Phil Rowe was announced as the new head coach of the Cal Poly Men’s Golf program on Friday, Apr. 3 after spending the past six seasons as an assistant or associate head coach of the UNLV Rebels.
Rowe will succeed 19-year head coach Scott Cartwright, who announced his retirement in December 2019.
Rowe started his coaching career at his alma mater, Stanford, where he was an assistant coach for four years. Rowe then became an assistant coach at UNLV in 2014 before being promoted to associate head coach in 2017.
During his career with the Rebels, Rowe helped UNLV break a 14-year title drought after winning the Mountain West Conference Championship in 2016. The program’s 2016 championship kicked off a dominant run of three straight conference titles.
In 2017, the Rebels not only won another conference championship, but took home the NCAA West Lafayette Regional Championship as well. UNLV made an Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA Championships later that season. The Rebels won the Mountain West title for the third straight year in 2018 before finishing in a tie for 20th place at the NCAA Championships.
Prior to his coaching stint at UNLV, Rowe was a three-year letterwinner for The Cardinal from 1999-2002 and was a two-time Academic All-American during his collegiate career. Rowe competed on several world tours, including a five-year career on the professional circuit in France, before starting his coaching career.
Rowe joins a class of several other new head coach hires at Cal Poly in the past two years, including Phil Yoshida (Swimming and Diving), John Smith (Men’s Basketball), Beau Baldwin (Football) and Caroline Walters (Volleyball).