Missy Farr-Kaye Inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sun Devil Women's Golfer Head Coach and Arizona golf legend Missy Farr-Kaye has been inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame.
 
The Arizona Golf Hall of Fame Committee selected four new inductees to the Hall of Fame, featuring three modern candidates and one representative from the Legacy Division. Missy Farr-Kaye is part of a decorated 2022 class that includes fellow Sun Devil Women's Golfer Geri Cavanaugh, industry leader and major supporter of Arizona State Golf Del Cochran, as well as Rock and Roll legend and philanthropist Alice Cooper. Her success as a player, impact as a coach, and contributions as a member of the golf community made Farr-Kaye an ideal candidate for this honor. 

"Missy is so deserving of this award. She has represented the state of Arizona as a great junior golfer and great Xavier high school stand out," legendary Head Coach Linda Vollstedt remarked. "Her time as a player at ASU was monumental where she capped off her career by helping ASU win its first NCAA Championship. Then she returned to ASU as an assistant coach (another NCAA Championship) and then the head coach where she guided the program to its eighth championship. Her life has not been easy but she always found a way to battle back with courage and grit. And then add being a single mom of 3 outstanding boys. She is the greatest role model one could ever ask for.  I am so proud of her."

Missy Farr-Kaye is in the midst of her eighth season at the helm in Tempe. The former standout golfer for Arizona State was named the 10th head coach of the Arizona State women's golf team on June 26th, 2015. Over the course of eight seasons in charge of Sun Devil Women's Golf, Farr-Kaye has maintained the standard of excellence that the program has become recognized nationally for. She has led Arizona State to 17 Team Championships with 14 Sun Devils capturing Individual Titles during her tenure. 

Farr-Kaye has already mentored 12 All-Americans, two Pac-12 Individual Medalist, and an Individual NCAA Champion since taking over as head coach prior to the 2015-16 season. She has managed to consistently bring in some of the top talent all over the World. Several Sun Devils have enjoyed extremely successful careers at the International and Professional level both while competing for Farr-Kaye at Arizona State as well as after the conclusion of their collegiate careers. Farr-Kaye and her coaching staff have always prepared individuals for life after college, both on and off the course. Because of these efforts, Farr-Kaye earned the ASU Alumni Achievement award at ASU's annual Founders' Day event in March of 2018.

In 2017, she completed the trifecta, winning her third NCAA national championship as a Sun Devil - first as a player (1990), then as an assistant coach (2009), and now as a head coach (2017). Behind First Team All-Americans Linnea Strom and Monica Vaughn (also the individual medalist, sixth in Sun Devil history) and Honorable Mention All-American Olivia Mehaffey, Farr-Kaye led ASU to a nation-leading eighth NCAA championship in 2017. For the team's performance in 2016-17, Farr-Kaye was named Golf Pride Grips WGCA National Coach of the Year, Golfweek National Coach of the Year, West Region Coach of the Year, and Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

In addition to all her on the course accomplishments, she has been equally inspirational and driven off the course. She has defeated cancer on two different occasions, most recently announcing she was cancer-free days before leading Sun Devil Women's Golf through a 2021 season that ended with a fifth-place NCAA finish.

Farr-Kaye, arguably one of the most respected coaches in the country, spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach and then associate head coach of the Sun Devil women's golf program. Under the guidance of Farr-Kaye, ASU won the school's seventh NCAA Title in 2009, with golfer Azahara Munoz taking home an individual NCAA title in 2008. In the past 21 years since Farr-Kaye joined the program as a coach, the Sun Devils have accomplished the following:

• NCAA Team Championship in 2009 and 2017
• 19 NCAA Championship Appearances
• Two Pac-10 Team Titles (2007 & 2009)
• NCAA Individual Champion in 2008 (Azahara Munoz) and 2017 (Monica Vaughn)
• 42 Team Tournament Titles & 36 Individual Tournament Titles
• 56 All-Conference honorees, including 30 First Teamers
• Four Pac-12 Golfers of the Year
• 56 WGCA/NGCA Academic All-Americans
• Seven Pac-12 Scholar Athletes of the Year (Most of any Pac-12 program)
• Three NGCA/WGCA Freshmen of the Year

"This is my dream job in every sense of the word," said Farr-Kaye back in 2015. "I grew up playing junior golf at Papago Golf Course. I graduated from Arizona State and won a NCAA Title under Linda Vollstedt. To become the head women's golf coach of my alma mater is the pinnacle of my career and I have a personal, vested interest in the success of our program. Our goal is to continue to bring home the national title, year in, year out. Arizona State has championship expectations and I intend to deliver."

Also committed to the academic success of ASU's student-athletes, Farr-Kaye's golfers have won the prestigious Edith Cummings Munson Award – the award for the top female golfer who is both an All-American and Academic All-American – on four occasions, with Azahara Munoz named the first two-time award winner in 2008-09. The program continues to achieve new records when it comes to Academic Progress Rate (APR), earning a perfect score the sixth straight year. 

During the 2008-09 season, Farr-Kaye, a two-time breast cancer survivor, battled a reoccurrence of breast cancer only to make it to the NCAA Championships and help ASU bring home its seventh NCAA Title. For her courage and strength, the Women's Golf Coach Association awarded Farr-Kaye with the Kim Moore Spirit Award, the first and only coach to receive the honor typically reserved for student-athletes.

An accomplished golfer in her own right, Farr-Kaye was a member of the Sun Devil golf team under Hall of Fame head coach Linda Vollstedt and helped Arizona State bring home its first of seven NCAA Titles as a senior in 1990. Farr-Kaye graduated from Arizona State in 1990 with a degree in Organizational Communications.

The Phoenix native is a1985 graduate of Xavier High School, where she played for iconic high school golf coach Sister Lynn Winsor, who she now accompanies in the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame. She also joins several others with Arizona State connections in the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame, including her sister and fellow Sun Devil legend Heather Farr. Farr and six-time National Champion Head Coach Linda Vollstedt were part of a loaded 2002 class.  In 2018, Sun Devil for Life Pia Nilsson was inducted into the Hall of Fame because of her contributions as a collegiate in Tempe and as an instructor. Sun Devil for Life Tina Tombs (1981-85) was part of the most recent class in 2021.

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