Coach for American team for 2009 Palmer Cup
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SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Washington golf coach Matt Thurmond, a counselor in the bishopric of the Mount Si Ward, Bellevue Washington South Stake, has been selected to coach the American team at the 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colo. The annual event where the best collegiate golfers of the U.S. compete against the best of Europe will be played June 3-5.
Thurmond has overseen the most successful run in the University of 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. He was named Washington's head coach in June of 2001 after he had worked at UW as an assistant coach for one season. His 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 NCAA Regional crown. In addition to team accomplishments, Thurmond has mentored many of the school's top players. 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. Over the past seven seasons, Thurmond's teams have amassed 11 tournament championship trophies.
A four-year letterman on the BYU golf team from 1993-99, Thurmond was named Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in 1994. Following that, he served a mission in Venezuela and then returned home to earn recognition as a WAC Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-American in 1998. A Burlington, Wash., native, Thurmond 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.
"I've always taken great pride in putting on a uniform, whether Burlington-Edison High School, BYU Golf, or the University of Washington Men's Golf team which I now coach," said Thurmond. "But to put on a uniform that says "USA" and to represent the finest college golfers in our country will be a new thrill and a new level of pride for me. As cool as it is to be selected as the coach and to work with our finest college golfers, my main focus is winning the event. I am anxious to do whatever possible to squeeze every bit of greatness out of our team to have a very successful Palmer Cup. I hope that the experience will be an extraordinarily memorable one, both on and off the course, for each student-athlete chosen. I will work hard and do everything I can to make it so."
The United States leads the all-time Palmer Cup series 6-5-1.
