Matt Thurmond Hometown: Burlington, Wash. High School: Burlington-Edison Last College: Brigham Young '99 Position: Head Coach Experience: 8th Year

Matt Thurmond is a competitor. Whether it be a ping-pong tournament, which he and his golfers compete in regularly, golfing on the beach or practicing on the links with his players, he is there to win and have fun doing it.

It is Thurmond's fun and hands-on approach to coaching that has guided the Huskies to become one of the premier golf programs in the country in just his first seven years as head coach. Under his instruction, the University of Washington men's program has finished inside the top 10 at the NCAA Championship four out of the past five years. But those accomplishments are not what Thurmond focuses on a day-to-day basis. Instead, he makes sure that his players are comfortable playing and studying at the University of Washington. His player-friendly coaching style is one that quickly acclimates his players to Division I golf and the pressures of Pac-10 play.

"I knew one thing for sure, wherever we went, everybody knew that we had more fun," said 2006 graduate and former player James Lepp. "Everybody was jealous of us."

Lepp won the 2005 NCAA Individual Championship, was one of Thurmond's highest achieving golfers.Thurmond has overseen the most successful stretch run in Washington's history, reaching the NCAA tournament in six of his seven years as coach, and finishing in the top 11 each of those six years. Golf, as in any sport, is always more fun when winning, but Thurmond has a unique combination of success and youth that resonates with players.

"Matt is an incredibly intelligent and innovating coach," Lepp said. "But he's just like one of the players too."

Thurmond has shown his innovation in recruiting during his time at Washington. He is willing to go wherever he finds a solid player, as demonstrated by his signing of Singapore golfer Tze Huang Choo. And the time he spent on recruits in British Columbia has paid off. Nick Taylor, Kevin Spooner and Darren Wallace are all from Canada.

Thurmond was a four-year letterman on the BYU golf team from 1993-99 and was named Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in 1994. Following that, he served as a missionary for his church in Venezuela and then returned home to earn recognition as a WAC Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-American in 1998.

Thurmond, a Burlington, Wash. native, graduated from BYU in 1999 with a degree in English. He is married to two-time WAC champion triple-jumper Kathy Sorenson, who also competed for the Cougars. They have three daughters, Elizabeth, Emily and Hinckley. He was named Washington's head coach in June of 2001 after O.D. Vincent announced he was leaving to pursue a career in professional golf. Thurmond had worked at UW as an assistant coach for one season.

Thurmond's aspirations to continue the Washington tradition extend further than just being one of the top programs in the country, but one that garners the attention of the NCAA golfing world. He has worked hard to keep the tradition of the Husky Invitational alive. Thought of as a player's tournament, the Husky Invite stresses having fun while competing, as shown by the annual pre-tournament ritual of a cross-team ping pong tournament and whiffle ball game.

Thurmond and Gold Mountain's efforts were recognized nationally this year as the Huskies will host the prestigious PING/Golfweek Invitational in September 2010. The tournament will bring at least 10 of the nations top programs together to compete. At just 26, Thurmond became Washington's head coach, where he is achieving his goal of making the NCAA Championship Tournament as a rite of passage for Husky golf. He believes the Huskies can win the national title every year. And this year is no different. In fact, the 2008-09 squad is as strong as he has coached.

Thurmond's teams have established school records for NCAA, Regional and Pac-10 team finishes, highlighted by the 2005 season that saw the Huskies place third at the NCAA Championship after winning the Pac-10 title. Thurmond's 2002 squad won the program's first-ever NCAA Regional crown.

In addition to team accomplishments, Thurmond has mentored many of the top players to ever don purple and gold on the links. The 2005 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, he has coached one NCAA champion, one Pac-10 champion, 11 All-Americans and 14 All-Pac-10 honorees.

Lepp became the first-ever Husky to win an NCAA title, while Erik Olson became the third Husky to win a Pac-10 title in 2005 as well. Thurmond also guided the careers of Husky all-time great Brock Mackenzie - the only four-time All-American in school history. Mackenzie and 2008 graduate Zach Bixler hold the distinction of being two of six NCAA golfers to shoot a 60 in their careers. Both Huskies did so under Thurmond's tutelage.

Thurmond has high expectations for this year's group, as they are led by junior Nick Taylor, who won the 2007 Canadian Men's Amateur title and more recently was runner-up at the 2008 NCAA Championship and the 2008 World Amateur Team Championship. Taylor led the Huskies to the school's fourth-best result (seventh) at the NCAA Championship. In 2007, the Huskies came just three strokes short of making the NCAA Championships, missing the event for the first time in nine seasons.

In 2006, the Huskies followed up their history making 2005 campaign with another strong showing in the postseason. Led by Erik Olson's individual third-place finish, Washington notched a runner-up standing at the Pac-10 Championships - the Huskies' second-straight top-2 finish at the conference tournament.

After a third-place team finish at the NCAA West Regional the Huskies came one round shy of reaching their ultimate goal. UW led the entire field at the NCAA Championships through the first three rounds, but was unable to hold on through the final 18 holes. A ninth-place team finish was still not a disappointment for Thurmond and his squad when it was all said and done. Three Huskies earned All-America honors at season's end -- Olson, Alex Prugh and Lepp.

The 2005 season was a special season. It started at the Pac-10 Championships where Thurmond's squad made a remarkable comeback. In 10th place and trailing by 20 strokes after the first round, Washington rallied to earn its first Pac-10 title since 1988. The comeback was led by Pac-10 medalist Erik Olson, who shot an 8-under 276 to win his first collegiate tournament and become the Huskies' first Pac-10 individual champion since 1988. Olson and teammate Lepp were named first-team All-Pac-10 for their efforts, while Thurmond received Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors.

After placing third at the NCAA West Regional, the Huskies advanced to the NCAA Championships in Owings Mills, Md. There Lepp staged a comeback of his own, rallying from a six-shot deficit with a course-record 7-under 63 to force a playoff with Pepperdine's Michael Putnam. Lepp then sunk a two-foot putt on the third playoff hole to take home NCAA medalist honors. Led by the first team All-American's furious charge, Washingto placed third as a team, the best finish in the program's history.

In 2004, the Huskies placed sixth at the NCAA Championship, the second best finish in Husky history. The 2004 postseason was highlighted by Brock Mackenzie earning first-team All-America honors for the second straight year and freshmen Alex Prugh and Erik Olson being named honorable mention All-Americans.

Prior to that, Thurmond led the UW to a pair of 11th-place finishes at the NCAAs. Over the past seven seasons, Thurmonds teams have amassed 11 tournament championship trophies. Thurmond's players have also had great success playing in the amateur ranks while they were Huskies.

In the summer of 2005, Lepp won the stroke play portion of the U.S. Amateur by four strokes, shooting a 5-under 135 in the 36-hole event. He also helped Canada win the 2005 Copa de las Americas title and won his fourth-straight British Columbia Amateur Championship. Olson helped the USA to victory at the 2005 U.S. vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championships, while Alex Prugh won the Pacific Coast Amateur at Bandon Dunes, as well as the Washington State Amateur.

And Thurmond doesn't stop coaching his golfers after they graduate. He stays in touch with as many as he can to help them with their game and whatever life throws their way.

"Coach Thurmond will always have a role in my life," said Lepp, who is currently playing on the Canadian Professional Tour. "I still talk with him regularly."