Beginning his second season as the Graduate Assistant Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach at Piedmont is Matt Kelly, a former standout at NCAA Division III member institution Birmingham Southern College. Kelly recently completed a four-year playing career with the Alabama school before heading to Demorest to begin his coaching career.
A native of Atlanta, GA, Kelly competed in 36 intercollegiate events for BSC Head Coach Jason Buha highlighted by a pair of individual 3rd place finishes. One of those top 3 finishes came at the 2010 Montevallo Intercollegiate Invitational where Kelly tied two other golfers with a 144 total score (73-71) shooting two over par in the tourney to land a pair of strokes behind the event’s individual leader.
The other top 3 individual finish for Kelly came in one of his first intercollegiate events as he carried a 36-hole total of 75-72—147 at the Alabama State University Fall Golf Classic held at Lagoon Park on September 8, 2008. Kelly’s individual finish helped propel his BSC team to the tourney title as well as the squad finished 11 strokes ahead of a field that included several Division I and NAIA squads.
During the spring of 2010 and fall of 2011, Kelly also served as a teaching assistant for a course in golf at BSC under Panthers coach Duane Reboul. While assisting with the course, Kelly provided instruction to students on every aspect of the game including technique, etiquette, and equipment.
For his efforts with the Panthers, Kelly was named the team’s Most Valuable Player in 2010-11 and was also a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll in 2010 and 2012. Kelly turned pro August 1st, 2013 ending his seven-year amateur career and currently competes on the Peach State Professional Tour as well as the Emerald Coast Pro Golf Tour.
Working under Oglethorpe University Assistant Coach David Potts, Kelly spent the summer of 2012 as an assistant junior golf Instructor at the Country Club of the South where he assisted with the instruction of technique for clinics and camps as well as provided private instruction. He carries professional memberships in both the Golf Coaches Association of America and the Women's Golf Coaches Association.
Kelly’s effect on recruiting at Piedmont has already taken shape and should come naturally to a golfer who traveled the links throughout Georgia having grown up in the Peach State. Before enrolling at Birmingham Southern, Kelly graduated from the prestigious Woodward Academy in 2008 after earning the school’s McKay Award for outstanding leadership as the school’s Student Government President.
Having graduated from Birmingham Southern with a Bachelor of Science in Economics in the spring of 2012, Kelly will pursue his Master of Business Administration from the graduate school at Piedmont while serving as the Graduate Assistant Coach for both the men’s and women’s golf programs at PC.
