Jim Kubinski Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: Springfield (Mass.) College '93

One of the nation's top young golf teachers, Jim Kubinski recently completed his fifth season as the head coach at Notre Dame. Having assumed the post on Jan. 28, 2005, Kubinski is just the sixth head coach in the 80-year history of the Irish men's golf program, inheriting a storied tradition that includes the 1944 NCAA national championship, 19 top-10 NCAA Championship finishes and 33 NCAA postseason appearances.

It didn't take long for Kubinski to make his mark at Notre Dame. In his first tournament at the helm of the Irish, just one month after setting foot on campus, Kubinski helped guide Notre Dame to the championship of the 2005 NOKIA Sugar Bowl Tulane Invitational, winning the title on the first hole of a sudden death playoff against UNC Wilmington. It was the first of two tournament crowns in the 2004-05 season for Notre Dame and made Kubinski the first Irish men's golf coach since 1961 to win the opening event of his career. That season, Rev. Clarence Durbin, C.S.C., led the Irish to a 23.5-6.5 dual-match win over Western Michigan.

That was the start of what has been a solid five-year run for the Notre Dame skipper, who piloted the Irish to consecutive BIG EAST Conference titles in 2005 and 2006, and back-to-back NCAA regional appearances both years. He also has an overall record of 345-368-17 (.484) and 15 wins over teams ranked in the Golfweek Top 25. What's more, Notre Dame has regularly collected votes in the Golf World Top 25 coaches' poll and has risen as high as No. 12 in the Golfweek rankings (Oct. 2, 2005).

Under Kubinski's guidance, Notre Dame has registered 19 top-five finishes, including three tourney titles (two coming in sudden-death playoffs). The Irish also have carded the top four single-season stroke averages in school history, following a school-record pace of 292.97 in 2005-06 with a 295.71 mark in 2006-07 (third all-time), a 295.27 average in 2007-08 (second all-time) and most recently, a 297.97 ratio in 2008-09 (fourth all-time). In addition, Notre Dame has fired nine of the top 12 single-round scores in school history (and 11 of the top 15 tournament totals) since Kubinski arrived on campus, including impressive final-round postseason efforts at the 2005 NCAA Central Regional (282, +2) and the 2006 BIG EAST Championship (school-record 272, -16). The latter score highlighted a 12-stroke comeback victory over Louisville, the second-best rally in the storied history of the Irish men's golf program, and led to Notre Dame's selection as the Golfweek National Team of the Week (May 1, 2006) for the first time in program history.

Individually, Kubinski has produced impressive results with several Irish players in a short span of time. Cole Isban became the first three-time PING All-Midwest Region selection (2005-07) in program history under Kubinski's tutelage, and graduated in May 2007 as the school record holder for single-season stroke average (72.71 in 2006-07), and career stroke average (73.76).

Josh Sandman, a 2008 PING All-Midwest Region selection and two-time all-BIG EAST pick, has taken up where Isban left off. Working with Kubinski, Sandman has been superb, posting a 73.61 career stroke average in 82 rounds (29 tournaments) that puts him on pace to threaten Isban's school record. He also broke new ground in the school's history books, becoming the first Notre Dame golfer ever chosen as an individual qualifier for NCAA regional play, earning a berth in the 2008 NCAA Central Regional.

Thus, it's no wonder Kubinski was nominated for the 2007 GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teachers List, honoring the nation's preeminent golf instructors. Previous winners of the prestigious designation include Hank Haney (current teacher for nine-time PGA Tour Player of the Year Tiger Woods), Butch Harmon (swing coach for PGA Tour great and two-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson) and David Leadbetter (legendary coach for such PGA Tour luminaries and major tournament champions as Ernie Els, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman).

"I'm pleased with the progress we've made as a program," Kubinski said. "We've transitioned from the group of talented and experienced players that I inherited (in 2005), players who accomplished a great deal for our program, to a young group of highly talented players looking forward to making their own history.

"It's truly an exciting time for our program," he added. "Notre Dame is stocked with very hard-working and talented young players. We just need that breakthrough win. As long as we keep working and keep our goal in sight, it will come. We're just enjoying the process right now. We're getting better every day and looking forward to competing against the very best teams in the country. The future is very bright!"

Kubinski was a three-year golf letterman and two-year team captain at Springfield (Mass.) College before graduating in 1993. A two-time all-Northeast 10 Conference selection in 1991 and 1992, he also received the Springfield College Maroon Club Award for academic and athletic achievement in 1992. His playing experience continued on the North Atlantic Tour where he tied for sixth place at the `95 Boston Open, and he also competed in the Carolinas Section PGA.

Born May 4, 1970 in Springfield, Mass., Kubinski and his wife, Sarah, live in Granger, Ind. The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, daughter Kelly Ann, on Sept. 17, 2007.