Golden Eagle Coaching Staff
Head Coach Craig King Third season
All-OVC honors (1981) Three-time tournament medalist
Craig King is in his third season as head coach of the men’s golf team at Tennessee Tech in 2010-11. King, 52, played for Tech from 1979 to 1981, graduated from TTU in 1982, has been a PGA member since 1987, and played and worked in the golf business in New York, Arizona, Florida and Tennessee. He played his college golf at Tennessee Tech under legendary coach Bobby Nichols, and returns to his alma mater looking to continue the traditions and legacies of his former coach. Craig King has been a familiar name in the Cookeville golfing community from the time he was a teenager. He was a three-year letterman under coach Ken Honea at Cookeville High School and was a two-time all-district selection for the Cavaliers, winning medalist honors at the district tournament as a senior. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Florida where he was a member of the Gator’s freshman golf team for one semester before transferring to Tech in January 1978 and joining the Golden Eagle squad. While King sat out one year due to transfer rules, the Tech golf team underwent a transition, with M.P. Quillen taking over the coaching duties for one year before former Golden Eagle standout Bobby Nichols was named head coach. King played three seasons for the Golden Eagles under Nichols’ guidance before graduating in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He earned all-OVC honors as a junior in 1981, finishing third overall at the conference championship. He was medalist in three tournaments in a row in 1981, and ranks second in Tech history for most career medalist honors. King turned professional following graduation and played on pro tours in Florida and Arizona, and spent four years as an assistant golf pro at The Concord Resort in Kiamesha Lake, New York, under TTU Hall of Fame member, Hubert Smith. He was in Arizona from 1984 to 1989 as assistant golf pro at Desert Highland Golf Club and Superstition Springs Golf Club, then became the head golf pro at Windstone Golf Club in Ringgold, Ga., in 1989.
In 1993, he returned to Cookeville , and spent a year designing and constructing CK’s Golf Center, which was a popular par three golf course from 1995 to 1999. Since 2000, King has worked as an administrator at the Cookeville Regional Medical Center. “We are pleased and honored that Craig King is our new men’s golf head coach,” said Mark Wilson, Tech Director of Athletics, upon the naming of King. “I know that he will build upon the great foundation and tradition that Bobby Nichols established, and we will have a championship level program under coach King, both academically and athletically.”
TENNESSEE TECH GOLF GUIDE / 2010-11
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