CLARKSVILLE, TN – After leading her alma mater to its first-ever women’s golf conference championship, Austin Peay State University head women’s golf coach Jessica Combs has agreed to a contract extension through the 2025 season, Vice President and Director of Athletics Gerald Harrison announced Tuesday.
“We are thrilled that Coach Combs is staying home in Stacheville,” said Harrison. “Since we hired Jessica, I have watched her build a top-notch women’s golf program and lead Austin Peay to its first-ever conference championship. Her teams are a model of the ‘Total Gov Concept’ with extraordinary success both on the course and in the classroom, and she is absolutely the right person to lead this program into the ASUN Conference.”
A three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and two-time individual medalist for the Govs, Combs – then Jessica Cathey – is the sixth head coach in program history.
2021-22 season
Last season Combs picked up her first tournament title as a head coach when the Governors won the Butler Fall Invitational by two strokes at Highland Country Club in Indianapolis, Indiana. The win marked the Governors first team title in a multi-team event since the 2018 Town & Country Invitational title and was the first time Austin Peay had won a three-round event in program history. To cap off the fall, the Govs also ran away with Tennessee State’s Town & Country Invitational, beating second-place Belmont by 18 strokes at McCabe Golf Course.
In the spring, Combs helped Taylor Dedmen win the individual title at Southern Illinois’ Diane Daugherty Invite, marking the first individual tournament victory by a Governor since 2018. Dedmen’s win was also just the third three-round tournament victory by an individual in program history since digital record-keeping began.
With Combs’ tutelage, Erica Scutt, Shelby Darnell, and Dedmen were all named to the All-OVC team with Scutt and fellow freshman Kaley Campbell also receiving All-OVC Newcomer honors. After leading the Governors to their first-ever OVC title with an eight-shot comeback in the final round of the tournament, Combs was named the OVC Coach of the Year, and Scutt was named the OVC Freshman of the year, with Scutt and Dedmen also receiving OVC All-Tournament Team recognition.
Off the course, Comb’s team led the Austin Peay athletics department with a 3.833 grade-point average during the spring 2022 semester. The Governors also matched the program record with five golfers earning Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholar honors during the 2021-22 season. In Comb’s three years at the helm, ten golfers have received WGCA All-American Scholar honors.