Jay Moseley

Jay Moseley took the reins of Ohio State Men’s Golf, becoming the program’s 11th head coach, on July 9, 2015. His development prowess became apparent in the very first season guiding the Buckeyes when senior Tee-k Kelly captured individual medalist honors at the NCAA Kohler Regional, the first player in school history to win an NCAA Regional individual crown. Moseley pushed the entire team into an NCAA Regionals appearance in Year Two after Ohio State registered its highest finish at the Big Ten Championships in 13 years.

Under the tutelage of Moseley, sophomore Will Grimmer led the way in the conference championships with his runner-up performance. That individual performance also marked the best B1G effort from a Buckeye since 2004. Grimmer was joined by fellow Cincinnatian sophomore and Moseley apprecentice, Daniel Wetterich, as GCAA All-Midwest Region Team members.

In addition to Kelly’s NCAA Championships advancement in ’15-16, Moseley oversaw a stellar freshman campaign from Grimmer which resulted in an individual berth into the NCAA Kohler Regional. Grimmer and Kelly both picked up All-Midwest Region honors while Kelly became the first Buckeye to garner All-America recognition (honorable mention) since Bo Hoag in 2009.

Ohio State notched four top-6 team finishes in the Moseley Era inaugural season, including a fourth-place showing in the 2016 Robert Kepler Intercollegiate.

In Moseley’s third season, he led the Buckeyes to a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championship while Grimmer finished fourth individually. Wetterich was named second team All-Big Ten as well as a PING All-Region honoree while being selected to compete at the NCAA Columbus Regional.

The 2018-19 season was one of the best for Moseley and the Buckeyes. The team notched seven top-5 finishes, won the Musketeer Classic as well as the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate for the 24^th time. The Buckeyes also claimed the Big Ten Match Play Championship for the first time in school history, defeating Illinois in the semifinals and then blitzing Maryland 4.5 to 1.5 in the championship match.

In the NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional, the Buckeyes had four of five players at par or better led by senior Caleb Ramirez at a career-best 9-under par. OSU finished second and advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time under Moseley. At the NCAA Championships in Arkansas, the Buckeyes played well through the first three rounds and made the 54-hole cut. The fourth round was played in tough, windy conditions and the team played well but missed the match-play cut by just five shots.

That brought an end to the career of four very talented seniors in Daniel Wetterich, Will Grimmer, Will Voetsch and Caleb Ramirez. Wetterich had a 72.19 scoring average in his three seasons as a Buckeyes which was the best since 1980. Grimmer had 25 career rounds in the 60s which is most by a Buckeye since 1980 and Voetsch’s 64 in the 2018 Big Ten Championship is tied with Joey Sindelar for lowest round at the B1G Championship since 1980.

Moseley’s fifth season in Columbus, the 2019-20 season, was predictably an up-and-down year as the team was replacing those four graduated seniors with five new faces. Graduate transfer Felix Kvarnstrom was the team’s most consistent player and the freshmen all got valuable experience. But just as the Buckeyes seemed to be settling in for the closing stretch, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and brought an early end to the season.

The 2020-21 season saw the emergence of freshman Maxwell Moldovan. The Uniontown, Ohio native came to campus with a lot of hype and he certainly lived up to it. Moseley helped guide Moldovan to 13 consecutive rounds at par or better to open his career. Moldovan finished the year with the lowest OSU single-season stroke average since 1980. The team finished fifth at the Big Ten Championship and went to the NCAA Tallahassee Regional where they finished sixth, just two shots away from qualifying for the NCAA Championship.

Entering the 2021-22 season, Moseley and the Buckeyes knew they had a real chance of advancing to the final site by virtue of hosting an NCAA Regional. But with that came added pressure of qualifying and then advancing. The Buckeyes would enjoy a tremendous spring, winning the Southern Invitational and boasting four individual medalists. Behind four Top-20 finishes, the Buckeyes indeed punched their ticket through the NCAA Columbus Regional to the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Ariz. Maxwell Moldovan won three times and was named an All-American for the first time in his career. He was also a unanimous first team All-Big Ten selection while fellow sophomore Adam Wallin earned second team All-Big Ten accolades.

