LSU Gold

Andrew Nelson Season 2023-24

LSU
Andrew Nelson
Title
Interim Men's Head Coach
Email
arnelson@lsu.edu
Phone
(225) 578-3947
Hometown
Port Republic, N.J.
Alma Mater
Liberty (2011)

Interim Head Coach – 5th Season in 2023-24

Andrew Nelson joined the LSU men’s golf program in July of 2019 and is currently the interim head coach for the Tigers. Nelson took over as interim coach in October of 2023 when Chuck Winstead stepped down as director of golf and head coach of the men’s team.

In his debut as LSU’s interim head coach, Nelson led the Tigers to a win at the Everett Buick GMC Classic in Little Rock, Arkansas. LSU finished first in the field of 15 with a 22-under score of 842.

Nelson previously spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Liberty University before joining the LSU program as assistant coach in July of 2019.

Nelson played collegiately at Liberty where he was a four-year member of the Flames squad from 2006-10.

Since joining the Tiger staff in 2019, Nelson has been part of three NCAA Regional qualifying teams as well an SEC Championship semifinalist squad in 2022. LSU has captured three team titles during that span. Individually, LSU’s 2021 team featured second team All-SEC selection Garrett Barber and the 2022 squad saw Cohen Trolio earn Freshman All-SEC honors.

As an assistant at Liberty, Nelson helped guide the Flames to a 20th place finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships – the school’s second-ever trip to the NCAA Championships. A native of Port Republic, N.J., Nelson helped Ervin Chang and Gabe Lench become the second and third All-Americans in Liberty program history during the 2018-19 season. Chang and Lench were named to the 2019 PING All-America honorable-mention team in late June.

Chang was named the Atlantic Sun Male Student-Athlete of the Year for his play this season as he averaged a career best 71.71 strokes per round to register the fourth-lowest single season stroke average in program history; he had eight top-10 finishes on the season to lead the Flames and 19 of his 35 rounds were played under par.

Lench tallied a 71.62 stroke average during the 2018-19 season under the guidance of Nelson to go along with six top 10s and claiming medalist honors at the Intercollegiate at The Grove (College Grove, Tenn.). Lench became the first player in program history to advance to the final day of stroke play at the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship where he finished tied for 24th after four rounds.

The Flames made it to the NCAA Regional round all three years that Nelson was a member of the coaching staff. Liberty earned an auto-bid to regionals in 2018 after claiming the Big South team title; 2017 and 2019 saw the Flames earn at-large bids to the NCAA Regionals. In addition to the Big South team title in 2018, the Flames claimed two other titles during Nelson’s three years in Lynchburg. They travelled to Eugene, Ore., and shared the team title with nationally ranked Oregon in 2018 at the Duck Invitational, and the Flames won the Intercollegiate at The Grove in Tennessee in October of 2018.

Nelson graduated from Liberty in the spring of 2011 with a degree in student ministry. He has spent time working as a member of an urban impact team in New Orleans, La., at the Castle Rock Community Church in the summer of 2011. Following that summer, he served as a member of the grounds crew and maintenance staff at the Ballamour Golf Club (Egg Harbor, N.J.) before moving to Holtiville, Calif., to work as the student ministries pastor at Cornerstone Community Church from 2012-14.

During his collegiate days at Liberty, Nelson played in 21 events with a career-scoring average of 76.8. He registered nine career-top 25 finishes collegiately. He also played as an amateur on mini tours in Georgia and Florida during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Nelson and his wife, Hope, have two children – Drew and Henley.