James Vargas Joins Men's Golf As Assistant Coach
TUCSON, Ariz. – Head Coach Jim Anderson and the Arizona Men's Golf program have announced the hiring of James Vargas as assistant coach. Vargas will join the Wildcats after spending the last two seasons as assistant coach at the University of North Texas following a decorated collegiate and professional playing career.
"Our team is very excited to welcome James, Courtney and Cassidy into the Wildcat Family," Anderson said. "His pedigree as a junior, collegiate and professional golfer, along with his polish and professionalism as a coach, impressed us throughout the hiring process. The program is adding a very motivated and skilled member to its coaching staff who cares deeply about developing personal relationships with players and recruits. James has learned from some of golf's best coaches and gained outstanding experience that will help make him a tremendous coach and mentor for our student-athletes."
The Mean Green had Vicente Marzilio qualify for the NCAA Stillwater Regional and finished in the top 25 of the leaderboards. UNT finished second as a team at the Conference USA Championships as Marzilio won the Conference USA Individual championship as a freshman.
"I could not be more excited to be joining the University of Arizona Men's Golf program," Vargas said. "I want to thank Coach Anderson for this amazing opportunity and can't wait to get to work in pursuit of conference and national championships. I feel very fortunate to join such a program with the rich tradition like Arizona Men's Golf. I look forward to meeting the team and helping to create champions both in the classroom and on the course."
Marzilio would headline the Mean Green's 2021 postseason C-USA awards as the conference's Freshman of the Year and First Team selection. Lenny Bergsson was a member of the All-C-USA Third Team and Nikhil Gopal joined Marzilio on the Conference USA All-Freshmen Team.
Vargas began his coaching career at North Texas after playing professionally on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica where he posted a pair of top-three finishes as part of seven finishes in the top 10 of events in addition to playing in three PGA Tour events. His professional career began on the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) following his decorated collegiate career at Florida.
The Miami native earned All-America honors in three different seasons with the Gators while being selected to the All-SEC Second Team and the PING All-Southeast Region Team as a senior in 2005-06. Florida finished second at the NCAA Championships in Vargas's final year of eligibility after finishing in the top two of the SEC in three seasons, including the Gators' SEC Championship in his freshman season.
Vargas was a contestant on the 10th season of "The Big Break" on the Golf Channel in 2008. He and his wife, Courtney, have one daughter named Cassidy.