During the previous six years, Moseley lifted Kennesaw State University to new heights unreached prior to his arrival. Moseley guided the Owls to five consecutive NCAA Regional appearances and a pair of trips to the NCAA Championships. Taking over a program which had never advanced to postseason play, Moseley steered the Owls to the 2011 NCAA Championships in just his second season at the helm.

Moseley guided Kennesaw State into the GCAA Top-25 Poll for the first time ever in 2015 and concluded the year ranked No. 27 nationally. The team’s ascension into the national Top-25 came on the strength of tournament titles at the Rees Jones Invitational (Sept. 21-23) and Pinetree Intercollegiate (Oct. 20-21) accompanied by second-place showings at the Jones Invitational (Feb. 23-24) and the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships (Apr. 19-21). In total, Moseley’s teams captured 13 tournament crowns during his time in Georgia.

Moseley’s charges finished in the top-30 nationally in 2011 and 2014, placing 26th at both NCAA Championships. The 2014 Owls claimed runner-up honors at the NCAA Auburn Regional to earn their spot in the nation’s final 30 teams vying for a national title. Moseley’s first campaign at Kennesaw State also included participation in NCAA action as then-sophomore Jeff Karlsson qualified for the 2010 NCAA Southeast Regional as an individual.

In addition to unprecedented team success achieved under the direction of Moseley, Kennesaw State brought home a heap of individual hardware as well. Since 2009-10, Owl golfers have been tabbed the Atlantic Sun Conference (A-Sun) Golfer of the Year twice, A-Sun Scholar-Athlete of the Year thrice, All-Southeast Region selections six times, All-A-Sun performers 14 times and Karlsson gathered Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-America Second Team honors in 2011. Moseley received direct recognition in ’11 as well, named the A-Sun Coach of the Year.

In six conference tournaments, Kennesaw State finished no worse than third place en route to three runner-up efforts and the first Atlantic Sun conference crown (2011) in team history.

Academic accolades also rolled in for Moseley’s pupils, highlighted by Ben Greene and Peder Lunde Hermansson becoming the Owls’ first Academic All-America recipients (2013). The KSU pair completed their academic careers with 4.0 grade-point averages, and Greene was the first of three Owls named A-Sun Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year under Moseley. Overall during the Moseley Era, eight Kennesaw State student-athletes were placed on the All-America Scholar Team and nine tabbed A-Sun All-Academic squad. The superb studies have extended to Columbus, resulting in 17 OSU Scholar-Athletes and a dozen Academic All-Big Ten laurels during Moseley’s first two years in town.

His program corralled NCAA Multi-Year APR Special Recognition with a perfect score of 1000. The Owls maintained a team GPA above 3.0 all six years of Moseley’s tenure and exceeded 3.5 in both 2012 and 2013 to garner GCAA President’s Special Recognition Academic Awards.

Moseley’s recruiting prowess is evidenced by five A-Sun All-Freshman Team members and the 2014 A-Sun Freshman of the Year, Teremoana Beaucousin.

Prior to taking over the Kennesaw State program as a 24-year old, Moseley spent six years at Auburn University. The four-year letterwinner and three-year captain played for the Tigers from 2004-08 before serving as a graduate assistant for the 2008-09 season.

Moseley competed in 42 events during his career and still holds the all-time Auburn record for lowest 36-hole score (132, -12) at the 2006 John Burns Intercollegiate. His 14-under 202 54-hole total in the event was also an all-time mark at the time and is currently ranked third in Tiger lore.

He enjoyed his finest collegiate season in 2007-08, picking up Golfweek All-America Third Team and First Team All-Southeastern Conference laurels. His 71.83 stroke average that season ranks as the eighth-best in Auburn history, racking up 18 sub-par rounds (second-most) along the way. Moseley secured his second All-America Scholar recognition (2007, 2008) as well.

Moseley became the first-ever golfer to win the prestigious Cliff Hare Award, presented annually to an Auburn student-athlete who excels in athletic and scholarship achievement as well as showing a great degree of leadership, integrity and courage. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in higher education administration with a sports management minor.

He and his wife, Kelly, have two children — a son James (Tripp) and a daughter Georgia.