Chris Hill was namedPacific's head coach on June 12, 2014, taking over the programofficially on July 1.
Hill came to Pacific almost directly from the NCAAChampionships, where he helped lead the University of Houston to a10th place national finish at Prairie Dunes Country Club inHutchinson, Kansas. In 2014, he completed his fourth season withthe Cougars and second season as the associate head coach of themen's team. Hill was honored in April as the recipient of the 2014Jan Strickland Award, presented to the nation's top assistant coachby Taylor Made-Adidas Golf as selected by the Golf CoachesAssociation of America (GCAA). It marked the second straight seasonthat Hill was recognized as one of the nation's top assistantcoaches. He was also honored as one of eight semifinalists in2013.
As Houston's associate head coach, he assisted director ofgolf Jonathan Dismuke in all aspects of the team, includingpractice scheduling, recruiting, scheduling and student-athletedevelopment. He is a member of the National Golf CoachesAssociation (NGCA) and GCAA. In addition to the outstandingperformance at the NCAA Championships in 2013-14, Chris helped theCougars to a third place finish at the American Athletic ConferenceChampionships, and four regular season tournament victories.Houston was ranked in the preseason top 25, and climbed into thetop 10 in the spring in the Golfweek/Sagarin, Golfstat and GolfWorld/Nike Coaches polls all season.
Houston also enjoyed tremendous success during the 2012-13season. As a team, the Cougars finished among the top-five leadersin each of their first eight tournaments with wins at the Lone StarInvitational and the Border Olympics. In late April, Hill helpedlead the Cougars to the Conference USA Championship team andindividual titles for the first time since 2001. With that, theprogram also returned to NCAA Regional play for the secondconsecutive season.
Sophomore Roman Robledo drained a 30-foot birdie on thefinal hole of the final round to clinch the team championship forthe Cougars and the individual title for himself. Robledo andjunior Curtis Reed were named to the All-Conference USA First Team,while junior Wesley McClain earned a place on the Second Team.During the 2011-12 season, Hill helped lead the Cougars back to theNCAA postseason as a team and guided the squad to 11 top-10 teamfinishes, including a share of the Fighting Irish Gridiron Classicchampionship. In the spring season alone, the Cougars earnedtop-three finishes at the Rice Intercollegiate and the BorderOlympics.
Joining the Cougars in August 2010, Hill helped lead theCougars to one of their most successful seasons in recent history.Playing with a lineup that featured four true freshmen and asophomore in his first semester at Houston, the Cougars recordedfive top-five and seven top-10 team finishes throughout the season.Hill joined the Cougar program after a two-year stint as the men'sand women's assistant coach at Houston Baptist. In 2009-10, the HBUwomen's team won the Great West Conference championship by 21strokes. In his first season, he helped lead the men's team to apair of tournament wins, including the inaugural 2009 Great WestConference championship. His work also led to five All-Conferenceperformers during the program's first year of existence. In2008-09, the women's team also finished as the runner-up at the GWCChampionship, and Hill worked closely with two student-athletes whowere named to the NGCA All-American Scholar Team.
Prior to joining Houston Baptist, Hill worked as a certifiedinstructor and director of college placement at the Hank HaneyInternational Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head, S.C., in 2007-08.There he worked under the guidance of legendary instructor HankHaney and mentored many of the nation's top juniorgolfers.
Hill also appeared as a regular on the Golf Channel realityseries School of Golf, which detailed the lives of junior golfersin their efforts to turn professional or play collegiate golf.Following his collegiate playing days, he entered the coachingranks as a graduate assistant at Wayne State, his alma mater, in2006-07. During that time, he also worked as the lead instructorand assistant pro at Western Golf and Country Club in Redford,Mich. Hill was a four-year letterman at Wayne State from 2002-06.There, he helped lead the Warriors to the 2004 Great LakesIntercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and the 2005 GreatLakes Regional No. 3 crown. Hill was a member of the Wayne StateStudent-Athlete Committee from 2002 to 2006 and served as captainof the golf team during the 2005-06 season. Hill received hisbachelor's degree in marketing from Wayne State in 2007.
He and his wife Alyssa have a son, Graham Norman.
