Tag: Matt Thurmond

Matt Thurmond, Ryan Hybl highlight Golf Coaches Association of America’s 2024 Hall of Fame class

The coaches will be inducted Dec. 10 in Las Vegas.

The Golf Coaches Association of America announced Tuesday its 2024 Hall of Fame Class.

Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond and Oklahoma coach Ryan Hybl will officially be inducted during the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception and Awards Dinner on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

Thurmond’s coaching career started as an assistant at his alma mater, BYU, in 1999. He then joined 2014 GCAA Hall of Famer O.D. Vincent’s staff at Washington the next season before being named head coach in June 2001. The Huskies made the NCAA Championship in each of Thurmond’s first five years, including a program-best third-place finish in 2005. That same year James Lepp won the individual NCAA title. Washington went on to make NCAAs seven times in his final 10 season in Seattle, making match play three times.

Thurmond was hired at Arizona State’s head coach on July 25, 2016. He has led the Sun Devils to 24 tournament wins, including the 2024 Pac-12 Championship and consecutive NCAA Regional titles in 2022 and 2023. Arizona State made match play at the NCAA Championship three times in six appearances since Thurmond arrived, including a runner-up finish in 2022. Thurmond has led 11 different Sun Devils to 18 All-America honors.

Matt Thurmond Chun An Yu
Arizona State men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond (left) with Chun An Yu. (Photo: Arizona State University)

After finishing his playing career at Georgia, Hybl joined 2012 GCAA Hall of Famer Chris Haack as an assistant coach in 2005. In his four seasons on staff (2005-09), the Bulldogs captured 18 team wins, featuring the 2006 and 2009 SEC Championship and 2008 NCAA East Regional, and made the NCAA Championship each year. 

Hybl was hired as head coach at Oklahoma on June 22, 2009, turning the program back into a national powerhouse. The Sooners have recorded the top 14 single-season scoring averages in program history and made 13 straight NCAA Championship appearances, culminating in a national championship in 2017. Hybl has coached a program-record 46 tournament wins, including three Big 12 Championships (2018, 2022, 2023) and four NCAA Regional titles (2015, 2018, 2022, 2024).

In 1980, the GCAA began inducting 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 selected by the GCAA Hall of Fame Committee.

Arnold Palmer Cup announces head coaches, assistants for 2024 competition at Lahinch

The competition heads to Lahinch in 2024.

LAS VEGAS — The head and assistant coaches for the American and International squads at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup were named Tuesday during the annual coaches convention at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

LSU’s Garrett Runion and Arizona State’s Matt Thurmond will be Team USA co-head coaches, and Minnesota’s Rhyll Brinsmead and Ireland’s Barry Fennelly will guide the International team. Florida’s Dudley Hart and LSU’s Alexis Rather are the Team USA co-assistant coaches while Scotland’s Stew Burke and Ireland’s Aaron O’Callaghan will assist Team International.

The Ryder Cup-style competition, which features men’s and women’s collegiate golfers from the United States against their International counterparts, will be played July 5-7 at Lahinch in Ireland.

Runion, who has been a part of two national championships and earned multiple conference and regional coach of the year awards thus far during his collegiate coaching career, is in his sixth season as the LSU women’s golf head coach. The Tigers have 12 wins, including their first SEC Championship in 30 years in 2022, and made three straight NCAA Division I National Championship appearances with Runion at the helm.

Thurmond is in his eighth season as head men’s golf coach at Arizona State and has earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year three times, including in 2019. The Sun Devils have won 19 tournaments, including back-to-back NCAA Regionals, and have earned 18 PING All-American and three straight Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honors during his tenure.

Hart is in his seventh season on Florida and coach J.C. Deacon’s coaching staff, and first as associate head coach. The Gators put together a historic season in 2022-23 that led to six tournament titles, including the program’s fifth NCAA Division I National Championship and 16th SEC Championship. Hart was named the 2023 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award recipient, becoming the second Gator to receive the award, joining John Handrigan in 2015. During his tenure, the Gators have won 14 tournaments and earned nine PING All-America and 14 PING All-Southeast Region honors.

