Maria Jose Martinez joined the Texas State Bobcats coaching staff as the assistant golf coach in January, aiming to share her golfing experience with the team and foster the “better together” team culture.
Martinez joined the staff with a fondness for the team culture that current head women’s golf coach, Par Nilsson, created.
Gaining this role with the Bobcats gives Martinez the opportunity to continue to grow and connect with the sport.
“I would say it’s kind of like my way of giving back to the sport,” Martinez said. “Golf really gave me the best relationships that I’ve ever had, both professionally and personally.”
Prior to coming to Texas State, Martinez was a standout golfer for both the University of Houston and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
Martinez spent the first four years of her collegiate career with the Cougars, where she won an individual first-place title and set a school record. As a graduate student, Martinez led the Rebels to a team second-place finish at the Mountain West Championship in 2024, the program’s best finish since 2018.
“It was the best years of my life so far,” Martinez said. “It was really fun competing. I grew up a lot as a person and as a golfer. Golf is an individual sport, and then once you get to college it becomes a team sport as well. I learned a lot from my teammates [and] from my coaches. I’m still very close to most of my college coaches and they’ve helped shape me as a golfer and a person.”
This collegiate experience assisted Martinez in her new role with the Bobcats. Martinez is able to pass down her collegiate experience to the team and relate to them on and off the golf course.
“It’s more of a trust thing,” Martinez said. “They can trust me because I was there not that long ago.”
The addition of Martinez to the Bobcat coaching staff is helpful to Nilsson, who has enjoyed the energy and creative aspects she brings to the team.
“I like to have younger assistant coaches that are basically straight out of school because they can definitely understand our girls and our players, this generation, in a different way than I can,” Nilsson said. “I think we have very, very different experiences, but she compliments me very, very well in that way.”
Martinez fostered a relationship with the whole team but has been particularly helpful in easing the transition to college golf for freshman Miren Ontanon, who joined the Bobcats this January.
“When I have trouble, the first one I talk to is Maria, on the golf course and in life,” Ontanon said. “She is always trying to help not just me but the whole team.”
Both Martinez and Ontanon have played in similar tournaments in Mexico, allowing Martinez to understand the type of player Ontanon is on the course.
“I don’t know if it’s because she is from Mexico, but we have played the same tournaments, so she understands me very well, and she understands how I like to play,” Ontanon said. “There’s different kinds of players, so she understands that I like to be more aggressive and feel shots. She knows me and helps me to make the decisions.”
Prior to collegiate golf, Martinez was a standout golfer in both the U.S. and Mexico, where she has collected a multitude of honors and achievements. Martinez first stepped onto the golf course when she was three years old and has kept with the sport ever since. Growing up in a competitive golf family has led Martinez to enjoy the competitive nature and how you can always improve within the sport.
“I like that with golf you can always get better. There’s just always room for improvement. It’s just never perfect,” Martinez said. “I like that it’s a very individual and personal sport, and just a lot about how you are on the golf course shows how you are in life and your personality.”
As the season progresses, Nilsson wants to give Martinez the opportunity to work on her personal goals as well as gain valuable coaching experience with the team.
“I always talk to my assistant coaches asking what their personal goals are, and I think I definitely want her to reach her goals, but I also want to give her a lot of experience with doing a lot of coaching,” Nilsson said. “Especially being on the course one-on-one with players and doing a lot of coaching. I think it’s pretty perfect because she’s good at that too, so I think that’s definitely something that we’re going to do.”
