​Near the start of this century, two roads diverged before a then 10-year-old Garrett Adair of Moscow, a gifted athlete who had been introduced to golf by his father, Stacey. “I played baseball and golf for a year at the same time,” he recalled, “and it became obvious that the golf swing and baseball swing don’t mix well.” In the end, Adair chose the golf greens over the ballpark, and that choice has shaped every chapter since.
Now, more than two decades later, he is starting his second stint as head coach at Texas A&M–Victoria (formerly University of Houston–Victoria). In his first tenure with the Jaguars, he guided the men to four straight conference championships and led them to a fourth-place finish at the NAIA Nationals. When rehired last month, Adair expressed deep gratitude in a news release, saying, “I’m incredibly grateful that God blessed me with the opportunity to return and lead the Jaguars’ men’s and women’s golf programs.”
Holding himself accountable has long been a hallmark of Adair’s journey. Reflecting on his childhood pivot to golf, he said the sport spoke to him in a way the others did not: “It was much more enjoyable to me, and I loved the individual aspect of it.” He elaborated, “I really liked that if I had a good day, I would succeed; if I had a bad day, it was all on me, no one else to blame. I appreciated having to hold myself accountable.” And the outcomes suggest he carried that mindset forward.
Adair’s early achievements foreshadowed his eventual vocation. At 12, he won an Idaho state junior golf championship. As a middle school student, he gained recognition in a Moscow-Pullman Daily News feature on August 11, 2006, titled, “Is Garrett Adair golf’s next big thing?” His high school years saw him help the Moscow Bears win a team state title in 2009 and earn fifth-place individual honors as a senior in 2010, earning a scholarship to Western Texas. He later transferred to the College of North Idaho and then the University of Providence (Great Falls, Montana), concluding his collegiate playing days with a 26th-place finish in the Frontier Conference Tournament and graduating in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in health and human sciences.
How the path led here is a familiar arc for Adair. “I knew from a young age I wanted to be a golf coach,” he said. After graduation, he returned home to Moscow and volunteered as an assistant coach with the Idaho Vandals. That experience opened the door to a paid assistant role at Texas A&M–Victoria in 2017 (then known as Houston–Victoria), eventually paving the way to the head coaching position in 2020. Under his leadership, the Jaguars rose quickly: the men’s and women’s teams swept the Red River Athletic Conference championships in 2021, and the men added three more consecutive titles thereafter. The program reached a program-best fourth place at the NAIA Men’s Golf National Championships in 2022 and followed with a fifth-place finish in 2024.
Adair’s career arc—rooted in a decisive early choice, disciplined self-accountability, and a steady climb through coaching ranks—embodies a life shaped by golf’s exacting demands and personal accountability. His return to the Jaguars’ helm signals more chapters to come for a coach who has always trusted the pull of the greens over the fairway of other possibilities.