Rather is in her 14th season with the Tigers and her sixth working with Runion. She spent eight seasons under the tutelage of long-time LSU head coach Karen Bahnsen in addition to playing for Bahnsen in the purple and gold from 2003-08, where she recorded a program-record 125 rounds played and chipped in for the only birdie in a sudden death playoff for the eighth and final qualifying spot at the 2008 NCAA East Regional that advanced LSU to the NCAA Championship.

Brinsmead, who was a Team International assistant coach at the 2023 Palmer Cup, took the helm as the head women’s golf coach at Minnesota in January 2021. In her first two-plus seasons, she has led the Gophers to four top-fives, including in two of their four tournaments this fall, and 17 top-10 finishes. Seven of her players have earned WGCA All-American Scholar honors.

Fennelly is in his 13th season as head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Under Fennelly’s direction, Maynooth has become the perennial leader in Ireland, having won two National club titles and numerous Irish, British, and European University titles.

Burke was named head coach at Kansas State on June 30 after holding the same position at Tulane the previous four seasons. The Wildcats recorded a 291.33 team stroke average this fall, which is their best fall stroke average since at least 2011. At the White Sands Invitational in October, which included individual winner Haley Vargas, Kansas State captured their first team victory in four years. Carla Bernat, 2023 Palmer Cup alumna, also won the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational, marking the first time in six years that Kansas State had multiple individual winners.

O’Callaghan is in his seventh season as the Demon Deacons’ associate head coach, coming to Wake Forest in July 2018 after four seasons at Louisville. This fall, the Wake Forest men’s golf team won both the team and individual titles at the Highlands Invitational at the Chicago Highlands Club, with 2022 Palmer Cup alumnus Michael Brennan claiming his seventh career individual title, the fourth most in program history.

The Americans lead the all-time series 14-12-1.

Ringler: How hard is it to win an NCAA title? Take a look through the eyes of two of the nation’s best coaches, who have both yet to do it

Golf is hard. You know what’s even harder? Winning a national championship.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Golf is hard.

You know what’s even harder? Winning a national championship.

Just ask head coaches Mike Small (Illinois) and Matt Thurmond (Arizona State). They’re two of the very best – maybe ever – to guide college golf teams. Small is a Hall of Famer and Thurmond is certain to be one, yet these two have yet to experience what it’s like to hold the national championship trophy.

In fact, there are only 11 active coaches who have experienced that feeling.

Small and Thurmond have similar stories: Their teams are consistently very good.

Small is in his 23rd season with the Illini and has had a tee time in the NCAA finals in 16 of those 23 seasons, including 14 of the past 16 years.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=]

Thurmond’s 21 years coaching includes 15 years at Washington and six in Tempe, Arizona. He has seen his teams play in 16 of 20 national championships. Thurmond guided Washington to 11 finals appearances in 15 years. Washington has not made a trip to the finals since Thurmond left for Arizona State.

Since 2009, match play has decided the national champion. Small is tied with John Fields of Texas for all-time coaching appearances in match play with seven. Oklahoma’s Ryan Hybl, Alan Bratton of Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt’s Scott Limbaugh each have six. Thurmond has five – two at Arizona State and three at Washington.

We all know the story, match play levels the playing field, making it more difficult to win if you are the better stroke-play team. Oklahoma State won it all as the top seed in 2018 on its home course of Karsten Creek and remains the only No. 1 seed to do so.

Here at Grayhawk, Illinois and Arizona State are in the top 4 in the national rankings, and many would consider the two to be likely favorites – for stroke play.

Each might have a championship already, because each has won the stroke-play portion of the tournament only to be defeated in bracket play.

In 2015 at the Concession Club in Bradenton, Florida, the Illini finished two shots clear of Vanderbilt to land atop the leaderboard and earn the No. 1 seed. Small’s team beat UCLA in the opening round and then lost to Southern California in the semifinals.

Arizona State finished atop the leaderboard after 72 holes in 2021, the initial year of Grayhawk’s three-year finals run. The Sun Devils finished three shots in front of Oklahoma State. Thurmond’s squad then beat North Carolina in the opening round of match play but lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals.

And last year, Arizona State fell against Texas in the match play finals.

Small and Thurmond: Two coaches who have been on a similar path, constantly in the discussion when talking about top teams each year.

Is this the year one of them meets all the checkpoints to get his team into match play and then navigate a way to churn out three points in three matches to finally hold that trophy in the end?

