Kevin Jennings was named by Zyzlewski Family Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Amy Folan to head the Central Michigan University men’s golf program in October 2021. Jennings leads the resurrected program which begins NCAA Division I play in fall, 2022, after a 36-year hiatus.
A native of Benton Harbor, Jennings coached both the men’s and women’s programs at Prairie View A&M in Prairie View, Texas, over the past five years. In 2021, he led the Panther men’s program to its third consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference championship and subsequent NCAA Regional Tournament berths and guided the Panther women to a program-best runner-up finish in the league tournament.
In May, Jennings guided the Prairie View A&M men’s team to the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. During Jennings’ time at Prairie View A&M, 16 of his student-athletes earned All-SWAC honors, two earned the SWAC Freshman of the Year Award, and more than 30 were named to the SWAC Commissioner Honor Roll.
In 2022, Jennings was inducted into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame in the College Golf Coach category at the organization’s annual awards reception and dinner in Riviera Beach, Fla.
In 2018, Jennings was honored with the Mark Leasch Award, which goes to the program that shows the improvement over the course of a given season and is awarded by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Jennings served as the men’s golf coach at Arkansas Pine Bluff in 2016, as the head coach/resident center manager at Talladega (Ala.) College, and as the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Le Moyne-Owen College in Memphis.
He has also served as a volunteer assistant coach at Christian Brothers (Tenn.) University, a student assistant coach at Mississippi Valley State, and as a full-time golf instructor in Tennessee, California and Nevada.
He holds an accounting degree from Mississippi Valley State and a degree from the Golf Academy of America. He is working toward a master’s of community development at Prairie View A&M.
Jennings has also served as chairman of the SWAC golf coaches committee and is on the board of the Black College Golf Coaches Association, the advisory board for the PGA Works Championship, and is a member of the Golf Coaches Association of America, serving on that organization’s diversity council.
(article originates from Central Michigan University
