University of Arizona head men’s golf coach Jim Anderson named Matt Walton the program’s assistant coach in June of 2023. Walton arrived in Tucson following three seasons as an assistant on the USC Men’s Golf coaching staff.
In his first season as a member of the Arizona staff, Walton helped guide the Wildcats to an NCAA Championships appearance in addition to three team tournament championships and a trio of individual wins by Arizona golfers. The trio of Tiger Christensen, Filip Jakubcik and Zach Pollo were all named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team for 2023-24 with Christensen and Jakubcik also earning PING All-West Region Team selections. Freshman Tianyi Xiong, who shot the lowest round ever by an Arizona freshman with a 63 at the Arizona N.I.T. was voted to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
Christensen won the individual titles at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup and the Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate, breaking a school record with a 19-under par performance in his victory at the Stephens Cup. Jakubcik became the first Wildcat ever to win the prestigious Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Club in April.
The Trojans qualified as a team or individually for NCAA Regionals in each of Walton’s three seasons in Los Angeles while leading a handful of USC golfers to All-Pac-12 honors. Walton helped guide Kaito Onishi Jr. to First Team all-conference honors in 2021 and Jackson Rivera to a second team selection a year later. USC also placed Shane Ffrench on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team in 2021 and Mahanth Chirravuri in 2023. Rivera would also earn co-medalist honors with Arizona’s Zach Pollo at this season’s Arizona N.I.T., which the Wildcats won as a team for the first time in two decades.
Prior to his time at USC, Walton spent one season as an assistant coach at Wichita State during the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 season. During his first season as a college coach, the Shockers won a regular season event, an individual title with two other individual top-10 finishes. The program also set a record with a 3.70 team GPA that season, which garnered the American Athletic Conference’s Team Academic Excellence Award.
Walton spent four years as a premier golf instructor before beginning his college coaching career. He was the Lead Golf Coach at Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy in Orlando from 2017 to 2019 after spending the two previous years as the Director of Instruction at Correct2Compete in Zionsville, Indiana.
A decorated college golfer himself, Walton qualified for national postseason competition in four seasons at the NAIA and NJCAA levels. He began his college playing career at Rend Lake College in Illinois where he led his team to a top-10 finish at the NJCAA Division II National Championships. Walton earned Second Team All-American NJCCA honors as a member of the Warriors’ golf program. He transferred to University of the Cumberlands where he helped the Patriots win back-to-back Mid-South Conference titles in 2012 and 2013 and a pair of top-10 finishes at the NAIA National Championships.
Walton is originally from Lytham St. Annes, England and earned his bachelor's degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of the Cumberlands in 2013. He and his wife Carly have been married since 2017.
