Jim Garren - Assistant Coach - Men's Golf Coaches

Jim Garren

Title:
Assistant Coach

Jim Garren concludes his third season as the assistant coach for the Oklahoma men’s golf program after Ryan Hybl added him to the staff on Aug. 15, 2014.

In his first season at OU, Garren helped lead the Sooners to a 20-stroke victory at the NCAA San Diego Regional and their fifth straight NCAA Championships appearance. In fact, OU is one of just five teams to reach the national tournament in each of the past five years, joining Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and USC.

Garren then helped the Sooners build their national profile when the 2015-16 squad advanced to match play competition at the NCAA tournament, marking the first time in program history the Sooners had done so.

The Sooners built on this success, returning to match play Garren’s third season and earning the 2017 NCAA title with a 3-1-1 victory over Oregon in the final match.

A pair of Sooners in Michael Gellerman and Grant Hirschman received All-America recognition in Garren’s first season, being named third team and honorable mention, respectively. The following year, Max McGreevy earned a third-team All-America honor. Following the 2017 title, McGreevy, Hirschman, Brad Dalke and Blaine Hale earned honorable mention All-America accolades.

Garren came to OU after a one-year stint as the assistant coach at the University of New Mexico. Previously, Garren spent five seasons as assistant men’s golf coach and director of recruiting at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“OU is an outstanding place. Athletically, OU is a championship-caliber athletics program across the board,” Garren said. “Every team at Oklahoma expects to be a championship-caliber team, and that is how the administration feels it should be. That is a welcome challenge for me, and that is the type of department for which I want to work.”

Garren shared that he looks forward to being a part of the continued improvement of the OU men’s golf program.

“On the golf side, it is impressive to look at what Ryan has done in his tenure,” Garren explained. “When he took over, OU was pretty far down, and since then, he has made it a contender. He has been here five years, and the change has been amazing. I look forward to working with Ryan and taking the Sooners from being a championship contender to the very top level of golf.”

The Garren File
Hometown	Cartersville, Ga.
College	Kennesaw State, 2008

Coaching History

2014-present - Oklahoma Assistant Coach

2013-14 - New Mexico Assistant Coach

2008-13 - Southern Mississippi Assistant Coach

During the 2013-14 season, Garren helped New Mexico to four tournament wins, including a Mountain West championship. The Lobos produced a pair of PING All-West Region and All-Mountain West selections in juniors Gavin Green and Victor Perez under Garren’s tutelage. Green was also named a second-team All-American, MWC Player of the Year and individual champion and won the Western Refining All-American Classic. New Mexico also had three Academic All-America Scholars.

While Garren was at Southern Mississippi, the Golden Eagles established five team records. Southern Mississippi also produced four Academic All-America Scholars under Garren after having just two prior to his arrival, two Academic All-Conference selections, one first-team All-Conference USA selection (Paul Apyan in 2010), one second-team All-CUSA selection in Derek Plucienksi (2011) and three Conference USA Players of the Week.

As a golfer, Garren was a member of the Wallace State Junior College men’s golf team in 2003. While at Wallace State, he helped lead the team to a third-place ranking in NSCAA Division I. Garren then transferred to Kennesaw State, where he earned his degree in Sports Management in 2008.

The Cartersville, Ga., native was a three-time Georgia High School State Champion at Cartersville High School. He was a two-time qualifier for the Atlanta Open and also earned alternate status through qualifying for the 2005 U.S. Open.