Golf Coaching Staff
- Head Golf Coach Jack Jensen
Jack Jensen is in his school-record 31st season as Guilford's golf coach. He has guided 25 teams into national tournaments, including the 2005 and 2002 units that won the NCAA Division III title and the 1989 team that won the NAIA crown. Jensen earned national coach of the year recognition after all three championship seasons. He coached a team of collegiate all-stars in July 2003 in the Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championships.
In addition to three national titles, Guilford has four second-place efforts at national golf tournaments under Jensen’s guidance, including a second-place finish at the 2001 Division III Championship. For his efforts, Jensen received the first of his two Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Division III District 3 Coach of the Year Awards. (He also won the prize in 2005.) The Quakers took second at the NAIA National Championships in 1985, 1986 and 1987.
In the 2007 NCAA Golf Championship, Guilford finished seventh and Joseph Poplin '07, who had the lowest stroke average in Division III (73.00), was named PING First Team All-American. He is Guilford's 14th two-time golf All-American.
Under Jensen’s direction, 23 Guilford students have received 35 performance and 11 academic All-America honors. Guilford’s Lee Porter '89, a two-time All-American and 1988 World University Games gold medalist, spent six years on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour and also played on the Nationwide Tour. Bill Brooks '83 and Rob Odom '87 were the NAIA Tournament medalists in 1983 and 1986, respectively. Three-time All-American Chris Haarlow ‘91 qualified for the 1994 U.S. Open.
Jensen joined Guilford’s athletics staff as an assistant basketball coach in 1965 and compiled a 386-392 overall record as the Quakers’ men’s basketball coach from 1970-99. He coached future National Basketball Association (NBA) players Bob Kauffman '68, M.L. Carr '73, World B. Free and Greg Jackson '74. A member of the NAIA and Guilford College Sports Halls of Fame, Jensen was the second person to coach two different teams to NAIA national titles.
Jensen lives in Greensboro with his wife, Marsha. The couple has two adult children, Laura '97 and Dennis '00, both Guilford graduates.