Jim Earle - Women's Golf Coach - Central Michigan University Athletics

Photo by: Mary Lewandowski

Jim Earle

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
earle2j@cmich.edu
Phone:
(386) 405-7083

In his three seasons as the Central Michigan golf coach, Jim Earle has set the program on a course for consistent improvement and sustained success.

The proof has come in the results and in the numbers that the Chippewas have produced since Earle took the reins of the program before the 2018-19 season.

In the spring 2021 season, Earle led the Chippewas to a fifth-place finish in the 11-team Mid-American Conference Challenge to open the campaign and then an outstanding third-place finish in the 11-team Cleveland State Nevel Meade Collegiate.

In between, he guided CMU to back-to-back victories in match-play events, first at the North Carolina A&T Aggie Spring Invitational and then at the Battle at Boone Match Play. The Chippewas had never won a match-play event until they went a perfect 3-0 to capture the Aggie Spring Invitational.

Playing with a roster that felt the effects of COVID-19 and injuries, the Chippewas soldiered on, tying the program record with a 291 total in the second round of the MAC Challenge in February and setting program marks in the same event for a 36-hole score (585) and for a 54-hole score (887). The Chippewas shattered the previous 54-hole scoring mark by 14 shots and eclipsed the previous 36-hole standard by nine strokes.

So good were the Chippewas in the MAC Challenge that their first-round 294 total ranks as the third-best 18-hole score in program history and their final-round 302 ties for the fifth best. They would go on to post a second-round 296 at the Nevel Meade Collegiate; that number ranks as the fourth best for an 18-hole round in Chippewa lore.

Despite being shorthanded for much of the season, the Chippewas managed a number of sensational individual performances, including rounds of 71 from Zoe Vartyan and Ashley Goh, and a round of 72 from Vartyan.

Vartyan and Goh are among a group of standout underclassmen on the Chippewa roster. In fact, CMU’s top four scoring averages in 2020-21 came from underclassmen: Vartyan, 76.82; Goh, 77.82; Padgett Chitty, 78.00; and Rachel Kauflin, 78.21. Another underclassman, Claudia Salvador, is expected to return in 2021-22 after sitting out the previous season. Salvador led the Chippewas with a program-record 77.38 stroke average as a freshman in 2019-20.

Those numbers give a strong indication that CMU is indeed a program on the rise and is poised to establish itself as a contender in the MAC as Earle continues to stack strong recruiting class on top of strong recruiting class.

In the 2019-20 season opener, Earle’s Chippewas achieved two major milestones: The program’s first team tournament championship and its first individual tournament champion.

The team title came in the fall opener in mid-September when CMU shot 614 to win the 36-hole Oakland Golden Grizzlies Invitational.

Making the feat all the more remarkable was the fact that the Chippewas won the tourney with a lineup featuring three freshmen. One of those freshmen, Salvador, finished tied for third. The other two newcomers, Chitty and Vartyan, finished tied for fifth. It was the first collegiate event for the trio.

Salvador became the first Chippewa golfer to claim medalist honors in a tournament since the program’s resurrection in 2014-15 when she posted an 8-over-par 221 to win the 54-hole Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodon Fall Invitational in mid-October.

The Chippewas competed in five fall events, posting first-, second- and third-place finishes in three of those events.

The fall also marked the first time the Chippewas hosted an event since the program’s resurrection in 2014-15. Birmingham Country Club rolled out the welcome mat for the first Chippewa Invitational, a 13-team, 36-hole tourney.

Earle led the Chippewas to a slew of firsts and bests in 2018-19, including team records for 18-, 36- and 54-hole scoring totals and five top-five team finishes in 11 stroke-play tournaments.

The Chippewas re-wrote the program record book over a brilliant two-day span at the Fall MAC Preview at Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville, Ind.

It was in that 54-hole event that the Chippewas set then-program records (since tied or eclipsed) for 18-hole (291), 36-hole (594) and 54-hole (901) team scores. Bria Colosky, a senior on that squad, finished second individually, the best showing by a Chippewa in a tournament until Salvador’s victory 11 months later.

Colosky shot 74-70-71 -- 215, setting program records for 36- and 54-hole totals in bringing it home at 1-under, marking the first time a Chippewa has ever finished a tournament below par.

Earle, a St. Louis native, came to CMU after leading both Cal State Monterey Bay (2015-18) and Missouri-St. Louis (2003-15) to unprecedented success.

Earle guided CSMB to four tournament victories in a three-year period and in spring 2018, led the Otters to an NCAA Regional appearance for the second consecutive season. Prior to 2017, the Otters had not been to an NCAA Regional since 2008.

Three times an Otter won a tournament during Earle's tenure, and in 2017 CSMB's Linnea Karlsson qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championships. In 2018, CSMB had three players named an All-American Scholar by the Women's Golf Coaches Association and two Otters earned All-California Collegiate Athletic Association honors.

Earle led UMSL to six consecutive NCAA Regional berths from 2010-15 and five times during that span a Triton qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual. The program was also the recipient of an unprecedented six consecutive NCAA SAAC Sportsmanship Awards during that span.

In 12 seasons at UMSL, Earle coached the Tritons to 41 tournament victories and 28 times a Triton earned medalist honors in a tournament. He coached 19 All-Great Lakes Valley Conference selections and five times during his tenure did UMSL earn the GLVC Sportsmanship Award. In 2010, Earle was named the GLVC Coach of the Year.

Earle, who holds a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, has also served as a golf course manager/tournament coordinator and as a head golf professional at two St. Louis-area courses, Cardinal Creek and Emerald Greens.

Earle and his wife Tracy have one adult son.