Chan
Metts enters his fifth season at the helm of WKU
Hilltopper Golf in 2022-23. He was named as the program's seventh head coach on Aug. 6, 2018.
Under Metts, the program has produced a PING Honorable Mention All-American in Billy Tom Sargent as well as multiple GCAA Academic All-Americans in his three-year tenure. Other highlights from Metts’ time on The Hill include NCAA Regional berths for Sargent and teammate Stuart Easton in 2019, a program-best season stroke average of 289.4, and an NCAA Championship appearance for Sargent.
During the 2021-22 year, the Hilltoppers earned one top-10 finish at the Pinetree Intercollegiate in the fall. At the 2022 Conference USA Championship in Texarkana, the team tied for 11th overall. Riley Grindstaff avereaged 73.9 shots per round, leading the team.
In the 2020-21 season, Metts led the team through a global pandemic, competing in a total of eight tournaments, including the Conference USA Championships. The team garnered four top-10 finishes as a squad while individuals tallied seven top-25 finishes.
Metts brought in graduate transfer and Warren County native Christian Tooley, who led the team as a co-captain and season stroke leader at 74.8 shots. Fellow co-captain Tom Bevington was also named the C-USA All-Academic Team.
Linus Lo became the first
Hilltopper, aside from Billy Tom Sargent, to win an individual title since 2015 after claiming the Graeme McDowell Invitational Individual Championship in the
Hilltoppers' first event of the 2019-20 season.
Lo carried that success throughout the season, notching the lowest season stroke average in program history since at least 1994-95, prior to the cancelation of the spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A major highlight of the 2019-20 season came with the opening and dedication of the Phillip
Hatchett Golf Facility on February 21, 2020. More information on the facility can be found
here.
The
Hilltoppers reached new heights in
Metts' first season in 2018-19 as he helped guide two individuals – Sargent and Easton – to NCAA Regional berths in the same season for the first time in program history.
Sargent advanced through regionals and became the first
Hilltopper to ever play in the NCAA Championships, where he tied for 11th and was recognized as a Top 15 national finalist. His 11th-place showing was tied for the 10th-best ever by a Conference USA golfer. In doing so, he outperformed 61 of the 72 top-100 players in the field, including 15 in the top 25.
Sargent and Easton were both named All-C-USA First Team selections under
Metts' guidance, while
Bevington was named to the C-USA All-Academic Team. Sargent won two tournaments in his senior campaign – including Vanderbilt's prestigious Mason Rudolph Championship – to tie the program career wins record with five, and he finished the year ranked as the No. 75 golfer in the nation by
Golfstat. Sargent also notched the lowest single-season stroke average by a WKU individual since at least 1994, prior to Lo's new record in 2019-20.
As a team, the
Hilltoppers finished in the top five in 6 of 10 events in 2018-19, and they finished under par as a team in 5 of 10 events after doing so in 3 of 34 tournaments from 2015-18.
WKU entered the C-USA Championship with a
Golfstat ranking of No. 87 and a No. 3 seed – both the program's highest in many years. The
Hilltoppers finished just two strokes shy of advancing to the match play tournament semifinals.
Metts came to The Hill following two highly successful seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia Southern, during which the 35-year-old Dublin, Ga., native was heavily involved in tournaments, travel, recruiting, practices, schedules and workouts.
Metts’ two seasons on staff at Georgia Southern coincided with a period of tremendous success for the Eagles, a program that has made 13 NCAA Regional appearances since 2001.
Georgia Southern competed in the 2017 NCAA Regionals in Metts’ first season on staff and twice finished second in the Sun Belt Conference Championships in his tenure.
During Metts’ two seasons with the program, six Eagles earned all-conference honors, while Steven Fisk and Jake Storey have each been named Sun Belt Player of the Year.
Prior to arriving at Georgia Southern, Metts spent the 2015-16 campaign as a graduate assistant for the men’s and women’s golf teams at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota.
That followed a seven-year stint working outside of the sport as a juvenile probation officer. While serving in this position, Metts continued to compete as an amateur throughout Georgia.
As a collegiate player, Metts walked on the Georgia College and State University men's golf team in 2005 and earned a scholarship in his senior year. As a junior, Metts played in five tournaments, tying for 20th at the conference tournament and seventh at the regional. On the back of his top-10 region finish, Metts nearly led the Bobcats to a national tournament appearance, missing a bid by one stroke.
Metts and his wife, Whitney, have been married for 10 years.
