After leading her alma mater to its first-ever women's golf conference championship, head coach Jessica Combs agreed to a contract extension through the 2025 season, Austin Peay State University Vice President and Director of Athletics Gerald Harrison announced in August 2022.
Combs (née Cathey) was named the sixth head coach in Austin Peay women’s golf history on June 13, 2019. Combs was a three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and two-time individual medalist for the Govs in her record-shattering senior campaign.
Now in her fifth year at the helm of the program, Combs has led the Governors to unprecedented success over the last three seasons. Combs’ team has rewritten the Austin Peay women’s golf record book with record-breaking team and individual performances while winning 10 tournaments as a team with seven individual medalists since the start of the 2021-22 season.
Austin Peay’s success under Combs also has extended into the classroom, where the Governors have posted a 3.0 grade-point average in all nine semesters since Combs took the reins of the program, including a program-record 3.85 GPA during the Spring 2023 semester.
Austin Peay also finished 16th among NCAA Division I women's golf teams on the 2023 Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-Scholar Team GPA Award list after recording a 3.819 team GPA during the 2022-23 academic year. Under Combs, who was a four-time WGCA All-American Scholar during her collegiate career, 14 Governors have earned WGCA All-American Scholar honors, including a program record five Govs during the 2021-22 academic year.
Following her collegiate career at APSU, Combs remained a visible part of the Clarksville community, working as an assistant club professional at the River Club Golf and Learning Center. She also was the Tennessee Golf Foundation’s Assistant Pro from 2017-18 and became a Class A LPGA Teaching Professional in December 2019. Combs, through the LPGA, also is a Girls Golf Site Director for the Clarksville Area.
A two-time graduate of Austin Peay, Combs received her bachelor’s degree in business administration, with minors in marketing and entrepreneurship, in May 2016 and earned her master’s degree in health and human performance, with a concentration in coaching, in August 2022.
Combs and her husband, Dr. Ryan Combs, have a daughter, Cassie, and are expecting their second daughter.
COMBS’ CAREER SUMMARY
Austin Peay (2019-CURRENT)
2023-24: After opening the season with a second-place finish at Missouri State’s Payne Stewart Memorial (Sept. 11-12), Combs led the Governors to wins in each of their next three tournaments. The winning streak started at UAB’s Hoover Invitational (Sept. 18-19), where the Govs won by a dozen shots over UAB and Troy at the Hoover Country Club. Then Austin Peay won its home tournament, the APSU Intercollegiate (Sept. 25-26), for the first time since 2015 – when Combs led the Govs to a win by earning individual medalist honors during her senior season – and won the event for the fourth time in program history. Kady Foshaug and Erica Scutt were co-individual medalists and broke the APSU Intercollegiate’s 54-hole scoring record by shooting five-under 211s at Clarksville Country Club. The Govs also set the team scoring record at the APSU Intercollegiate, shooting a one-under 863 to win the tournament by 31 strokes. The final leg of the three-tournament win streak came when Combs and the Govs won by 41 shots at Southern Illinois' Saluki Invitational (Oct. 2-3) at Dalhousie Country Club. Scutt also posted her second-consecutive individual victory when she shot a four-under 212 to edge out her teammate Maggie Glass, who finished in second with an even-par 216.
2022-23: After winning the OVC in Austin Peay’s final year in the league, Combs led the Governors into a new chapter in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Govs opened their first season in the ASUN Conference at the GolfWeek Fall Challenge (Sept. 11-13) at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, where Scutt shot a program-record seven-under 64 in the first round of the tournament. Scutt would go on to win the tournament while breaking APSU’s 36-hole (130) and 54-hole (204) records in the process. The Govs finished fourth at the GolfWeek Fall Challenge while setting the team 18-hole (279), 36-hole (563), and 54-hole (857) scoring records. The Governors would go on to win four more times with fall victories at the Butler Fall Invitational (Oct. 3-4) and Charles Braun Intercollegiate (Oct. 24-25) and spring wins at the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate (March 12-14) and Colonel Classic (April 3-4). Taylor Dedmen also recorded a pair of individual medalist honors during the fall, winning the Butler Fall Invitational and Charles Braun Intercollegiate. With her win at the Butler Fall Invitational, Dedmen became the first Governor in program history with multiple three-round tournament victories. Austin Peay’s program-record four team wins during the 2022-23 season topped the three wins – including the OVC Championship – recorded by the 2021-22 team. The Govs closed the record-breaking season with a 10th-place finish at their first Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Golf Championships, which was played on the Highlands Course at Hampton Cove on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Scutt also earned her second-consecutive all-conference selection when she was named a Second Team All-ASUN Conference honoree.
