We are extremely excited to welcome former NCAA Division 1 Coach Philip Tate to our team as our new Director of North America. Philip is extremely well connected in the coaching community and will help to grow our network, assist with golf placements and will be leading the company with branching out into the US student market.

Our Founder and Director, Nick Flynn, is thrilled about this new relationship; “North America is a huge market with a lot of potential in so many sports. Being able to add someone with Philip’s knowledge and experience is fantastic addition to our already excellence team. It is an honour to have a former NCAA Division One college coach approach us and want to be involved in our company as he has always appreciated how we look after our athletes and find the perfect college program for them. I think this speaks volumes for College Sports America and how respected we are within the industry and leaves me very excited to have another expert join us.”

To find out more about Philip’s career and achievements, read on below:

Philip was the men’s golf head coach from 2015 to 2021 at UTRGV. Tate transitioned into his current role as Special Assistant to the Director of Athletics in the spring of 2022.

As a coach, Tate guided the program to a pair of top-five finishes in the 2021-22 season as they finished third at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate and fifth at The Big Texan Invitational.

In the classroom, five student-athletes earned Fall AD Honor Roll while posting a team GPA of 3.31.

In 2021, Tate guided the program to their seventh win since the 2018 as they repeated as champions at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational. Tate saw Luca Portelli and Leonardo Novella earn All-WAC honors as Portelli was named to the All-WAC First Team and Novella was named to the All-WAC Second Team.

Tate’s squad also maintained its focus in the classroom as the team went on to earn GCAA Presidents Special Recognition. Tate also saw Portelli, Euan Gill, and Alex Summers earn Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-American Scholars while Portelli, Gill, Summers, Novella, and Rhaasrikanesh Kanavathi all earned Academic All-WAC honors.

In his fifth season in charge of the program, Tate guided the Vaqueros to five top-five finishes, including a pair of wins at the Homewood/Hilton Garden Airport & FGCU Classic and the Colin Montgomerie Invitational. The wins are the fifth and sixth wins for the program since the spring of 2018.

Tate guided Henry Fisher and Tae Itthiratchai to WAC Golfer of the Week awards after Fisher won his first-career tournament at the Gulf Coast Classic while Itthiratchai guided the team with a third place finish at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational. Tate helped Itthiratchai to post a 72.8 stroke average in 2019-20, which ranked him fifth in the WAC.

Tate entered his fourth season at the helm in 2018-19 and helped UTRGV to nine top-five finishes, including a pair of wins at the Brooks Invitational and the LA Tour Intercollegiate. Once again at the Border Olympics, UTRGV posted the program’s second lowest team score of 853 (272, 284, 297) while setting a program record for the lowest team single round score with a 272 in the first round.

Tate guided Tennoshin Ogawa and Alvaro Hernandez to WAC Golfer of the Week honors while guiding Hernandez and Pedro Lamadrid to All-WAC Honors with Hernandez finishing in fifth at the WAC Championship.

Hernandez and Lamadrid finished in the top-10 in the WAC in stroke average with Hernandez (71.5) finishing with the second lowest and Lamadrid finishing with the eighth lowest.

Tate helped the team to a 289.6 team scoring average while helping the team climb to 104 in the Golf Stat Rankings.

In 2017-18, Tate guided the squad through one of the best seasons in program history. The team recorded a pair of wins at the Atchafalaya Intercollegiate and the Big Texan Invitational, which coincided with the team’s run of six straight top-five finishes. At the Border Olympics, the team posted the program’s second lowest team score of 856 (279, 297, 280) with the program’s fifth lowest team single round score of 279 in the first round.

Tate helped the team earn four WAC Golfer of the Week honors and guided Alvaro Hernandez and Pedro Lamadrid to Second Team All-WAC honors with Lamadrid finishing tied for second at the WAC Championship.

In his second season, Tate led the team to four-top five finishes throughout the 2016-17 season. He guided the team to a season best second place finish at the Roadrunner Invitational. Tate also guided the team to a fifth place finish at the Price’s “Give ‘Em Five” Invitational where they used a second round 285 en route to a season bets three-round score of 863, which is the fourth lowest team score in program history.

Under Tate’s tutelage, senior Casto Gomez-Ruiz earned Second Team All-WAC honors after finishing in 10thplace at the WAC Championship and finishing the spring with a 73.6 stroke average. He helped the team lower their team score to a 295.5 throughout the fall and the spring.

In his first season at UTRGV, Tate guided the team to three top-10 finishes, including a second place finish at the HBU Husky Invitational, where they posted a score of 873, the seventh lowest three-round score in program history

The team used a second round 283, the ninth lowest single round team score in program history, en route to a three-round score of 873, their lowest team score of the season. In that second round, Tate guided freshman Andres Gonzalez to a 65, which tied the lowest single round score in program history, and freshman Pedro Lamadrid to a 67, which is the 10th lowest single round in program history.

Tate spent the last two years at St. Thomas where he led the men’s team to multiple top-five finishes. Last season, he guided the men’s team to a second place finish at the UTB Invitational and a fifth place finish at the NAIA Contender Tournament. He also guided Richard Le to the NAIA National Championship as an individual.

In 2014, Tate guided the men’s team to a Red River Athletic Conference championship and then they followed with a 17th place finish at the NAIA Men’s National Championship. That year he also guided a pair of men’s golfers to the Red River Athletic Conference All-Tournament Team.

Prior to his time at St. Thomas, Tate was an assistant coach at Texas State University during the 2012-13 season and spent some time as one of the boy’s and girl’s golf coach at Trinity Valley School. Tate spent time as the Assistant Golf Professional at Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth where he was able to gain experience coaching young athletes.

Tate also has a vast background as a golfer. He was a four-year letterman at Texas Tech University, where he was a two-time All-American Scholar and was a member of the 1996 Southwest Conference Championship team. He competed in 32 events during his time at Texas Tech.

Tate also competed professionally on the North Atlantic/Tight Lies Tour for four years.