Maybe, but it will be hard!

Arizona State men’s golf team looks to make mark at home at NCAA Championship

Hosts this week, the Sun Devils are ready to defend home turf at Grayhawk Golf Club.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona State head men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond admits it would have been embarrassing to be hosting a party and then not get an invite. So the pressure was on when his squad competed in the Albuquerque Regional earlier this month.

ASU is hosting the 30-team NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship beginning Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. And yes, the Sun Devils will take part in the festivities, having finished second in that regional behind Texas Tech.

It will be the 56th appearance in the championship for ASU and the 16th in the last 19 years. Only three schools boast more appearances: Oklahoma State (73), Texas (66) and USC (58).

ASU was supposed to host the event for the first of three years in 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the season being canceled, so this week’s event has been in the works for a while.

“For three years all the time and energy that has gone into this tournament. In the back of my mind I’m thinking, ‘Do they realize we have to qualify in regional?’ And it’s never easy. So I couldn’t fully think about the NCAA Championship knowing that,” Thurmond said before his team headed out for a practice round Thursday morning. “When we got through regional last week it was like a huge burden was lifted from me, and I think the players as well. How embarrassing or tough would that be to not be there? And to have that in back of your mind as a fear, it’s nice to have that behind us.”

ASU is ranked No. 10 nationally by both Golfweek and Golfstat. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Florida State hold down the top three spots with the Sooners topping both rankings. All three of those teams are in the field.

The Sun Devils have played 11 events this spring with those scattered throughout six states. That is more than they usually take part in but since the fall schedule was wiped out by the global health pandemic Thurmond wanted his players to make up for lost time.

It has also given his team the chance to play different types of courses in different climates. ASU has also played against many of the teams in the field this week.

“These guys love playing golf,” Thurmond said. “The hardest thing for a guy that lives and breathes golf is being told he can’t compete in tournaments. Just giving them as many chances to compete and do what they love to do and not be held back. I mean they were held back and held back in so many ways it just felt good to be able to travel and move around and play tournaments. There were times I was thinking maybe we played too much and it was busy and we were tired. Maybe some we didn’t play our best because they were right on top of another in a place maybe we shouldn’t be, but I think it prepared us well.”

[vertical-gallery id=778105951]

The team registered wins at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate in Hawaii and the Goodwin hosted by Pac-12 foe Stanford. The Pac-12 tournament was one of four second-place finishes for ASU. The Sun Devils were runner-up there to rival Arizona, which failed to advance to the NCAAs.

The ASU quintet will consist of sophomores David Puig and Ryggs Johnston, junior Cameron Sisk and seniors Chun An Yu and Mason Andersen.

Puig, a native of La Garriga, Spain, tied for eighth individually at the regional with an 8-under 208. He was named Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year this season and looks forward to his first national championship appearance.

“There are always nerves, always pressure,” he said. “It’s at home. It’s really good to have a lot of fans and support but there are nerves too because you want to play good here at home. That’s a positive thing. That means we care about that. We’re excited about playing well this week.”

Yu comes in with experience under pressure, having finished third individually at the 2019 national championship held in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That matched the second-highest finish by a Sun Devil, the other coming from current PGA pro Jon Rahm in 2016.

“It was definitely a confidence booster for sure, you compete out there at the highest level against the best players,” Yu said of that finish. “It definitely helped my confidence a lot. My game is good right now and I’m ready to go.”

Thurmond jokingly said he wouldn’t mind hotter temperatures and wind this week since those are conditions in which his team is used to playing and he likes the home course advantage.

“There are advantages to hosting,” he said. “We know the course pretty well. It’s not like we’re playing it every day but we have been up here a lot. We’ll have an energy with local people out here watching. But there’s a pressure that comes with hosting too. It’s not all easy. There’s expectations that we’ll be amazing and do everything perfectly. I think the pressure will maybe offset the home course but as the week goes on I think our advantage will get stronger.”

[mm-video type=video id=01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr-ead69a09dd172e0c6418c6d3e6681392.jpg]

Arizona State men’s golf team looks to make mark at home at NCAA Championship

Hosts this week, the Sun Devils are ready to defend home turf at Grayhawk Golf Club.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona State head men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond admits it would have been embarrassing to be hosting a party and then not get an invite. So the pressure was on when his squad competed in the Albuquerque Regional earlier this month.