2021-22: In her third season, Combs led Austin Peay to its first-ever conference championship, winning the Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Golf Championship (April 17-19), in the Govs’ final year in the conference. Austin Peay led the tournament at the end of each of the first two rounds but found themselves trailing Belmont by as many as eight shots on the back nine of the third and final round at The Fighting Joe course at The Shoals on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. However, Combs’ team played the last five holes at even par, shooting a final-round 301 to chase down Belmont and Morehead State and win the program’s first-ever conference championship. After winning the conference title, Combs was named the 2022 OVC Coach of the Year – just the second coach in program history to receive this honor – while Erica Scutt was named the 2022 OVC Freshman of the Year – also just the second Gov to receive this honor. Three Governors also were named to the All-OVC Team with Shelby Pleasant (née Darnell) and Taylor Dedmen receiving their second and third all-conference selections, respectively, while Scutt earned All-OVC honors for the first time. Scutt and fellow freshman Kaley Campbell also earned All-OVC Newcomer Team recognition in their first season under Combs. By winning the 2022 OVC Championship, Combs and the Governors earned the conference’s automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Women's Golf Championship. The Govs were sent to the Franklin Regional (May 9-11), hosted by Vanderbilt, at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee. In its first-ever NCAA Women’s Golf Championship appearance, Austin Peay finished 12th at the Franklin Regional. During the regular season, Combs earned her first team victory as a head coach when the Govs won the Butler Fall Invitational (Oct. 4-5). The Governors closed the fall with another win at Tennessee State’s Town & Country Invitational (Oct. 25-26), where they won by 18 strokes over second-place Belmont. During the Spring season, Austin Peay had its first individual medalist of the Combs Era with Taylor Dedmen’s win at the Southern Illinois’ Diane Daugherty Invite (March 28-29) at the Bogey Hills Country Club.
2020-21: With no fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Austin Peay played in four spring events before the 2021 OVC Women’s Golf Championship (April 18-20) at Hampton Cove on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The Governors posted a sixth-place finish at the OVC Championship, it was their best finish of the shortened season and was highlighted by a seventh-place finish from Shelby Pleasant in her conference championship debut. The Govs also earned the OVC's Team Sportsmanship honor for the fifth time in program history.
2019-20: In her first season leading her alma mater, Combs led the Governors to four top-three finishes before the spring portion of the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second tournament of the season, Austin Peay recorded a second-place finish at the MSU Greenbrier Invitational (Sept. 16-17) with Meghann Stamps finishing in third place and Shelby Pleasant and Taylor Dedmen tying for sixth place. Austin Peay was even better the following week, finishing second at its home tournament, the F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate (Sept. 30 – Oct. 1), with four Governors posting individual Top-10 finishes at the Clarksville Country Club. Dedmen led the Govs in their home event with a fourth-place finish while Riley Cooper, Pleasant, and Stamps finished in eighth, ninth, and 10th place, respectively. Austin Peay’s final two top-three finishes were in a pair of 36-hole events with the Govs placing third at Tennessee State’s Town & Country Invitational (Oct. 28-29) and third at Butler’s Benbow Invitational (March 9-10). Â
COLLEGIATE PLAYING CAREER (2012-16)
In four years at Austin Peay, Combs was a lineup stalwart and No. 1 from the moment she stepped on campus. Combs was Austin Peay’s scoring leader in all four seasons and finished with a flourish, posting a 76.57 mark as a senior, which ranks fourth all-time. She’s one of only three Governors to post season scoring averages below 80 in all four seasons and is one of only four Govs with three or more career All-OVC selections.
Off the course, Combs was one of four Govs to earn WGCA All-American Scholar honors four times in their career. She also served on Austin Peay’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
