NORMAN, Okla. – New Mexico men’s golf coach Jake Harrington will be inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Hall of Fame as part of the 2026 class the organization announced Thursday. He will be officially inducted on December 7 at the GCAA Hall of Fame Reception & Awards Dinner at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Harrington is joined in the 2026 class by Auburn head coach Nick Clinard, former Northwestern head coach Pat Goss and Eastern Florida State College head coach Jamie Howell.
“I am very thankful and humbled to be selected as an inductee into the GCAA Hall of Fame,” said Harrington. “Golf has given me so much in my life and being a college coach is a career I never knew I wanted until I became one. The ability to positively affect the lives of hundreds of young men through education and the game I love is what dreams are made of. I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish any of this without the young men that believed enough in me to call me a coach and their parents that trusted me with their most precious gift, and for that, I am forever grateful!”
As he enters his fourth season at New Mexico, Harrington has established the Lobos as on of the top programs in the nation. Over his first three seasons in Albuquerque, he has led UNM to two NCAA Championship appearances, three NCAA Regionals and two top-30 national rankings. The Lobos have won four team titles and seven individual titles during his tenure. The 2023-24 Mountain West Coach of the Year, Harrington has mentored eight All-Mountain West selections, including All-Americans Bastien Amat and Mesa Falleur.
This past season, New Mexico finished the season ranked No. 26 nationally, its highest year-end ranking in over a decade. The Lobos won two events, The Wohali and the ASU Thunderbird Collegiate, while having four individual winners for the first time since 2013-14.
A proven winner, Harrington came to New Mexico in 2023 after 10 years at Little Rock. The Trojans were ranked in the 200s nationally when he took over the program in the fall of 2013, but he built them into a top-50 team by the end of his tenure. Little Rock made three straight NCAA regional appearances from 2021-23, including advancing to the program’s first NCAA Championship in 2021. The Trojans won the 2022 Sun Belt Conference and 2023 Ohio Valley Conference titles, ending the 2021 and 2022 seasons ranked a school-record No. 43 nationally.
Prior to taking over the Little Rock program, Harrington was the head coach at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, where he led the Cougars to National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championships in three of his last four seasons. He turned SMCC into a perennial power in his six years with the Cougars, leading the program to NJCAA Division II National Championships in 2010, 2012 and 2013, as well as a runner-up finish in 2011. Competing in the NJCAA Region I and Arizona Community College Athletic Conference, the Cougars won four region titles and four conference championships among the 41 tournament victories in Harrington’s time as head coach. Harrington was a two-time recipient of the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year award (2010, 2012), a four-time winner of the ACCAC Coach of the Year honor (2009, 2011-13), and was named the GCAA Western United States Coach of the Year in each of his final six seasons (2008-13) at SMCC.
Harrington has been a GCAA member since 2007 and involved in various GCAA and NJCAA committees. At South Mountain, he was the NJCAA Division II Golf Coaches Association Secretary (2010-11), Vice President (2011-12), and President (2012-13). He was on the Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award Selection Committee from 2017 to 2022, chairing the committee in 2022, and the Central PING All-Region Selection Committee from 2014 to 23 while at Little Rock. Internationally, Harrington has coached Team USA in three Toyota Junior World Cups, first in 2013 for a team that featured future World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Team USA was runner-up in 2024 and tied for second under Harrington this past June at Chukyo Golf Club.
A Chandler, Ariz., native, Harrington played one season at South Mountain (2001-02) before transferring to then-NAIA member Holy Names. He was the first golfer to be inducted into the Holy Names University Athletic Hall of Fame in March 2013.
Jake Harrington Named to GCAA 2026 Hall of Fame Class