ASU is hosting the 30-team NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship beginning Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. And yes, the Sun Devils will take part in the festivities, having finished second in that regional behind Texas Tech.

It will be the 56th appearance in the championship for ASU and the 16th in the last 19 years. Only three schools boast more appearances: Oklahoma State (73), Texas (66) and USC (58).

ASU was supposed to host the event for the first of three years in 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the season being canceled, so this week’s event has been in the works for a while.

“For three years all the time and energy that has gone into this tournament. In the back of my mind I’m thinking, ‘Do they realize we have to qualify in regional?’ And it’s never easy. So I couldn’t fully think about the NCAA Championship knowing that,” Thurmond said before his team headed out for a practice round Thursday morning. “When we got through regional last week it was like a huge burden was lifted from me, and I think the players as well. How embarrassing or tough would that be to not be there? And to have that in back of your mind as a fear, it’s nice to have that behind us.”

ASU is ranked No. 10 nationally by both Golfweek and Golfstat. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Florida State hold down the top three spots with the Sooners topping both rankings. All three of those teams are in the field.

The Sun Devils have played 11 events this spring with those scattered throughout six states. That is more than they usually take part in but since the fall schedule was wiped out by the global health pandemic Thurmond wanted his players to make up for lost time.

It has also given his team the chance to play different types of courses in different climates. ASU has also played against many of the teams in the field this week.

“These guys love playing golf,” Thurmond said. “The hardest thing for a guy that lives and breathes golf is being told he can’t compete in tournaments. Just giving them as many chances to compete and do what they love to do and not be held back. I mean they were held back and held back in so many ways it just felt good to be able to travel and move around and play tournaments. There were times I was thinking maybe we played too much and it was busy and we were tired. Maybe some we didn’t play our best because they were right on top of another in a place maybe we shouldn’t be, but I think it prepared us well.”

[vertical-gallery id=778105951]

The team registered wins at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate in Hawaii and the Goodwin hosted by Pac-12 foe Stanford. The Pac-12 tournament was one of four second-place finishes for ASU. The Sun Devils were runner-up there to rival Arizona, which failed to advance to the NCAAs.

The ASU quintet will consist of sophomores David Puig and Ryggs Johnston, junior Cameron Sisk and seniors Chun An Yu and Mason Andersen.

Puig, a native of La Garriga, Spain, tied for eighth individually at the regional with an 8-under 208. He was named Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year this season and looks forward to his first national championship appearance.

“There are always nerves, always pressure,” he said. “It’s at home. It’s really good to have a lot of fans and support but there are nerves too because you want to play good here at home. That’s a positive thing. That means we care about that. We’re excited about playing well this week.”

Yu comes in with experience under pressure, having finished third individually at the 2019 national championship held in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That matched the second-highest finish by a Sun Devil, the other coming from current PGA pro Jon Rahm in 2016.

“It was definitely a confidence booster for sure, you compete out there at the highest level against the best players,” Yu said of that finish. “It definitely helped my confidence a lot. My game is good right now and I’m ready to go.”

Thurmond jokingly said he wouldn’t mind hotter temperatures and wind this week since those are conditions in which his team is used to playing and he likes the home course advantage.

“There are advantages to hosting,” he said. “We know the course pretty well. It’s not like we’re playing it every day but we have been up here a lot. We’ll have an energy with local people out here watching. But there’s a pressure that comes with hosting too. It’s not all easy. There’s expectations that we’ll be amazing and do everything perfectly. I think the pressure will maybe offset the home course but as the week goes on I think our advantage will get stronger.”

[mm-video type=video id=01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr playlist_id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr/01f66pwhan5n8h4q4nfr-ead69a09dd172e0c6418c6d3e6681392.jpg]

Scottsdale, Grayhawk three weeks away from long awaited NCAA Championships

Arizona State golf coach Matt Thurmond said Scottsdale will be the “center of the collegiate golf universe”, at least for the short term.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The long awaited start of a three-year run for the NCAA golf Championships in Arizona is now just three weeks away.

