Tag: Josh Gregory

Golf Coaches Association of America announces 2023 Hall of Fame inductees

To be selected to the Hall of Fame, a coach must be nominated by their peers and then selected by the GCAA Hall of Fame Committee.

The Golf Coaches Association of America announced Thursday its 2023 Hall of Fame class.

Steve Card, Josh Gregory, Grier Jones, and Marlin “Cricket” Musch will be inducted Dec. 4 at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception and Awards Dinner in Las Vegas.

Card spent more than 33 years in Western Washington’s athletic department in various leadership roles. He served as men’s golf coach from 1993 to 2013. Western Washington won 45 tournaments, including 10 conference and four regional championships, and made 12 NCAA Championship appearances (eight team and four individual) in 15 years as well as four NAIA Championship appearances (Western Washington competed in the NAIA until becoming an official member of NCAA Division II in 1998).

Gregory served as the men’s golf coach and director of golf at Augusta State (now Augusta), where he led the Jaguars to a program-record 18 tournament wins, including becoming the first program since Houston (1984-1985) to win back-to-back NCAA Division I National Championships in 2010 and 2011. Gregory produced 12 All-Americans, 14 PING All-South Region selections, five GCAA All-America Scholars, six Arnold Palmer Cup and two Walker Cup participants while winning the NCAA Division I Dave Williams National Coach of the Year Award twice (2010-2011). He then went to SMU, where he coached Bryson DeChambeau, and has also spent time on Will Zalatoris’ bag on the PGA Tour.

Jones was the coach at Wichita State from 1995 until his retirement in 2019. In his tenure, the Shockers won 49 tournaments, including 15 Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) championships, and 45 medalist honors, including 11 individual conference championships. The 13-time MVC Coach of the Year and MVC All-Centennial Team coach (2007) also led Wichita State to 13 NCAA Division I regional appearances, and his players received eight MVC Golfer of the Year awards, 60 All-MVC, and five All-America selections, including two from current head coach Judd Easterling. He played collegiately at Oklahoma State.

Musch started the UTEP varsity program, which had previously been a club sport, and was the head coach from 1981 to 1990. In 1988, the Miners shared national runner-up honors with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State after the conclusion of the 1988 NCAA Division I National Championship, finishing only three shots behind champion UCLA and GCAA Hall of Fame coach Eddie Merrins. Musch received the NCAA Division I Dave Williams National Coach of the Year Award that year, and UTEP made it back to the national championship in 1989 before Musch earned Regional Coach of the Year honors. In all, Musch, a three-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Coach of the Year, led the Miners to the 1985 WAC Championship, six national championship appearances, and 10 All-American honors. After coaching, he had a 30-year career in golf agency.

In 1980, the GCAA began inducting outstanding men’s college golf coaches into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame. Since then, the hall has grown to include more than 160 members. To be selected to the Hall of Fame, a coach must be nominated by their peers and then selected by the GCAA Hall of Fame Committee. Selection criteria not only include a coach’s record on the golf course, but also their contributions to the game, student-athletes, and school.

‘Toughest decision I’ve had to make in my golf career’: Will Zalatoris fires ‘best friend’ caddie at Wyndham Championship, uses coach as fill-in

“The toughest decision I’ve had to make in my golf career.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. — While Will Zalatoris went about fulfilling autograph requests for rows of Wyndham Championship spectators after wrapping up his third round Saturday, a few feet away coach-turned-caddie Josh Gregory explained what he tried to provide during his emergency fill-in role.

“Hopefully a little smile,” Gregory said. “Most importantly, he needed to laugh and smile. He needed to have fun. And I think just commitment. I’m about as positive of a coach as I can be, and I was just super positive with him.”

It made for a contrasting scene in regard to the events that followed the finish of Zalatoris’ previous round one day earlier here at Sedgefield Country Club, when he fired caddie Ryan Goble in the middle of the tournament and called it “the toughest decision I’ve had to make in my golf career.”

The former Wake Forest star and one of the top-ranked players in the world, shot 4-under 66 in third round to improve to 7 under for the tournament, five strokes behind leaders Sungjae Im and Brandon Wu. The third round was suspended by storms Saturday and will resume at 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

Zalatoris delivered eight birdies on the day, recovering from a double bogey on the second hole and weathering two bogeys on the back nine with the 47-year-old Gregory, his short game coach, on the bag for the first time.

Zalatoris, 25, said Goble had been his only caddie on a sanctioned professional tour, and said “he’s basically been my best friend for the last three years.” He added, though, “it was just getting a little unhealthy for both of us and obviously it hurts” about their relationship — a partnering that produced eight results among the top 10, runner-up finishes at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, and more than $6.6 million in earnings this season.

“We’ve kind of had a rough month together, and it was starting to affect our relationship,” Zalatoris said. “I know guys say that when they split, but it really was. We were guys that we would love to have dinner together and hang out and what was happening on the course was starting bleed off the course, and that’s not what you want.

Zalatoris said Joel Stock will caddie for him in the FedEx Cup playoffs, which starts next week in Memphis. Gregory said he pulled on-the-fly duty as a fill-in caddie for Henrik Norlander in February at the Phoenix Open.

“It was time for a change,” Gregory said of the split between Zalatoris and Goble. “And honestly, it’s what’s best for both of them. The change was coming anyway, and it was time to go ahead and rip the Band-Aid off.”

Zalatoris began the third round at 3 under for the tournament, six shots off the lead. Then, a wayward moment off the tee left him with double bogey on the second hole to drop to 1 under.

“Even when he made double on the second hole, I just said, ‘Hey, let’s go see how many birdies we can make. Let’s have fun,’” Gregory said. “And that’s what he needed. And then he just needed a little extra commitment, a little extra conviction in his decisions. So just tell him how good he is. It’s pretty easy when you’re carrying his bag. He’s really good.”

Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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