Golf
Carpenter, Jerry
Jerry Carpenter
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant
- Email:
- jcarpen3@utm.edu
- Phone:
- 731-881-7665
Leading the University of Tennessee at Martin golf program to unprecedented heights is Jerry Carpenter, who served as Skyhawk head coach from 2002-20. Carpenter completed his 18th season at the helm in 2019-20 before announcing his retirement. He now serves as a special assistant to the athletic director as well as a volunteer assistant for the UT Martin golf team, serving in his sixth season in both of those roles in 2025-26.
Tabbed as the program’s second head coach following the retirement of longtime head coach Grover Page, Carpenter lifted the UT Martin program to a multitude of success. Coinciding with the addition of the state-of-the-art Rhodes Golf Center on campus, the Skyhawks won their first-ever Ohio Valley Conference golf championship in 2016, carding a one-shot victory with an 879 (+15) over the 54-hole event.
In addition, UT Martin also produced three consecutive OVC medalists, as Brendon Caballero (2015) and Hunter Richardson (2016-17) earned those honors. Caballero became the first-ever Skyhawk to win the OVC's top individual crown while UT Martin was just the third school to tally three straight OVC medalists (first since 1998-2000). Caballero advanced to the NCAA Regional in Chapel Hill, NC while Richardson, along with the Skyhawk team, took part in the NCAA Regional in Franklin, Tenn. in 2016 before competing in the 2017 NCAA Regional in College Grove, Tenn.
Carpenter was a two-time recipient of the OVC Coach of the Year award (2014, 2016), becoming the first UT Martin representative to garner the league’s top coaching accolade. He recruited the OVC Freshman of the Year in three straight seasons (Ben Reeves in 2013, Austin Swafford in 2014, Richardson in 2015), as the Skyhawks became the first program in OVC history to account for three consecutive Freshman of the Year honorees.
Carpenter won 24 career tournaments as UT Martin head coach, which ranked in the top-40 all-time in the history of NCAA Division I men's golf through the 2022 season. In March 2023, the Skyhawk program dedicated the "Jerry Carpenter Practice Grounds" at the Rhodes Golf Center in honor of the former head coach. Also in 2023, the UTMmys year-end athletics banquet unveiled the "Jerry Carpenter Spirit of the Skyhawk Award", which is handed out to the student-athlete that best exemplifies the core values of UT Martin Athletics.
Through 2020, there were 35 instances of a UT Martin representative ever earning All-OVC, All-OVC Tournament or All-OVC Newcomer accolades and 30 of those came in Carpenter’s tenure.
That impressive All-OVC list includes Richardson, who is the only Skyhawk to earn All-OVC honors in all four seasons. In 2017, Richardson became the first UT Martin player to garner OVC Player of the Year accolades and he followed that with another OVC Player of the Year honor in 2018. Richardson concluded his spectacular career by becoming just the sixth player ever to earn All-OVC accolades on four different occasions and the eighth golfer to ever repeat as OVC Player of the Year. In July 2019, Richardson made his PGA Tour debut at the Barbasol Championship, held in Lexington, Ky., becoming the first-ever UT Martin golfer to play in a PGA Tour event.
Although the 2019-20 season was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was one of Carpenter's finest seasons. UT Martin won four consecutive tournaments for the first time in school history to close out the fall campaign. Overall, the Skyhawks won five of their nine tournaments and finished as runner-up in two more events - finishing tied for first in the OVC with a 286.2 scoring average. A school record four UT Martin representatives racked up OVC golf accolades (three All-OVC, one All-OVC Newcomer) while Jack Story was named UT Martin's Bob Carroll Male Athlete of the Year.
In addition to its accomplishments on the links, UT Martin earned the OVC Team Sportsmanship Award on seven different occasions, including six consecutive seasons (2014-19). Carpenter's teams often excelled in the academic forum as well, as Reeves was identified as one of only three males to earn the 2015-16 OVC Scholar-Athlete Award, regarded as the highest individual honor that an OVC student-athlete can receive. Reeves and Swafford also each earned Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar accolades from the Golf Coaches Association of America in back-to-back seasons. The Skyhawk golf program additionally earned a public recognition award by the NCAA for its continued academic excellence in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Since becoming the program's volunteer assistant in 2020-21, Carpenter helped UT Martin to its second and third OVC team championship and NCAA Regional appearances in school history. The Skyhawks also produced the OVC's individual medalist in 2021 (Story), a 2021 Golf Coaches Association of America PING All-East Region honoree (Nick Wolf) and set an OVC record with its eighth and ninth overall OVC Team Sportsmanship Awards (eight in a row through 2022).
A native of Newbern, Tenn., Carpenter has spent over 60 total years at UT Martin. That includes four years as a student, 34 years as the university’s bookstore manager, 18 as head golf coach and five in his current role. He graduated from UT Martin in 1966.
Carpenter served as a volunteer assistant coach under Page during the 2001-02 season and also had four years of experience working with competitive golf on the high school level.
Carpenter is also a registered Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association official for football and basketball. In October 2018, he was honored by the TSSAA and the North West Officials Association for 50 years of service as a football official. He served for over 25 years as an official at the junior college and NAIA level of college basketball along with calling men’s and women’s basketball games in the OVC for 10 years.
Carpenter is a 1986 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the National Federation of High School Athletics for contributions in officiating at the high school level. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from the TSSAA in 1988.
Carpenter was recognized in the 1998-99 season as the Official of the Year by the TSSAA and was given the 2000 Outstanding Employee Award from UT Martin.