The women are up first at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale from May 21-26 followed by the men from May 28-June 2. The 2022 and 2023 nationals also will be held at Grayhawk, which was to have hosted for the first time in 2020 before all spring NCAA championships were canceled due to the pandemic.

So a process that began in 2017, not long after Matt Thurmond was hired as Arizona State men’s golf coach, finally culminates in what Thurmond said will result in Scottsdale becoming the “center of the collegiate golf universe” at least for the short term.

Staging the championships is a combined effort by Grayhawk, ASU, NCAA, Golf Channel and the Thunderbirds to annually host 24 women’s and 30 men’s teams in stroke and match play for a combined total of 54 days (including practice rounds) over three years.

“We’re the tail end of a very big dog,” Del Cochran, Grayhawk general manager, said Thursday. “When we started this journey, we had no idea how it was going to go. We wondered how everyone would blend together, and it’s been absolutely seamless. We will all be proud of the product.”

Spectators will be allowed—with free admission thanks to a sponsorship—although how many and COVID protocol details have yet to be announced.

For the party to be at its peak requires the ASU teams to advance through NCAA regionals.

[mm-video type=video id=01ez36s14vk9v2ddbv playlist_id=none player_id=01f1jy2metwcg6v9hc image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ez36s14vk9v2ddbv/01ez36s14vk9v2ddbv-b019149a7b21c986f2864d5a24969c28.jpg]

The women must finish in the top six at a regional May 10-12 in Columbus, Ohio. The men will learn which of six May 17-19 regionals they will be assigned to on Wednesday, May 4, and then need a top-five finish to advance.

“It’s a little bit of pressure and motivation,” ASU women’s coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. “I’m just trying to keep them positive, and they are. I’m happy to go to Ohio State (for regional) because the Scarlet course is one of the best in the country. It could be 70 (degrees) one day and it could be 40 the next. I don’t think that will phase our group at all. It’s a separator course, you’re not going to be able to get away with anything and that’s what I want.”

The ASU women were third at Pac-12 Championships behind and host Stanford but played without four-time All-America Olivia Mehaffey due to COVID protocol. Mehaffey will be back for the postseason after first trying to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

ASU’s Linn Grant is ranked No. 4 in Golfweek/Sagarin individual rankings, Ashley Menne 91, Alessandra Fanali 103 and Mehaffey 104. Amanda Linner broke through to finish ninth at Pac-12 Championships.

“Even if Olivia didn’t play last week, we know she’s always ready to go,” said Grant, a sophomore from Sweden. “Without her, we did a good job as a team and kept it together. Fortunately coach Michelle (Estill) and coach Missy have been to Columbus and know the course. Even a score on par will be good. I think that’s to our advantage. Even our fifth player is a really good player.”

The ASU men duked it out with Arizona at the Pac-12 Championships, ending Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California. Arizona won by four strokes and it is tantalizing to image a match-play pairing of the in-state rivals during nationals.

Chun An Yu and Ryggs Johnston tied for fourth individually at the Pac-12 meet and David Puig tied for eighth, a big three if you will that seems to be peaking at the right time.

“The competition is better than ever with all these seniors coming back,” Thurmond said. “Our team is excellent, and we’re getting beat by some teams. The Arizona team that beat us has five seniors. Oklahoma is No. 1 right now, they’re loaded. It’s going to be a great competition (nationals). We’ve got to get here first, but we can handle the pressure and we’ll find a way to get here.”

Johnston said, “We’ve been trending upward lately. We haven’t really brought our best to any tournament yet so in a way I guess that be a good sign. We go (to regional) knowing our best is yet to come hopefully. That’s something to look forward to.”

The ASU teams have something of a home course advantage at Grayhawk given multiple opportunities to play the Raptor course, but more than 30 other men’s and women’s teams also have come to town for a test run on the desert course.

“Oregon and Oklahoma State won national championships when they hosted, but those were all places where nobody was allowed to go play it,” Thurmond said. “ASU to our credit pushed very aggressively to allow anyone and everyone to come play here, which in the past it was the opposite. The host team wouldn’t allow anyone near the course.

“So we gave away a lot of advantage, but we thought it was the best thing for the championship. All these teams have flown in, played a few rounds. They go back and prepare for it. It just adds to the energy around the event.”

[lawrence-related id=778012706,777981687]