SALEM, Va. --- Roanoke College Director of Athletics Curtis Campbell is pleased to announce upcoming changes within the golf program.

Effective July 1, Tommy Joyce will be elevated to the first full-time head golf coach in the history of the College. Current head coach Richie Waggoner '93 will become director of golf operations as the College is adding women's golf as an NCAA varsity sport beginning in the fall of 2025.

"I am excited about the addition of women's golf as a collegiate sport. It was the only women's sport sponsored by the ODAC that we did not offer, so I'm glad to be adding it at this time," Campbell said.

Roanoke College will become the eighth Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) school to sponsor women's golf. The Maroons will join Averett, Bridgewater, Lynchburg, Randolph-Macon, Shenandoah, Sweet Briar, and Washington and Lee in competing for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Women's Golf Championships starting in 2025-26.

"With the addition of women's golf, it is going to take time and resources to get the program off the ground," Waggoner said. "Roanoke College is extremely fortunate to have someone the caliber of Coach Joyce run the men's program as the first-ever full-time head coach. I am looking forward to working with Tommy and supporting him in any way I can."

Joyce was introduced as the assistant golf coach in the fall of 2023 and brings an incredible amount of experience and knowledge to the program. He earned his PGA membership in 1992 and has worked in golf for over 30 years. As a PGA Member, Joyce has developed and cultivated relationships throughout the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. His professional career includes experience as COO of CaddieNow, PGA general manager and PGA director of golf positions.

He received the Middle Atlantic PGA's highest honor as MAPGA Golf Professional of the Year in 2008, and he was inducted into the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame in 2015.

"Roanoke College is fortunate to find someone with Tommy's credentials to serve as our full-time head coach," Campbell said. "His experience teaching golf will greatly benefit our golf students. I expect both programs to thrive under his leadership."

Joyce was recognized by US Kids Golf as a Top 50 Kids Teachers in America in 2004, 2006 and 2011.  In 2009, he was recognized by PING as Fitter of the Year. Other accomplishments as a PGA Professional include serving on the Middle Atlantic PGA Board of Directors for 10 years, National PGA Finalist for the Junior Golf Leader Award and recipient of the MAPGA Bill Strausbaugh Award.

Joyce graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1991 and was a four-year letterman on the golf team, serving as team captain his final two years. After competing at every level, he toured professionally from 1991 to 1996. He was a member of Ping's World Tour Program and competed on the Nike Tour and the Hooters' Tour. Some of his playing accomplishments include medalist for U.S. Open Local Qualifying 1992, Mizuno Pro-Am @ Pebble Beach – Low Professional 2014, setting course records of 59 at Lynwood CC in Martinsville, Virginia, and 63 at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas, Nevada (1997).

"There have been two men that relentlessly invested their time into me: my PGA Professional, Wayne Haley, and my college coach, Jack Bell," Joyce said. "The relationship I enjoyed with them was life-changing. I'm extremely excited about working for Roanoke College and having the opportunity to invest my time into our student-athletes' lives, just like 'Pro' and 'Coach' did for me. I can't imagine a better opportunity to pay it forward, develop life-changing relationships and, in the process, win championships. Let's go Maroons!"

Waggoner took over the Roanoke golf program as part-time head coach in the summer of 2019. When he was hired by then Director of Athletics Scott Allison, the program was in a decades-long slumber that saw the team ranked 235 (of just over 250 teams) in the national rankings. With a new incoming group of golfers, the program had to navigate a COVID shutdown, leading to a pair of partial seasons. The program expanded its recruiting efforts into the northeast and began to show steady improvement throughout the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Each season, the Maroons were invited to better, more nationally competitive tournaments.

"We couldn't have made the progress that we did without the support of the College, our family, friends, alums and the generosity of the Mike Haley Golf Endowment," Waggoner said. "We have been able to climb the national rankings due to our nationwide recruiting, our enhanced competitive schedule and the ability to take multiple teams to different events throughout the year." – Richie Waggoner '93.

With a full roster, Roanoke made a significant leap forward during the 2021-22 season. The team started the year just outside the top 100 in the country and built momentum throughout the season. At the 2022 ODAC Men's Golf Championships, Roanoke lead after 12 holes and held the runner-up spot for most of the 54-hole event. W&L passed the Maroons during the final nine holes, but the third-place ODAC finish was the best in program history for more than a decade. The total of 865 was 65 strokes better than any other Roanoke score since the conference went to 54 holes in 2007. The Maroons finished the year ranked 91st in the nation.

"I would like to acknowledge and thank Mike Haley '73 for his generous support of the golf program. His support has enabled us to make great strides in the program," Campbell said.

Since 2019, the program has won a pair of tournaments (the 2022 Virginia State Golf Association Intercollegiate and the 2023 Kinder-Williams Invitational), and had two All-ODAC selections, four ODAC All-Tournament golfers and three different Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-American Scholars. It enters the spring of 2024 with a national ranking of #35.

"I would like to thank Coach Waggoner for his contributions as the current head coach and for agreeing to help us launch the women's program," Campbell said. "This is a great day for Roanoke College Athletics."