Former Notre Dame Coach Kameron Chastain Leaves Profession to Pursue a Career in Golf Instead

Former University of Notre Dame coach and Louisville All-American swimmer Kameron Chastain is pursuing a career in golf.

Chastain spent the last three seasons as an associate coach at Notre Dame, and was named the interim head coach after his boss Chris Lindauer was given the head women’s coaching job at Stanford.

Prior to that, he spent seven seasons as a coach at his alma mater, Louisville, where from 2010-2014 he was part of two conference championship teams, qualified for four straight NCAA Championship meets, a nine-time conference champion, and helped the team finish a program best 9th at the 2012 NCAA Championships. He was a four-time All-American in total.

But now he’ll leave the pool deck for a career in golf, where he has taken a job as an administrator at TPC Scottsdale, part of the Tournament Players Club chain.

TPC Scotsdale has been hosted to the Phoenix Open since 1987, which has become one of golf’s most famous non-major championships drawing huge crowds every year – and regular participation from former swimmer and avid golfer Michael Phelps in pro-am sessions.

“I will be working on a PGA Professional license alongside working in this role, which will allow me to continue pursuing higher level managerial and operational careers in golf here in Arizona,” Chastain said.

While his swim coaching career limited his time on the links, Chastain says that his handicap hovers around an 8.

“I have played golf my entire life. Started at 5 or 6 with my dad’s side of the family, and juggled golf and swimming up until high school,” he said.

A Seymour, Indiana native, Chastain, Kameron is married to Lindsey Chastain, formerly Lindsey LaPorte, who is a Phoenix native. Lindsey is a CPA who has had significant career success in the accounting field. The two have one son, Karsyn, and one daughter, Kathryn. Kameron cited his family as the reason for the career change.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have some awesome experiences in coaching,” he reminisced. “Working with and coaching Olympic champions, recruiting and working with student athletes at two of the best institutions in the country to the highest finishes in program history, helping mentor young people, working with some of the best coaches in the country, and many more memories in between.

“None of that would’ve happened without the support of my family. As the NCAA landscape continues to change, I’ve felt more and more that I want to give back to them and spend just as much time as a dad and husband.”

He says that while swimming and golf are very different sports with very different skill sets, he sees a lot of overlap in the constant details of the two sports.

“I think what keeps drawing me back (to golf) is the constant pursuit of being better in whatever I do.

“Swimming at a high level requires correcting the little details that maybe no one sees, and golfing at a high level is the same. Every time you miss a wall or don’t execute that third 25 the way you want to, you can come back and execute it in workout the next day. Every time you go out and play 18 holes, there is always something that you can come back to the range and work on. There is no such thing as the perfect race or round of golf. In both sports, it’s easy to feel the rush of doing something maybe previously you thought you couldn’t.

“I believe in the 1%. Swimming and golf have both taught me to pursue being just that 1% better in whatever I do, and I’m excited to do that in a full time capacity now in another sport!”