Expectations are high for Matt Thurmond as he takes over the prestigious ASU men's golf program.
With 16 years of coaching experience at the University of Washington and Brigham Young University, Thurmond was looking for a new challenge when he accepted the offer from ASU this summer.
"I love unpredictability, I love change, and I love not knowing what's ahead; and being able to create that for myself," Thurmond said. "In fact, I feel uncomfortable when I don't have that."
The Burlington, Washington native began his golf obsession at the age of 5 when his mother took him to the local course. Thurmond took his first golf lesson at the age of 7 with iconic golf instructor Carl Welty.
"I was a solid junior golfer, and I went to play for my high school team," Thurmond said. "We won state every year and that's where my team experience started."
Fast forward a couple of years and Thurmond's passion for golf evolved into a scholarship for the BYU men's team from 1993-94 during his freshman year, and picking back up in 1996-1998 in his final two years of competition. Thurmond missed two seasons due to a missionary trip required by BYU.
"ASU has always been an amazing program," Thurmond said. "When I was a high school kid and college player, it was all the 90's. Every kid in the country and every kid in the world wanted to be an ASU golfer.
"They were the team, and so that's kind of how I've always seen ASU. When the opportunity was presented to me, knowing it would probably be one chance in my life, I really felt like it was the perfect fit."
According to colleagues of Thurmond's, his work ethic and perspective is on a completely different level than most.
University of Utah men's golf coach Garrett Clegg worked as Thurmond's assistant coach at UW from 2007 - 2011.
"Matt is relentless," Clegg said. "He's pretty amazing at all that he does. He has different skills than most people. A lot of the time when you use the word 'manipulate,' it has a negative connotation, but he's just able to get the most out of people and help them."
According to Clegg, Thurmond preaches the philosophy of being your own individual and placing particular focus on what you're good at.
"We all have different strengths," Clegg said. "I can't be Matt, Matt can't be me. So figure out what you're good at and be great at that."
Clegg isn't the only former assistant of Thurmond's to lead a Pac-12 golf program.
Jon Reehoorn, a former assistant of Thurmond's at UW and a childhood family friend from Burlington, is the head men's golf coach at Oregon State University.
"If you look at some of his teams he had at Washington, especially the last few years, he's always had the superstars," Reehorn said. "But his guys that were maybe a 4 or 5 guy and weren't really highly recruited at all ... he always seemed to get the most out of (them)."
After the departure of the best amateur player in the world in former ASU golfer John Rahm, and a stellar performance by ASU senior Jared du Toit in the RBC Canadian Open this summer, Thurmond will have the goal of getting the most out of every player on the Sun Devils' 10-man roster.
"He just has a way with his guys ... they know that he truly cares about them," Reehorn said. "His players really enjoy playing for him because they know he has super high expectations.
"He's giving them everything he's got everyday and in return his players want to give it back to him."
Reach the reporter at thandlan@asu.edu or follow @Tyler_Handlan on Twitter.
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