Carpenter was inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame for his days as an official and was voted into the UT Martin Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021. In the summer of 2023, he was enshrined into the OVC Hall of Fame and Weakley County Sports Hall of Fame while also being one of just seven men's golf coaches to be named on the OVC 75th Anniversary Team.
Carpenter is married to the late Linda Scates and they have two children; daughter Dana Evans and son Scott Carpenter.
Tabbed as the program’s second head coach following the retirement of longtime head coach Grover Page, Carpenter lifted the UT Martin program to a multitude of success. Coinciding with the addition of the state-of-the-art Rhodes Golf Center on campus, the Skyhawks won their first-ever Ohio Valley Conference golf championship in 2016, carding a one-shot victory with an 879 (+15) over the 54-hole event.
In addition, UT Martin also produced three consecutive OVC medalists, as Brendon Caballero (2015) and Hunter Richardson (2016-17) earned those honors. Caballero became the first-ever Skyhawk to win the OVC's top individual crown while UT Martin was just the third school to tally three straight OVC medalists (first since 1998-2000). Caballero advanced to the NCAA Regional in Chapel Hill, NC while Richardson, along with the Skyhawk team, took part in the NCAA Regional in Franklin, Tenn. in 2016 before competing in the 2017 NCAA Regional in College Grove, Tenn.
Carpenter was a two-time recipient of the OVC Coach of the Year award (2014, 2016), becoming the first UT Martin representative to garner the league’s top coaching accolade. He recruited the OVC Freshman of the Year in three straight seasons (Ben Reeves in 2013, Austin Swafford in 2014, Richardson in 2015), as the Skyhawks became the first program in OVC history to account for three consecutive Freshman of the Year honorees.
Carpenter won 24 career tournaments as UT Martin head coach, which ranked in the top-40 all-time in the history of NCAA Division I men's golf through the 2022 season. In March 2023, the Skyhawk program dedicated the "Jerry Carpenter Practice Grounds" at the Rhodes Golf Center in honor of the former head coach. Also in 2023, the UTMmys year-end athletics banquet unveiled the "Jerry Carpenter Spirit of the Skyhawk Award", which is handed out to the student-athlete that best exemplifies the core values of UT Martin Athletics.
Through 2020, there were 35 instances of a UT Martin representative ever earning All-OVC, All-OVC Tournament or All-OVC Newcomer accolades and 30 of those came in Carpenter’s tenure.
That impressive All-OVC list includes Richardson, who is the only Skyhawk to earn All-OVC honors in all four seasons. In 2017, Richardson became the first UT Martin player to garner OVC Player of the Year accolades and he followed that with another OVC Player of the Year honor in 2018. Richardson concluded his spectacular career by becoming just the sixth player ever to earn All-OVC accolades on four different occasions and the eighth golfer to ever repeat as OVC Player of the Year. In July 2019, Richardson made his PGA Tour debut at the Barbasol Championship, held in Lexington, Ky., becoming the first-ever UT Martin golfer to play in a PGA Tour event.
Although the 2019-20 season was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was one of Carpenter's finest seasons. UT Martin won four consecutive tournaments for the first time in school history to close out the fall campaign. Overall, the Skyhawks won five of their nine tournaments and finished as runner-up in two more events - finishing tied for first in the OVC with a 286.2 scoring average. A school record four UT Martin representatives racked up OVC golf accolades (three All-OVC, one All-OVC Newcomer) while Jack Story was named UT Martin's Bob Carroll Male Athlete of the Year.
In addition to its accomplishments on the links, UT Martin earned the OVC Team Sportsmanship Award on seven different occasions, including six consecutive seasons (2014-19). Carpenter's teams often excelled in the academic forum as well, as Reeves was identified as one of only three males to earn the 2015-16 OVC Scholar-Athlete Award, regarded as the highest individual honor that an OVC student-athlete can receive. Reeves and Swafford also each earned Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar accolades from the Golf Coaches Association of America in back-to-back seasons. The Skyhawk golf program additionally earned a public recognition award by the NCAA for its continued academic excellence in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Since becoming the program's volunteer assistant in 2020-21, Carpenter helped UT Martin to its second and third OVC team championship and NCAA Regional appearances in school history. The Skyhawks also produced the OVC's individual medalist in 2021 (Story), a 2021 Golf Coaches Association of America PING All-East Region honoree (Nick Wolf) and set an OVC record with its eighth and ninth overall OVC Team Sportsmanship Awards (eight in a row through 2022).
A native of Newbern, Tenn., Carpenter has spent over 60 total years at UT Martin. That includes four years as a student, 34 years as the university’s bookstore manager, 18 as head golf coach and five in his current role. He graduated from UT Martin in 1966.
Carpenter served as a volunteer assistant coach under Page during the 2001-02 season and also had four years of experience working with competitive golf on the high school level.
Carpenter is also a registered Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association official for football and basketball. In October 2018, he was honored by the TSSAA and the North West Officials Association for 50 years of service as a football official. He served for over 25 years as an official at the junior college and NAIA level of college basketball along with calling men’s and women’s basketball games in the OVC for 10 years.
Carpenter is a 1986 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the National Federation of High School Athletics for contributions in officiating at the high school level. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from the TSSAA in 1988.
Carpenter was recognized in the 1998-99 season as the Official of the Year by the TSSAA and was given the 2000 Outstanding Employee Award from UT Martin.
Carpenter was inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame for his days as an official and was voted into the UT Martin Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021. In the summer of 2023, he was enshrined into the OVC Hall of Fame and Weakley County Sports Hall of Fame while also being one of just seven men's golf coaches to be named on the OVC 75th Anniversary Team.
Carpenter is married to the late Linda Scates and they have two children; daughter Dana Evans and son Scott Carpenter.
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