Piedmont College Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Peeples has announced the hiring of Susan Martin as the new Head Women’s Golf Coach.
Martin brings national championship experience with her to the links having spent her collegiate career at Division III Methodist University helping the Monarchs to four straight national championships as a team.
“We are extremely fortunate to have found Susan Martin to lead our women’s golf program,” said Peeples of the hire. “Susan has national championship experience both as an individual and with a team. I’m excited for the possibilities that will exist under her leadership, and I am happy that she will be joining the Piedmont family.”
Martin takes over as the first Head Women’s Golf Coach following the departure of Head Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach Michael McMunn. Martin joins JP Kircher on staff who was announced earlier as the new Director of Golf and Head Men’s Golf Coach at Piedmont.
“I want to thank Coach Peeples and President Mellichamp for this opportunity,” said Martin. “I am very honored that they have chosen me to be the Head Women’s Golf Coach at Piedmont College. I am very optimistic about the upcoming year, and I look forward to working with our student-athletes this season. We will continue to achieve excellence on and off the golf course. Go Lions!”
Playing her four years for Methodist University while studying in the institution’s Professional Golf Management program, Martin put together one of the most decorated careers in the program’s history as one of four Monarchs to have taken back-to-back individual national championship titles.
For Martin, the individual national championships came in 2008 and 2009, her sophomore and junior years in the program. The two titles also came in the midst of Methodist’s impressive individual performances with a Monarch winning the individual national championship five straight years capped off by Martin’s back-to-back run in ’08 and ’09.
In four years with the Monarchs, Martin competed in 39 events showing improvement at the highest level dropping her stroke average from 79.18 in her debut season to 77.9 in her final season. For her efforts, Martin was named an All-American in all four years with two 1st team honors, a 2nd team nod, and an Honorable Mention.
Named the nation’s Freshman of the Year in 2007, Martin went on to be named the country’s Player of the Year in Division III in 2010 during her final season as a collegiate player. Additionally, Martin was a four-time All-American Scholar Athlete and a three-time Mason Sykes Award Winner (Athlete of the Year) at Methodist.
Martin was a part of the most dominant run in Division III women’s golf team championship history as the four team titles she helped the Monarchs to were in the midst of 15 straight National Championships for MU (1999-2012). From 1986 to 2012, Methodist won all but two of the national championships handed out to teams missing out only in 1990 and 1997.
Fortunate to have learned from some of the Division III game’s greats, Martin studied under two national championship coaches including Tom Inczauskis who guided the 2009-10 team to a crown, the first of three straight for the coach. Prior, Martin played for Vici Pate who guided MU to seven straight titles including the first three of Martin’s time.
With her collegiate status intact as one of the premier women’s golfers in Division III, Martin turned pro following her graduation from Methodist spending her time on the Symetra Tour and the National Women’s Golf Association Tour (formerly the Suncoast Series) from 2010 to 2014.
Martin boasts instructional experience up the East Coast and into the Midwest with time as a golf shop assistant at Berkeley Hills Country Club and the Country Club of Roswell in Georgia. Additionally, Martin served as an intern and counselor respectively at Twin Orchard Country Club in Long Grove, Illinois and at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Virginia.
Along with her experience in the clubhouse, Martin gained experience working with the Middle Atlantic PGA Section in Stafford, Virginia during the summer of 2009. It was during her time with the MAPGA that Martin was able to gain a full understanding of the operation of an event from the planning of to coordination throughout the tournament.
During her time in the Professional Golf Management program at Methodist working with clubs across the coast, Martin coordinated more than 20 junior golf tournaments while also conducting multiple junior clinics as well. Martin spent time instructing junior golfers in the game focusing on the short game with putting and chipping but also mentoring those same players in their swing.
A native of Norcross, Georgia, Martin attended Norcross High School before moving to earn her undergraduate degree from Methodist in Business Administration with a concentration in Professional Golf Management graduating in 2010. During her time at Methodist, Martin earned four straight USA South Academic All-Conference honors for her work in the classroom.
With the 2016-17 season serving as Martin’s first as the leader of Piedmont women’s golf, the future looks bright for a program which saw four freshmen and a junior on the roster who are all eligible to return the links for PC.
