Knox College Prairie Fire

K.C. Harding was named the head golf coach at Knox in 2013 and has worked hard to bring back the success of the Prairie Fire golf programs.  

Harding was the 2018 men's golf coach of the year in the Midwest Conference after leading the team to a second place finish at the MWC Championships while posting the schools lowest 3 day Midwest Conference total and posting the 2nd lowest score in the history of the league. The official turnaround of the program came in 2018 when GolfStat along with the NCAA announced the Prairie Fire Men's team were named The Mark Laesch Award winners. The Mark Laesch Award is given to the most improved golf program in the NCAA amongst division I, II and III. Harding's leadership allowed the team to lower their scoring average from 342 down to 308 in one year. The women's team have also made great strides, Harding inherited a program with no players on the roster only to see it grow to seven in 2019. This past Fall, Coach Harding led two members of the Women's team to All-Conference honors. Shelby Keen (3rd straight year earning all-conference honors) placed third overall while Samantha Nichols (4th straight year earning all-conference honors) finished 8th place while the team finished 5th out of the 12 teams competing for the title.

Harding has a team first mentality but has also helped lead numerous individuals to Midwest Conference honors since his arrival. Coach Harding has guided seven all-conference players on the Women's team along with two Newcomer of the year award winners. On the Men's side he has guided eight players to all-conference honors, two players have earned the Newcomer of the Year award which is given to the first-year player that finishes the tournament with the lowest three day total, he has developed two Midwest Conference Individual Champions and has led two players to the Elite 20 Award which is given to one player a year at the Conference Championship that holds the highest GPA in the the league. With accomplishments like this it is easy to see Coach Harding expects a lot from his players on and off the golf course.

Prior to his time at Knox, K.C. worked as an assistant golf professional at Soangetaha Country Club (2007-2009, 2012-2014) and Lake Bracken Golf Club (2009-2012) in Galesburg, and Mattoon Golf and Country Club (2004-2006).

Before arriving at Knox Harding was the head men's golf coach for four years (2009-2013) at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg. Harding led CSC to its only Arrowhead Conference title in 2010..  His teams finished as the Region IV Tournament runner-up in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and earned trips to NJCAA Division II National Tournament.

The Sandburg men’s golf squad finished 17th at nationals in 2010 and 14th in 2011.  In all, Harding helped the Chargers qualify for the national tournament in men’s golf three times in four years.

In addition, he produced 18 out of a possible 20 all-region players, 14 out of a possible 15 all-conference players, and coached the school's only NJCAA Division II Ping All-American player.

In his continued role at Knox, Harding is working to make the Prairie Fire golf teams annual contenders for the SLIAC Conference title.