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.