MOBILE, Ala. | South Alabama athletic director Dr. Joel Erdmann announced the hiring of Marcelo Huarte to lead the Jags women's golf program on Wednesday afternoon.

"I am very excited for Marcelo to lead our women's golf program," Erdmann said. "The search was highly competitive with many qualified candidates vying for the opportunity. Marcelo's experience and achievements as a student-athlete, assistant coach, and head coach speaks for itself. He has achieved winning at the highest levels on a consistent basis. Complimenting his experience is his contagious passion for the game of golf as he recruits and develops players to achieve their highest aspirations. The program's future is indeed very bright."

He arrives in Mobile after serving as the assistant women's golf coach at Miami (Fla.) last year where he assisted with Sara Byrne helping her to a 1.47-stroke average improvement and career-best six top-25 finishes, four top-15 finishes, and helped her earn an individual invitation into the NCAA Regional Championship.

'I want to thank Dr. Erdmann and the administration at the University of South Alabama for this opportunity," Huarte said. "I fell in love with the beautiful campus and practice facility at Magnolia Grove. This program has tremendous upside, and I'm eager to get to work."

Prior to his time at Miami, Huarte served as the head men's and women's golf coach at Lynn University in 2021-22. During his dual role, he led the women to the final eight at the national championship and final GolfStat ranking of second, holding the number one ranking for 32 weeks. He was named the 2022 South Region Coach of the Year while also coaching a pair of All-Americans.

His first role as a head coach came as the women's head coach at Lynn in 2018 before taking over the dual role. He led the team to four tournament titles, and the team finished as the national runner-up by one stroke in a tiebreaker. That same year, he helped coach Helen Kreuzer to the individual NCAA Championship. Huarte was named the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year and South Region Coach of the Year while coaching three All-Americans. In his first two seasons, Huarte coached five All-Americans and a pair of top-130 golfers in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. His 2018-19 team finished with the third-highest GPA among all Division II programs in the country.

Huarte broke into the collegiate ranks as an assistant coach at Barry (Fla.) where he assisted the men's program to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships and a second-place finish in stroke play. The women finished fifth at the NCAA Championships that same year, and Tilda Larson was named the WGCA Division II National Player of the Year. He also helped lead the women to the 2017 NCAA Division II National Championship, while Charlotte Putts was named the WGCA Freshman of the Year. He also assisted the men who earned medalist honors in the NCAA Stroke Play portion of the NCAA Championships.

He also played in various professional golf events including the European Tour Qualifying Tournament and Latin America Tour Qualifying Tournament.

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