Biography: Fred Sutton enters his third year as the head golf coach at Northwest Nazarene in the 2024-25 season.

During the 2023-24 year, the women’s program finished third at the GNAC Championships for the second year in a row. On the men’s side, senior Grayson Giboney earned the highest GNAC Championships placing of any NNU golfer in program history with a runner-up finish and qualified for the NCAA West Regional. Giboney was named First Team All-Conference, while on the women’s side Madison Gridley earned First Team All-GNAC and Christine Cho a Second Team honor.

In his first year in 2022-23, both the men’s and women’s programs placed third at the GNAC Championships. On the women’s side, Sutton coached the first athlete in the women’s program history to qualify for the NCAA West Regional when Elle McCord made the cut as an individual. McCord was also named the GNAC Player of the Year and First Team All-GNAC as a freshman and was joined by two other Nighthawks, Christine Cho and Madison Gridley, that earned Second Team honors. On the men’s side, Cole Evarts received a Second Team All-GNAC selection.

Prior to becoming the head coach of the Nighthawks, Sutton spent ten years serving as an assistant coach with the NNU men’s and women’s programs.

In addition to his assistant coaching duties over the last decade, Sutton has served NNU as a professor of accounting. He has also given his time as a US Kids Golf Tour Director since 2015.

Sutton also has previous collegiate head coaching experience as the Head Men’s Golf Coach for Victor Valley College from 2003-04.

He is a PGA Class A Professional and has had a lot of success in his career as a player. He played Division I golf for Long Beach State before spending nine years on several different tours including events on different minitours, Canadian Tour, Nike Tour / Nationwide Tour (Korn Fiery Tour), and the PGA Tour. Highlights of his playing career include qualifying for the Sectionals of the US Open in 2019, an alternate for the PGA National Championship in 2020, named the Inland Empire Player of the Year in 2004, and winning over 50 Professional Tournaments.

He also recently qualified for the 2024 PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch Golf Club in Frisco, TX beginning April 28, 2024. He finished 4th out of 57 players in the Rocky Mountain PGA Section that encompasses parts of 5 different states to earn the final qualifying spot for the event. He has qualified for the past 4 PGA Professional Championships.

Sutton received a Bachelors Degree in Finance from Long Beach State before going on to earn his MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management and a Doctorate of Business Administration, concentrated in Accounting, from Argosy University.

Sutton lives in Nampa and has three children, Jadyn, Hunter, and Maci.