Roy Edwards

Roy Edwards is in his 19th season as head coach of the University of Colorado men’s golf team.

Edwards, 43, is just the third full-time men’s golf coach in Buffalo history. He came to CU with an impressive pedigree, joining the Buffaloes from his alma mater, the University of Kansas, where he had served as the assistant for both the men’s and women’s programs for the previous four years (2002-06). He held the same position at Vanderbilt University for a year prior to returning to KU.

Edwards replaced the late Mark Simpson, who passed away from complications due to lung cancer in December 2005. Simpson had held the post since 1977, when he followed in the footsteps of his college head coach, Les Fowler. Fowler took over as player-coach in 1948 and remained on board until Simpson, his assistant, replaced him. Thus, Edwards is only the program’s third full-time head coach since 1948.

Each of his predecessors had to lead the Buffaloes into stronger conferences, Fowler into the Big Seven in 1949 and Simpson into the Big 12 in 1996; but Edwards was faced with the most daunting task in CU golf history. He led the charge when the Buffaloes joined the Pacific-10 Conference on July 1, 2011 (making it the Pac-12), with Colorado becoming a member of the most prestigious men’s golf conference in the nation. A long-time force in collegiate golf, as many as seven or eight schools regularly occupied the top 30 every season and Pac-12 schools have won 15 national championships.

In a 2015 summer poll by Golfweek of golf coaches nationwide, asking them to rate their peers, Edwards came up as No. 18 on the list. The publication commented about Edwards, “If you have ever spoken with Edwards at length, you know he is a student of the profession.”

It took less than three years for Edwards to put his stamp on the CU golf program, perhaps in no bigger way than completing the dream of both Fowler and Simpson. One of the few major golf programs in the nation without its own true home golf course and facilities, Edwards played an integral part in working with Colorado alum Steve Kerr in the latter’s acquisition of Vista Ridge Golf Club in Erie in 2009. The club was renamed Colorado National Golf Club and has since served as the official home for the university’s men’s and women’s golf teams. In 2012, the George Boedecker Jr. CU Golf Practice Facility, a 5,600-square foot state-of-the-art indoor complex was constructed at CNGC, one that matches any in the nation.

He also initiated the Colorado Partners program, a group that quickly grew to well over 100 members who contribute financially to augment the school’s golf budget, and established the Colorado Golf Day which is an annual celebration and fundraiser for CU golf.

On the course, under Edwards the Buffaloes have appeared in 12 out of a possible 13 NCAA Championships, nine times as a team and three times with individuals earning selections. Through the fall of 2019, his CU teams have won 17 major tournaments, the most under one coach in school history as he surpassed Simpson’s 16 when the Buffs won two fall ’19 events. In addition, the Buffaloes have 19 runner-up finishes in his tenure and his golfers have won 15 individual medalist honors. Against Division I competition, CU owns a 1,379-1,011-34 record head-to-head (57.6 winning percentage), but since joining the Pac-12, the Buffs are 912-568-25 (a 61.4 winning clip).