DEMOREST — Piedmont College Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Peeples announced the hiring of Susan Martin as women's golf coach on Friday. 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 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 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.
A native of Norcross, Martin attended Norcross High School before moving on 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.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/6/410058/four-time-national-champion-susan-martin-announced-as-head-womens-golf-coach