MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head men’s golf coach Grant Robbins was honored by his peers on Thursday as he was named the 2023 Big 12 Men’s Golf Coach of the Year, the conference office announced.

Robbins, who shared this year’s award with TCU head coach Bill Montigel in a vote among all Big 12 coaches, is the first K-State men’s golf coach to earn Big 12 Coach of the Year accolades.

Completing his ninth year in Manhattan during the 2022-23 season, Robbins led K-State to one of its best campaigns in school history as the Wildcats set a school record with a team stroke average of 281.47, nearly seven shots per round better than the previous low mark of 288.24 put together by the 2021-22 squad. K-State also tied for second in school history in both team victories (4) and top-five finishes (7), while it had eight of the top-20 team rounds and seven of the top-25 team 54-hole scores in school history.

The Wildcats won each of their first three events during the fall – the Wildcat Invitational, Old Town Collegiate and Oregon State Invitational – to mark the first time in school history K-State captured three-straight team titles. In the spring, K-State opened with three more top-three performances, including a victory at The Johnnie-O, to propel the Wildcats to a highwater mark of No. 17 in the Golfstat Top 25.

K-State earned a bid as the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Bath (Mich.) Regional, the first time the Wildcats advanced to postseason play in consecutive years since 2008 and 2009. The Wildcats just missed the cut for the fifth and final qualifying spot for the NCAA Championship as they battled Florida, which eventually went on to win the National Championship.

Under Robbins, four Kansas State golfers finished in the top six in school history in single-season stroke average during the 2022-23 season with the top three marks being claimed by Tim Tillmanns (70.21), Will Hopkins (70.35) and Cooper Schultz (71.15). Additionally, Hopkins set the school’s career stroke average mark at 72.29.

Luke O’Neill finished sixth in school history in stroke average at 71.65, and he became the fifth Wildcat to ever compete in the NCAA Championship as he qualified as an individual.