GCAA Announces Its 2024 Hall of Fame Class
NORMAN, Okla. – The GCAA is pleased to announce its 2024 Hall of Fame class. Ryan Hybl and Matt Thurmond will be officially inducted at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception & Awards Dinner on Tuesday, December 10 at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
After a storied playing career at Georgia, Hybl rejoined 2012 GCAA Hall of Famer Chris Haack as an assistant coach in 2005 to begin his coaching career. In his four seasons on staff (2005-09), the Bulldogs captured 18 team wins, featuring the 2006 and 2009 SEC Championship and 2008 NCAA East Regional, and made the NCAA Championship each year. Hybl coached 18 All-America selections in Athens, including 2006 SEC Player of the Year and 2007 Ben Hogan Award winner Chris Kirk, 12 First Team All-SEC honorees, three players who each competed in two Arnold Palmer Cups, three Walker Cup participants, and three consecutive SEC Freshman of the Year recipients. PGA TOUR winners Kirk, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Kevin Kisner, Harris English, Brendon Todd, and Hudson Swafford encompassed 14 of those 18 All-America honors.
Hybl was hired as head coach at Oklahoma on June 22, 2009, and has since turned the program back into a national powerhouse. In his 15-plus seasons in Norman, the Sooners have recorded the top 14 single-season scoring averages in program history and made 13 continuous NCAA Championship appearances, highlighted by capturing the program’s second national championship in 2017. With top-ranked Oklahoma winning two of their three 2024-25 tournaments so far, Hybl has coached a program-record 46 tournament wins, including three Big 12 Championships (2018, 2022, 2023) and four NCAA Regional titles (2015, 2018, 2022, 2024). Hybl has earned the 2022 Dave Williams National Coach of the Year Award, a 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup Team USA Head Coach selection, and two Big 12 Coach of the Years (2018, 2021) while guiding 30 All-America selections and the 2022 Jack Nicklaus Award honoree (Chris Gotterup) at Oklahoma. The 2021 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award recipient (Bill Allcorn) was on Hybl’s staff, and five former players have received their PGA TOUR cards. Hybl has served on the GCAA National Advisory Board among other national committees.
The 1998 AJGA Player of the Year, Hybl was the top-ranked junior golfer by Golfweek coming out of Madison County High School in 2000. The Colbert, Ga. native earned numerous accolades at Georgia, including two All-America selections, two Southeastern Conference (SEC) team championships, helping Team USA win the 2002 Arnold Palmer Cup, and being named team captain both of his final two years. Academically, Hybl received the Howell Hollis Award three times for having the top GPA on his team before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sports science in 2004. A 2003 GCAA All-America Scholar, Hybl also earned the Joel Eaves and Dick Bestwick Awards for being the male student-athlete with the highest GPA as a senior and graduating senior, respectively, as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Thurmond’s coaching career started as an assistant coach at BYU, his alma mater, for the 1999-2000 season. The Cougars won seven tournaments while being ranked inside the top 10 throughout that season. He then joined 2014 GCAA Hall of Famer O.D. Vincent’s staff at Washington the next season before being named head coach in June 2001 after Vincent departed to pursue professional golf opportunities. The Huskies made the NCAA Championship in each of Thurmond’s first five years at the helm, highlighted by a program-best third-place finish in 2005, the same year James Lepp won the individual national championship. Washington qualified for the NCAA Championship in seven of his final 10 years in Seattle, making appearances in NCAA Championship Match Play three times. While winning a program-record 34 tournaments, which included three Pac-10 Championships (2005, 2009, 2010) and three NCAA Regional titles (2002, 2010, 2012), Thurmond was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2009), the 2009 Arnold Palmer Cup Team USA Head Coach, and the 2009 Golfweek National Coach of the Year. The Huskies earned 25 All-America selections under Thurmond, containing Ben Hogan Award recipients and Mark H. McCormack Medalists Nick Taylor and Chris Williams. Brock Mackenzie and Cheng-Tsung (C. T.) Pan were four-time PING All-Americans, and Pan joined Taylor and Williams in 2013 as Huskies under Thurmond to become the No. 1-ranked world amateur via the World Amateur Golf Rankings® (WAGR®).
Hired as Arizona State’s head coach on July 25, 2016, Thurmond has enjoyed continued regional and national success. He has led the Sun Devils to 24 tournament wins, including the 2024 Pac-12 Championship and consecutive NCAA Regional titles in 2022 and 2023. Arizona State made NCAA Championship Match Play three times in their six NCAA Championship appearances since Thurmond arrived, highlighted by their runner-up finish in 2022, the program’s highest finish at the NCAA Championship since winning it all in 1996. In becoming a four-time West Region Coach of the Year (2018, 2022-2024), two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2019, 2024), a 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup Team USA Head Coach, and the 2021-22 Arizona State Athletics Frank Kush Award recipient, Thurmond has coached 11 different Sun Devils to 18 All-America honors. Three-time PING All-American Josele Ballester became the first player from Spain to win the U.S. Amateur Championship in August, and the 2019 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award recipient (Armen Kirakossian) was on Thurmond’s staff.
Thurmond earned his bachelor’s degree in English from BYU in 1999. A four-year letterwinner for the Cougars, the Burlington, Wash., native was the 1994 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Freshman of the Year, a team captain, and a 1998 GCAA All-America Scholar while playing for 2015 GCAA Hall of Famer Bruce Brockbank.
About GCAA Hall of Fame
In 1980, the GCAA began inducting outstanding men’s college golf coaches into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame. Since then, the hall has grown to include more than 160 members. To be selected to the Hall of Fame, a coach must be nominated by their peers and then selected by the GCAA Hall of Fame Committee. Selection criteria not only include a coach's record on the golf course, but also their contributions to the game, student-athletes, and school. For more information, please visit www.collegiategolf.com/awards/hall-of-fame.