Carl Miller was awakened to his phone buzzing at 3 o’clock in the morning on Wednesday. It was a text message from a friend notifying him of a horrific car accident in Texas that killed six University of Southwest golfers, the coach and left two others injured.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Miller’s mind immediately shifted to Hobbs, New Mexico, and for good reason. Now the assistant pro at The King & Bear golf course in St. Augustine, Florida, he coached the men’s and women’s team at USW — a private Christian school that competes at the NAIA level — from 2017 to 2019, calling it “a dream job to coach at the college level.”
Miller, 39, who caddied on the Korn Ferry Tour for pro Brad Fritsch in between jobs, had the day off and was in Palm Harbor, Florida, site of this week’s PGA Tour Valspar Championship visiting friends.
The USW team was commuting back to school from an event in Midland, Texas, that Miller said was a staple of its tournament schedule. The team’s van, which was carrying nine students from the men’s and women’s squad, was hit head-on when a pickup truck crossed the centerline of a two-lane road in Andrews County, about 30 miles east of the New Mexico state line.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said Thursday that the crash occurred at high speed and that the front left tire of the pickup truck, which was a spare, was blown out before the impact.
Miller went down the roster and did the mental calisthenics, figuring that three of his former recruits remained on the team. He called Justin Pasitney and breathed easier when the senior finance major from Alberta, Canada, answered. Pasitney had qualified for the match in Midland but had given his spot to one of his fellow teammates from Canada. (Freshman golfers Dayton Price and Hayden Underhill were both airlifted to a nearby hospital and initially reported to be in critical conditions with severe burns.)
“I spoke to Justin, who had just returned from visiting at the hospital and it’s very tough when you know it should’ve been you on the van,” Miller said.
Next, he phoned Jenna Sand, another Canadian golfer who he had recruited from Alberta. Sand, 20, noted on her team bio that she wants to become a teacher. Sand answered, too. It turns out she had left school during the pandemic and had not returned.
But before he could make a phone call to his final recruit, he heard the bad news that Karisa Raines, 21 of Fort Stockton, Texas, was among the casualties. Miller called her “Big Red,” for the color of her long curly locks. She wanted to become a forensic scientist, counted LPGA star Nelly Korda as her favorite athlete and her pre-round ritual was prayer and to listen to music.
“She had the greatest personality,” Miller said.
A GoFundMe page for funeral expenses for Raines was started Wednesday afternoon and already had raised nearly $20,000.
Miller asked that donations also be made to support the expenses of the other victims of this terrible tragedy. Any Given Tuesday, a podcast dedicated to college golf, has created a GoFundMe fundraiser for the victims of the accident involving the USW golf teams.