6/25/2014 10:06:00 AM | Men's Golf
ABILENE -- ACU director of athletics Jared Mosley announced Wednesday that he has hired former Vanderbilt head men's head golf coach Tom Shaw to the same position with the Wildcats, effective July 1.
Shaw replaces Mike Campbell, whose contract was not renewed at the end of the 2013-14 season after 11 seasons as the Wildcats' head coach. Before he gets to Abilene in the next couple of weeks, he's schedule to take his NCAA recruiting test and then make a few stops along the recruiting trail as he begins the process of pushing the Wildcats up the Southland Conference ladder.
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"We're thrilled that Tom Shaw has agreed to join the coaching staff and lead our men's golf program," Mosley said. "His resume and qualifications speak for themselves, but after getting a chance to meet him, talk to him on the phone and interview him in person over the last few weeks, it's become apparent that he is the right person at the right time for this job. I know he'll be a great fit with our staff, and I believe the student-athletes on our current team and our golf lettermen will gravitate toward he and his personality immediately."
After seven years as a professional golfers on the Nationwide Tour (now the Web.com Tour) from 1991-98, Shaw joined the coaching staff at South Carolina as an assistant coach. After just one season as the assistant at South Carolina, Shaw was hired as the head coach at Tulane where he served six season as the leader of the Green Wave. He was then hired at Vanderbilt in June 2006 and he coached there through June 2012. Since then he has worked at College Golf Game Plan, which he founded and serves as a consulting service for high school golfers and their families going through the collegiate recruiting process.
But after two seasons away from coaching and leading his own program, Shaw said he's ready to get back into the mix and that ACU is the right place for he and his family.
"I wanted to be very selective as to which university I resumed my coaching career with, and ACU is the perfect fit," Shaw said. "ACU attracts students who are looking for more than the standard college experience. I am inspired to work with coaches and student-athletes who desire to be great, not just good, and those are just the kind of people I found at ACU."
In his six seasons at Vanderbilt, Shaw's Commodores won three team championships, five individual medals and advanced to postseason play three times.
Shaw's first Vanderbilt team (2007) finished fifth at the NCAA West Regional at Arizona State University's Karsten Golf Course, leading many to consider the Commodores as one of the most improved teams in the nation. Seventeen-under after 36 holes, the Commodores shot a 21-under 267 -- the low round of the tournament -- and advanced to the NCAA National Championships, where then-sophomore Jon Curran joined senior Luke List as All-Americans.
The Commodores earned their first tournament championship since 2003 when they won the 2008 Kauai Collegiate Cup in Lihue, Hawai'i. Two Commodores would earn individual medalist honors during the season, with sophomore Hudson Johnson taking first place at Kauai while Curran won the 2008 Seminole Intercollegiate.
That success was repeated in 2009, as the Commodores won the 2009 Seminole Intercollegiate when Ryan Haselden eagled the 54th hole to claim medalist honors. Johnson also took his second win at the 2008 Hummingbird Intercollegiate.
In 2010, his Commodores captured the Samford Intercollegiate title and once again advanced to postseason play. In 2011, Adam Hofmann captured his first individual championship when he won the Hummingbird Intercollegiate.
Shaw's success at Vanderbilt mirrored the outstanding results he saw as Tulane's head coach from 2000-06, where he was the Conference USA and Southeast Region Coach of the Year in 2006.
Shaw helped improve the Green Wave's national ranking every year, but he probably received his greatest challenge when forced to guide the team through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He relocated the team to Southern Methodist University, which entailed enrolling his team in classes and securing practice and playing facilities for the semester.
His background as a Georgia Tech student-athlete and experience at Tulane have led to a stronger emphasis on academic development. His teams at Tulane consistently had a team GPA over 3.0 and the 2006-07 team at Vanderbilt achieved it's first 3.0 GPA in several years.
Shaw was an NCAA Academic All-American in 1990 and 1991 at Georgia Tech, where he captained the nationally ranked Yellow Jacket golf team. He graduated in 1991 with High Honor.
He joined the Nationwide Tour in 1992 and would compete in three Nike Tour Championships, Shaw was regarded as one of the Tour's hardest workers and best short-game specialists.
Shaw left the Tour to become assistant coach at South Carolina in 1999 and in two years he handled a variety of duties including recruiting for the Top 10 program along with scheduling and academic and budget oversight. He was instrumental in the development of two Gamecock All-Americans, Eric Ecker and Kyle Thompson. His work at USC led to the head coaching position at Tulane.
And now he takes over an ACU program that last year finished eighth at the Southland Conference championship tournament in the Wildcats' first season as an NCAA Division I athletics program. ACU has a rich golf legacy, and Shaw said it's his intent to build on that history.
"There's been a great foundation laid at ACU by (former coaches) Vince Jarrett and Mike Campbell, and I just want to build on that," Shaw said. "We're moving forward into a highly competitive arena, and I want student-athletes to come on board knowing they'll get better here each year they're here from a spiritual, academic and athletic sense. And if that happens then by the time they're done they'll be playing for a great team in a great program and they'll have had no regrets about choosing ACU."
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