Former Iowa men’s assistant golf coach Tyler Stith is no longer with the program; he has accepted a job as an assistant coach at Minnesota, according to a Minnesota release on Sept. 1.

Stith, an Iowa alum, said the move was a career-based decision.

“I’m at the point in my career now where I want to be a head coach some day,” Stith told The Daily Iowan Monday night. “I was just looking for a new opportunity and different challenges that would help prepare me to become a head coach some day.”

The Mount Pleasant, Iowa, native said the coaching position “came up pretty quickly” in the past month.

“It was important for me to go somewhere and see how things are done differently somewhere else,” he said. “At this point, the more experiences I can give myself is going to prepare me that much more for down the road.”

Stith joins Minnesota head coach John Carlson, who is also in his first year as head coach of the Gophers. Carlson was hired on Aug. 10.

The former Hawkeye assistant played at Iowa from 1999-2002.

Most recently, Stith spent the past three and a half years as an assistant for Iowa head coach Mark Hankins.

“Coach Hankins was behind my move 100 percent, and I would have never left without his blessing,” Stith said.

The Hawkeyes and Gophers will play in their first tournament of the fall season this weekend at the Gopher Invitational in Wayzata, Minn., on Sept. 11-12.

— by Ben Schuff