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Jan. 26
HARVARD
Since 2015, Naree Song has been the assistant head coach for the Harvard women’s golf team. She is now the head coach. Song is the third coach to lead the team in its history. Kevin Rhoads will continue to coach the men’s golf team. He has been the head coach for 18 years for the women’s team and for 10 years for the men’s team.
Song had a long and successful playing career, and he became one of the best junior golfers in the world very quickly. She was only 14 when she won her first professional tournament, the Thailand Ladies Open. She went on to win three major AJGA titles and was named to the AJGA First Team twice. At the age of 14, she played in her first U.S. Women’s Open and won the low-amateur award.
At age 17, Song went to the University of Florida. After one semester, she turned pro and played on the Symetra and LPGA tours. In 2004, she won an event on the Symetra Tour.
Due to illness and injury, she stopped playing professional golf and went back to school, where she became the assistant women’s golf coach at Rollins College.
December 22, 2022
ARIZONA STATE
Arizona State has said that Missy Farr-Kaye and Matt Thurmond will keep their jobs through the 2027–2028 sports season.
Thurmond was hired as a coach at Arizona State in the summer of 2016 after having done well at Washington. As the spring season starts, the Sun Devils are ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
“Coach Thurmond has done a great job with our alumni, former players, and the golf community. For the first time in 30 years, we have finished in the top five in back-to-back years in the NCAA,” said Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson. “His ability to connect with so many people has a lot to do with the success of the NCAA championships at Grayhawk and our relationship with Golf Channel. When we hired Matt, we got a head coach with a lot of experience, which is clear in the way he leads the other coaches in our department. It is also amazing that he chose to get a master’s degree from ASU while coaching. He not only made it through what the pandemic threw at all of us, he did better than most of us.
Farr-Kaye played golf for the Sun Devils in college, helped coach golf at Arizona State as an assistant coach, and is now the head coach. In 2017, she won her third NCAA national championship as a Sun Devil. She won her first one as a player in 1990, her second as an assistant coach in 2009, and her third as a head coach in 2017. (2017).
“We hired Missy Farr-Kaye, and she went on to win a national championship because she knew the way as a player and an assistant coach. Anderson said, “She is one of the best Sun Devils of all time. Her teams are always in the top 10, she is great with the alumni, and she has won an NCAA title as a player, an assistant coach, and a head coach.
November 14, 2022
LONG BEACH STATE
Rob Murray will be the 12th head coach of the Long Beach State men’s golf team. This was announced by the school. Murray has been an assistant coach at Kansas State for the past six years. He is now moving on to Long Beach State. In the Golfweek/Sagarin college rankings, the Wildcats are currently No. 19.
Ted Kadowaki, who is the Interim Director of Athletics at Long Beach State University, said, “We are thrilled to have Rob as the new Head Men’s Golf Coach.” “We love Rob’s competitive drive and his desire to build a programme of sustained excellence, build relationships with the community, and lead the programme with integrity.”
Murray worked for four years at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, before coming to Kansas State. During his first two years, he was an assistant coach. During those two years, he helped the team win the NJCAA Division I National Championships in 2014 and 2015. He was then made the head coach and named the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year for 2017 because his team came in second place at the National Championship. Ricky Sanders, the 2017 Individual National Champion, went on to win the 2017 Phil Mickelson Award. Murray was his coach.
Murray was born in Colchester, Essex, which is in England. In 2007, he moved to the U.S. to play college basketball at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.
This fall, the team was led by Assistant Coach Reilly Hegarty. This summer, Michael Wilson left to take over at Colorado State, so Reilly Hegarty was put in charge. After the fall season, Long Beach State is ranked No. 65.
