Why Arizona State's men's golf coach Matt Thurmond earned a master's degree from ASU

When he goes on vacation, Matt Thurmond still thinks about golf and his responsibilities as Arizona State's head men's golf coach.

But in mid-October, he had to make an exception to this habit. While the Sun Devils participated in the Isleworth Invitational, Thurmond was halfway around the world in Nairobi, Kenya for his Global Field Seminar at ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.

“I don’t really leave my work ever, but on that Kenya trip, I totally checked out,” Thurmond said. “I had to be 100% present with my group at school and it was the first time, probably since I’ve ever been coaching, that I didn’t even think about it.”

His exploration of the business climate and culture in the Kenyan capital involved a meeting with Rachel Ruto, the wife of Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, interactions with three chief executive officers and visits to companies and organizations.

Once the seminar concluded, Thurmond flew from East Africa to Orlando, Florida to join the Sun Devils following the event’s first round. Thurmond continued balancing his coaching duties and studies for five more months until his graduation from Thunderbird with a Master of Applied Leadership and Management degree three weeks ago.

“I watched him go through the two-year program while also still being the head coach at ASU and that’s a lot to take on for any person,” associate head coach Armen Kirakossian said. “Matt’s a special person and really has the capacity to do a lot, but even for him, that was a lot… I was really proud of him.”

Spending more than two decades as a college golf coach made the Brigham Young University alumnus want to earn a graduate degree. He expected to return to school, but always wondered when it would happen.

Then, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Thurmond wanted to use education to become a better coach, so he chose the program at Thunderbird because it offered opportunities to learn about topics including business, strategy, negotiation and cross-cultural communication.

ASU’s head coach believes the lessons he learned apply to various aspects of his current role, including the worldwide recruitment of golfers.

“When COVID came and we got shut down, I was frustrated by that and I was unhappy about that,” Thurmond said. “I’m like, ‘I am not letting decisions of others stop me. I am going to take this into my own hands and I’m going to go make sure I’m still progressing and advancing during this time when a lot of people, frankly, are sitting around.’”

Thurmond wasn’t the only person associated with his golf team to go back to school at ASU. His wife earned a Master of Education degree in Elementary Education from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, while the wife of Kirakossian received her Master of Legal Studies from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Even though he showed up to the office each day and attended every practice, Thurmond’s educational responsibilities – from reading articles and writing assignments to meeting with fellow students and preparing for quizzes – forced him to make changes in his daily routine.

His study schedule sometimes enabled him to arrive at the facility later than usual in the morning and not text recruits on certain nights.

While Thurmond acknowledges that there were times “where my concentration wasn’t as good as it should’ve been,” staying closely involved with the team while pursuing his master’s made an impression on his players, who are also in the process of earning degrees from ASU.

“That’s just ‘Thurms for you,” graduate student Mason Andersen said. “The guy is just a world-class leader and for him to go do something like that while coaching 10 of us dingleberries is pretty special. It’s a lot to handle and if anybody can handle it, it’s him.”

When asked if his coach ever reached out for help on assignments, Andersen commented that “if anything, it’s probably the other way around.”

Yet the Sun Devils’ head coach did call somebody for one of his business-related projects on wiring money from the United States to areas including Central America. He spoke with Kirakossian, who has experience transferring money between the U.S. and the region since his wife’s family is from Guatemala.

Thurmond acknowledged that “there’s no way I could have done this if I didn’t have Armen,” who has been at ASU for five years. He trusted Kirakossian to handle any aspects of his role, a responsibility that the Sun Devils’ associate head coach didn’t take lightly.

“You’re rarely going to have the situation where your head coach has to leave town to go complete something he’s working on and to see, ‘Can you do it?’” Kirakossian said. “And so, I had that opportunity. I think that was pretty cool and really helped me develop some more confidence in myself.”

One of his functions included taking ASU to the Isleworth Invitational and coaching the practice round and first 18 holes while Thurmond was in Kenya. Kirakossian made the most of his circumstances by helping the Sun Devils race out to an 11-stroke lead on the opening day of the tournament. ASU ended up winning the event by two strokes, and Thurmond was in attendance for the final two rounds.

This wasn’t the only time that golf tournaments and education intersected for Thurmond.

During last year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship, he was tasked with crafting a paper on the strategy of Wal-Mart while coaching the Sun Devils, who earned the top seed in match play and fell to No. 4 Oklahoma in the national semifinals.

“That was tough,” Thurmond said.

This week, ASU’s sixth-year head coach is back in a similar situation and has another difficult assignment ahead: lead the Sun Devils to their third overall national championship and first since 1996.

But this time, he doesn’t have to write anything. Instead, Thurmond is a proud graduate of the institution he is hoping to lead to glory.

“The best part was just honestly having my guys know that I was doing exactly what they’re doing and being able to tell recruits the same too,” Thurmond said, “I know exactly how it works at ASU. I know how admissions is. I know how finals week goes. I know all the different technology (and) news online (and) how it all works.

“I can speak their language now.”

ASU heads to match play as Sisk makes program history

Even though the Sun Devils are hosting the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, Thurmond knows his players feel pressure.

Pressure to perform. Pressure to bring a title back to Tempe.

Yet they showed up when it mattered most, shooting a combined nine-over-par in the fourth round to book a spot in the top eight and a trip to match play.

"I'm smiling a lot right now," Thurmond said. "We're playing match play again and we got a shot at the national championship and it starts tomorrow morning. I can't wait."

ASU shot a combined +28 over its first four rounds, good for seventh place and a matchup against No. 2 Oklahoma, who finished +14. The Sooners defeated the Sun Devils in last year's national semifinals.

Two ASU golfers — senior Cameron Sisk and junior David Puig -- placed in the top 15, tied for fifth (+1) and 11th (+5), respectively.

Sisk, who finished tied for eighth last year, is now the third-ever ASU golfer and first since Todd Demsey to finish in the top 10 of the NCAA Championship's individual standings in back-to-back years. Demsey achieved his feat in 1993-94, while Phil Mickelson did the same in four consecutive seasons from 1989-92.

"It's awesome to see my name amongst the best to play here, so it's an honor," Sisk said.

Thurmond called the Raptor Course at Grayhawk Golf Club "perfect" for Sisk because of his ability to control shot distances and hit it in the fairway.

"Putting your ball in the correct places off the tee and into the greens and just being able to do that over and over and over again without losing patience is a big reason why I played so well this week," said Sisk, who shot even-at-par on Monday.

ASU will participate in one of four quarterfinal matches tomorrow for a spot in the final four. The other contests are No. 1 Vanderbilt vs. No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 3 North Carolina vs. No. 6 Pepperdine and No. 4 Texas vs. No. 5 Oklahoma State.

Even though Sisk was the only Sun Devil to shoot even or under-par today, his teammates are ready for the championship chase. Each of the six ASU players who have played Grayhawk this week registered at least one birdie, while Puig and freshman Preston Summerhays earned under-par scores in Scottsdale.

"Everybody is getting more prepared for what we want," Puig said. "We're going to bring it tomorrow and try to beat everybody."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why men's golf coach Matt Thurmond earned a master's degree from ASU