GCAA Announces its 2023 Hall of Fame Class
NORMAN, Okla. — The GCAA is pleased to announce its 2023 Hall of Fame class. Steve Card, Josh Gregory, Grier Jones, and Marlin “Cricket” Musch will be officially inducted at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception & Awards Dinner on Monday, December 4 in Las Vegas.
Card spent over 33 years in Western Washington’s athletic department in various leadership roles. As head men’s golf coach from 1993 to 2013, his Vikings 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). Tim Feenstra (2003 NCAA Division II Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award) and Jake Koppenberg (2009 All-Nicklaus Team) received national awards and were among the 29 All-Americans Card coached. For his success, the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, native earned 11 conference coach of the year awards, including six straight from 2008 to 2013 with the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). Card volunteered on multiple regional and national committees while coaching, including the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Committee from 2008 to 2012, serving as National Chair in 2011-12, and the GCAA National Advisory Board as NCAA Division II Director (2005-08) and NCAA Division II Representative At-Large (2008-13). As an administrator, Card spent 23 years as Associate Director of Athletics for Business and Financial Affairs and 10 as Director of Athletics before retiring this past March. Western Washington Athletics won three NCAA Division II National Championships, had five national runner-up finishes, hosted the 2009 NCAA Division II Men’s Golf National Championship, and won the prestigious NCAA Presidents’ Award five times in a six-year span (2017-23) by accomplishing an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of more than 90 percent with Card in direction. Committees he participated in while Director of Athletics included the NCAA Division II Championships Committee (2017-2021, Chair 2020-21), the NCAA Division II Basketball Regional Advisory Committee (2015-17), the NCAA Division II Playing Rules Oversight Panel (2019-20), and the GNAC Management Council.
Gregory began his coaching career as the men’s and women’s golf assistant coach at NC State for two years (2000-2002), where he was involved in individual and group instruction, recruiting, fundraising, and practice preparation. The men recorded its best NCAA Division I Championship finish (sixth) in program history in 2002 and produced four All-Americans, and Gregory assisted in the re-establishment of the women’s golf varsity program in 2000 after a 14-year hiatus when the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) didn’t sponsor the sport. The Memphis, Tenn., native then became the head 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, and 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) and Augusta State’s Dick Wallace Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2010). He was named the head coach of Team USA for the 2003 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup. In the summer of 2011, Gregory was named men’s head golf coach at SMU, where he led the Mustangs to the lowest scoring average and most rounds under par in school history in his first season. Gregory was named the 2012 Arnold Palmer Cup Team USA head coach shortly thereafter. Two All-Americans, including NCAA Individual and U.S. Amateur Champion Bryson Dechambeau, and two GCAA All-America Scholars played for Gregory at SMU. The Mustangs won the inaugural American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship in 2014 and he was named AAC Coach of the Year. Professionally, 17 PGA TOUR victories have come from Gregory’s former players, including 14 as a PGA TOUR coach since leaving college golf. He played four years at SMU (1994-1997), participating in three NCAA Division I Championships and was team co-captain his senior year. He also served on the SMU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Jones was the head 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. As a player at Oklahoma State (1965-68), Jones won the 1966 Kansas State Amateur Championship, Big Eight titles in 1967 and 1968, and the 1968 NCAA Division I Individual National Championship before being named First-Team All-American. The Wichita, Kan., native then began his 14-year career on the PGA TOUR, where he was named the 1969 PGA Rookie of the Year and won three times. Jones taught golf at Willowbend Golf Club in Wichita while playing professionally, and before beginning his collegiate coaching career, he was the head golf professional at Terradyne Country Club in Wichita, where he managed the entire golf operation and was active in conducting tournaments and teaching golf from 1987 to 1992. For his efforts, Jones was named the 1995 Kansas Chapter PGA Teacher of the Year and was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
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. Known to many as “Cricket”, Musch then began his over 30-year career in golf agency as the Executive Director of the Sun Bowl and El Paso Sun Carnival Association, where he ran the Sun Bowl College All-America Golf Classic from 1990 to 1992. The Alamogordo, N.M., native spent over 10 years at PING as their Director of College and Amateur Player Development (1992-1998), including starting the PING/Golfweek Preview with GCAA Hall of Fame member and the late Ron Balicki, and Director of Tournament Player Relations (1998-2003), where he oversaw PING’s endorsement deals with more than 50 golfers worldwide. From 2003 to 2007, Musch was the Director of Business Development and the Player Manager at Gaylord Sports Management in Scottsdale, Ariz., directing the collegiate athletics management division and managing all aspects of player representation. He has since spent over 15 years with Nike, first as their Golf Sports Marketing Director of College and Amateur Development (2007-2021) that included leading relations for the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational (now Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational) and most recently a Consultant for Nike Golf Sports Marketing. Musch played at New Mexico State (1972-76), where he earned Honorable Mention All-American honors in 1975 and was inducted into the New Mexico State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
About GCAA Hall of Fame
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. For more information, please visit www.collegiategolf.com/awards/hall-of-fame.