Nick Ziccardi joined the Penn State men's golf program in January 2021 and enters his seventh season on staff in 2026-27. Ziccardi came to Happy Valley after spending four years as an assistant coach for the men’s golf program at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Ziccardi has helped mentor 13 All-Region honorees, an All-Big Ten selection, two NCAA Regional individual qualifiers and 10 GCAA All-America Scholars throughout his first six seasons at Penn State.
This past season, Ziccardi saw the Nittany Lions regain its Rutherford Intercollegiate Championship as the lone team in red figures after failing to capture the title during the 2024-25 campaign. It marked their 32nd Rutherford title and the 10th since 2015.
Senior Andres Barraza also secured individual medalist honors with a 5-under, 208, while each of the Nittany Lions in the starting lineup finished inside the top-18. Barraza became Penn State’s 22nd individual champion in tournament history.
Ziccardi also saw Penn State finish tied for sixth at the B1G Championships, the best finish for the Nittany Lions since 2018. Sophomore Will Preston finished the week tied for 20th while Creamean and Barraza finished T-23.
Individually, Creamean shaved over two shots off his stroke average finishing the season with a team-best 70.97 mark over 10 tournaments and moved from No. 502 to No. 278 in the Clippd golf rankings while Barraza went from No. 999 to No. 624.
As a team, Penn State had the third highest jump in the Big Ten going from No. 146 in the nation to No. 109 by years end.
Ziccardi was involved in all aspects of the Pacific’s program with collaborative responsibilities for organizing practices and qualifying events to recruiting and resource management. He also worked hand-in-hand with the West Coast Conference on the planning, organization and execution of the 2019 conference championships to ensure the event met NCAA standards.
The Buffalo, New York, native started his journey as a coach at St. Lawrence University where he served as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s programs. In addition to his duties with team practices and workouts, he also handled many aspects of student-athlete recruitment. During his two years in Canton, New York, the Saints recorded eight team wins, seven student-athletes won individual titles and two claimed Liberty League Player of the Year honors.
Ziccardi earned his master’s degree in educational leadership in 2016 while at St. Lawrence. He received his undergraduate degree in business management from Northwood University in West Palm Beach, Florida (now Keiser University) in 2014, where he was captain of the Seahawk squad as a senior. He began his collegiate playing career at Oklahoma Christian University where he was a member of the Eagles’ NAIA National Championship in 2009.
While attending graduate school, Ziccardi also gained coaching experience as camp staff member at the Nike Golf Camp at Williams College in 2015, and also spent four summers from 2015-19 as a coach at the Stanford Junior Golf Camp.
Ziccardi has a Trackman University Level 1 certification and certificate of completion of a kettlebells fundamentals course.