Portie, who was the first women’s golf coach at Metropolitan State University of Denver the last four seasons, replaces Stephen Bidne, who resigned from the UNC post to take the same job at the University of Hawaii.

Metro State hosted the NCAA Division II Championship Finals last year, and Portie played a key role as the women’s tournament was played at CommonGround Golf Course and the men’s at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

Prior to coaching at Metro State — where he led the Roadrunners to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles in 2015 and ’16 — Portie was an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s programs at UNC from 2010 to ’13. The 2012 squad won the Big Sky Conference tournament title.

“I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of the UNC Bear family again,” Portie said in a UNC press release. “I am looking forward to jumping right in and helping our current Bear golf team be successful in the classroom, community and golf course.”

Portie played his college golf at the University of Colorado, and the left-hander led the way indiviudally the last time the Buff men competed in the NCAA Finals, in 2002. As a pro, besides winning a Colorado Open, Portie has captured the title twice in the Rocky Mountain Open.

As an amateur, Portie was the CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year in 2001.

UNC is one of four NCAA Division I women’s golf programs based in Colorado, along with CU, Colorado State University and the University of Denver.
 

Two months after Denver native and former University of Denver women’s golf coach Sammie Chergo stepped down as women’s coach at Oregon State, her former OSU assistant, Dawn Shockley, was named the Beavers’ head coach on Monday.

Shockley was born and raised in Colorado and played golf under Chergo at DU. While competing for the Pioneers, they placed sixth and fifth, respectively, in the 2008 and ’09 women’s NCAA finals. Individually, Shockley won twice while at DU, including the 2009 NCAA East Regional as a senior. She finished 21st individually in the 2009 NCAA finals.

“Dawn is a proven winner and a steely competitor,” Oregon State athletic director Todd Stansbury said in Monday’s announcement. “Her ability to instill confidence in student-athletes and teach course management set her apart from other candidates. I’m excited to watch our program develop under her leadership.”

Shockley, a regular on the Symetra Tour or Ladies European Tour for several years before going to Oregon State, had been serving as interim head coach at OSU since Chergo departed.

Oregon State competes in the Pac-12, the same conference as the University of Colorado.

“Being a head coach is a privilege,” Shockley said. “I’m very grateful (and) thankful and look forward to the opportunity to lead this team and continue what we’ve been doing for the last two years. … I look forward to becoming one of those teams that’s a powerhouse. The challenge and excitement about being the head coach is leading this team to something that is pretty cool and pretty unique.”

Oregon State set — or re-set — program scoring average records the last two seasons under Chergo, with Shockley’s assistance.

Besides excelling at golf while she attended Estes Park High School, Shockley won the Class 3A state cross country title as a freshman, was named Miss 3A Colorado Basketball as a senior, and served as her school’s student body president as a senior.

As she told coloradogolf.org in 2009, “I’m pretty competitive in everything.”