My Story

Sam Puryear played collegiately at  Tennessee State University before beginning his career in the golf profession in 1998 as the Executive Director of the East Lake Junior Golf Academy in Atlanta, Ga. From 1998-2006, he increased enrollment from 150 to 1,000 students.

From East Lake Junior Golf Academy, Puryear moved to the collegiate coaching ranks as the first full-time men’s assistant golf coach at Stanford University in 2006. During his tenure the Cardinals won the 2007 NCAA Division I National Championship, two PAC-10 championships, and two NCAA West Regional Championships.

Following the 2007 season Puryear was named men’s golf head coach at Michigan State University. During his time in Lansing the Spartans won the NCAA East Region title as well as the Big Ten Championship title while Puryear received coach ofthe year nominations.

Puryear returned home to North Carolina in 2009 to lead the golf  program at Queens University in Charlotte. The women’s program won back-to-back conference championships in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, the only two conference titles in the university’s history. Puryear also led the men to a conference title during the 2012-2013 season.  In 2014 Puryear received the honor of South Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year.

Why did you join SPORTMATCH?

I joined SportMatch because I saw an opportunity to positively affect lives through the game of golf.