UCA Director of Athletics Brad Teague announced that starting July 1, Austin Eoff will be the new UCA men’s golf coach. Eoff is originally from Benton, Ark.

According to ucasports.com, Eoff  “comes to UCA from a stint as assistant men’s golf coach at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.”

“Eoff, a former ASGA (Arkansas State Golf Association) amateur champion, was a four-time All Big Ten selection while playing for the Boilermakers,” according to ucasports.com. “He played in four NCAA Regionals and three NCAA Championships and is the career stroke average leader at Purdue. Eoff was also a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.”

Eoff plans to bring transformations and more recruiting to the current men’s golf team at UCA.

Eoff explained that the current men’s golf team has “some good foundations there. I think the support is great. Dr. Teague has been awesome to work with. He really cares about golf.”

Eoff said that one main tactic of a great team is recruiting. Eoff said, “recruiting is really important, you know, my recruiting and scheduling are the two things I’ve been working on since I got the job. So just trying to use connections I have from coaching to other power five schools and trying to improve the schedule a little bit. It’s tough this late in the year but I’ve been able to change up a few things.”

“We have some good guys on the team right now,” Eoff said. “And we have four or five new guys coming in this fall.”

When his playing career ended, Eoff was interested in coaching the sport that he loved. Eoff served as an assistant coach at Rutgers from July 2017 to August 2018. 

Once he returned to Purdue, “Eoff coached 19 academic All-Big Ten selection, four PING Midwest All-Region selections, six GCAA All-America Scholars, seven All-Big Ten selections and one honorable mention All-Americans. The Boilermakers finished second at the 2019 Big Ten championships and finished the 2022 season ranked No. 26 in the nation,” according to ucasports.com.

In 2015 and 2016, Eoff won the “ASGA amateur championships at Country Club of Little Rock and Hot Springs Country Club, respectively. He was also named the 2016 ASGA Player of the Year,” according to ucasports.com.

Eoff said that his “main strategy is that I’m a player’s coach and I like to play with the guys and I harp a lot on the mental side and course management.”

“I think with golf, it’s such a mental sport, right?” Eoff said. “A lot of it can just be managing those emotions and the mental side of the game like obviously, our guys have things they need to improve on. I think that if you’re comfortable, you’re in the right state of mind. You could do a lot of good things, but as soon as you start, you know, maybe you’re not confident and then things kind of start going everywhere.”

Eoff said that for the men’s golf team, “Goal-wise, I mean, obviously I want to win. I mean, if I’m talking big picture, I want to win the ACC championship.”

Senior UCA golf player Blaine Calhoon said, “I am looking forward to him leading our team and helping us individually become better golfers and people,” Calhoon said. “I am hoping that he can turn our team around and help us start winning. That’s what I want and I’m sure the rest of the team wants, is to win.”