UVA Golf: Coach Bowen Sargent signed to four-year contract extension

UVA Golf coach Bowen Sargent has signed a four-year contract extension, and per a source, got himself a nice raise in the process.

The source tells us that the new deal will pay Sargent $245,000 a year in salary and supplemental compensation, a bump of 20.8 percent from the $202,836 he was getting under the terms of the extension that he signed in 2022.

We’d reported last month that there was talk behind the scenes that, with Sargent’s 2022 extension about to run out, the negotiations on an extension weren’t going well – that the athletics department was low-balling Sargent.

Good to see that this is not the case, in the end.

“Coach Sargent has elevated the men’s golf program to national championship contention,” Athletics Director Carla Williams said, per a release from the school sent out on Thursday. “The young men in our program are excellent representatives of the University and Virginia Athletics. Bowen has made UVA a destination for the top talent in college golf. We’re excited to have him on board for the next four years and I’m excited to see the upward trajectory of the program continue.”

Sargent has guided Virginia through its most successful era in the program’s history. UVA has won back-to-back ACC Championships, appeared in a school-record four-straight NCAA Championships and was the national runner-up at the 2025 NCAA Championship, the highest finish in program history.

Virginia broke the program’s single season record with seven tournament wins in 2025-2026 and was ranked in the top four of the Scoreboard powered by Clippd rankings for the entire season, including 11 weeks in the top spot (Oct. 22 to March 4).

Three players from the 2025-2026 squad joined the professional ranks, including the PGA Tour University’s top-ranked player, Ben James, who finished tied for 23rd in his first major as a professional this past weekend at the U.S. Open.

James was the sport’s fifth four-time, first team All-American and finished No. 1 in the PGA Tour U rankings.

The top player in PGA Tour U is awarded a PGA Tour card.

Teammates Paul Chang and Bryan Lee will make their professional debuts this week on PGA Tour Americas at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open presented by Syndeo this weekend.

“I’m truly honored that Dr. Williams and President (Scott) Beardsley have placed their confidence in me to lead the golf program for another four years,” Sargent said, per the press release. “It has been a joy to coach at Virginia for the past 22 years, and I’m so proud of all we’ve accomplished together — so many program firsts made possible by the incredible support of our donors, alumni and athletic department staff. I’m excited to keep building on the recent success of Virginia Golf. Wahoowa!”