Scott Lieberwirth

“What I loved about golf was that I was fully responsible for my successes as well as my failures,” Lieberwirth says. “I didn’t have to rely on anybody else, nor could I blame anybody else for my performance.”

By the time he was in high school,
Lieberwirth decided to devote his full attention to golf and dropped everything else.

“I was better at golf than other sports,” Lieberwirth admits. “And I figured that I could receive a college scholarship if I focused solely on golf.”

And so it began. Lieberwirth, a Carlsbad native, stuck with just golf and in 1996, he came to NMSU on a golf scholarship. He quickly distinguished himself as a rising star, winning several honors as an Aggie, including the 1999 Big West Conference and NMSU/Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate championships. In 2000, Lieberwirth was named the BWC Player of the Year and the Golf Coaches Association of America Academic All-American.

His success in golf continued after his graduation in 2000. He turned professional that same year and played full time for the next three years. During that time, he placed in the top 10 in numerous tournaments.

In 2003, Lieberwirth was still playing professionally, but struggling with injuries. It was then that his former golf coach and mentor, Larry Beem, asked Lieberwirth to return to Las Cruces to help coach the NMSU team.

“At the time, I wasn’t necessarily looking to get out of a full-time career in professional golf but I saw this as an opportunity to get into a position I was very interested in. When I was a player at NMSU, I thought that coaching would be something I would excel at and enjoy doing,” Lieberwirth says. “The timing was right and it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

Lieberwirth returned to NMSU in 2003 as the Aggies’ assistant coach. When Beem retired in January 2004, Lieberwirth was named interim head coach. After leading the team to its first-ever Sun Belt Conference Championship in 2004 and being selected as the 2004 SBC Coach of the Year, he accepted the head coach position.

“I was thrilled to be named the head coach of my alma mater,” he says. “I feel a tremendous sense of pride in being an Aggie and I feel very strongly about the direction I want this program to go.”

For Lieberwirth, that direction is up.

“Our goals as a team are always to win our conference tournament and advance to the NCAA regional tournament.” he says. “We were fortunate to accomplish those goals in the 2003-2004 season. I think there is a sense of excitement about this season and our players are ready to accept the challenge of building on the success of last season.”