team victory at the Peaks Classic before finishing 12^th at nationals, then placed ninth at nationals his junior year when Loppnow took eighth individually.

“My third season felt like a struggle,” Loppnow recalls. “With so much success comes pressure and expectation, and also ego and complacency. This stands out in that you realize that you can’t do it all by yourself. You need help and guidance no matter how good you are. I had to learn to take criticism and that you can’t do everything yourself. Your road isn’t always the right road. This was an important learning curve and one I needed.”

In the fall of his senior season, Loppnow posted a 64 during the Ryan Palmer Foundation Invitational at Amarillo’s Tascosa Country Club, tying Stinson for the lowest competitive round in school history. “It was windy in the morning, so when I started it was a battle,” Loppnow recalled. “I had one or two birdies in the first six holes and got a little bit of confidence going. I was just steady from there. I hit a couple of good shots and made some putts. It was one of those rounds. I didn’t really think about the score until I added it up at the end.”

Loppnow, whose low-round in practice was a 10-under 61 at Plainview Country Club, said he followed the 64 with scores of 74 and 77, finishing tied for ninth. Such is golf sometimes.

The Pioneers didn’t make it back to nationals as a team when Loppnow was a senior, but he did qualify as an individual. Playing at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., Loppnow tied for fourth place to secure all-national tournament honors (top 16 finishers) for the third straight year. He later was named NAIA First Team All-American for the third straight year and fourth time overall.

Loppnow is proud of how well he was able to perform at national tournaments each year, likening those events to majors in professional golf. “You go through the whole year to prepare for a certain event. There’s a lot of pressure involved from both an individual and a team standpoint. It’s the time where you really wanted to prepare well because you knew every shot would count.”

His last national tournament was memorable for Loppnow. “My final national championship as an individual with Coach Harp was special. It was a good bonding experience. It was sad the team wasn’t there, but spending the last week with Tom brought a wonderful collegiate career to an end with friendships and great times.”

Playing as an individual also helped Loppnow get a feel for life would be like as a professional golfer, no longer able to rely on a team. “It was a good transition away from college golf and what things would be like as a professional.”

Loppnow played for two years on the Big Easy Sunshine Tour in his native South Africa, earning a couple of top-10 finishes. He began playing on the Vancouver Golf Tour and PGA Tour Canada (alongside Stinson) in 2014, then in early 2015 moved with wife Jessica, an elementary school teacher, to Vancouver. He’s had multiple top-10 finishes on the VGT, including one victory.

After an 18-month immigration ordeal that cut into his time on the golf course, Loppnow currently is working in digital media and finance development for a GM dealer in Vancouver, while also playing golf.

“You have to make sure you have enough cash flow while continuing to play at the same time,” he explained. “My goal is to play substantially more next year, maybe going back to South Africa.”