The Florida Gators women's golf team represents the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in the sport of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

. The Lady Gators compete in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) and the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC). They play their home matches on the

Mark Bostick Golf Course The Mark Bostick Golf Course at the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, is the home course of the Florida Gators men's golf and Florida Gators women's golf teams. The course is owned by the university and operated by the Uni ...

on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus, and will be led by third-year coach Emily Glaser in 2014–15. In the forty-five-year history of the Gators women's golf program, the Lady Gators have won nine SEC championships and two NCAA national tournament championships.

Team history

The Florida Gators women's golf program originated as an intercollegiate club team under coach Mimi Ryan in 1969. Ryan's Lady Gators were elevated to varsity status in 1972 with the expansion of the Gators women's sports program under former University of Florida athletic director

Ray Graves Samuel Ray Graves (December 31, 1918 – April 10, 2015) was an American college and professional football player and college football coach. He was a native of Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he was the starting ...

and associate athletic director Ruth Alexander. The University of Florida embraced the challenge of creating a nationally recognized women's sports program, including women's golf, in order to comply with

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

's federally mandated equal opportunities for women in college sports. As one of the first Florida Gators women's sports teams, the Lady Gators golfers enjoyed almost immediate success in Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) competition. In the Lady Gators' first year as a varsity sports team, Ryan's Gators finished seventh at the AIAW national championship tournament, beginning a streak of nineteen consecutive top-ten finishes in the AIAW and NCAA national championship tournaments. Ryan's golfers finished second in the AIAW national championship tournament in 1978 and 1978. The 1981–1982 school year was the transition year for sponsorship of national championship tournaments for women's college sports in the United States. During 1981–1982, both the AIAW and the NCAA sponsored championships; since 1982, only the NCAA has sponsored championships in women's college sports. The Lady Gators finished third in the last AIAW championship tournament, and fourth in the first NCAA championship tournament in 1982. Under Ryan, the Lady Gators golf program peaked in the mid-1980s, when the women's golf team won two back-to-back NCAA tournament championships in 1985 and 1986. Led by senior

Deb Richard Deb Richard (born June 13, 1963) is an American former professional golfer who was a member of the LPGA Tour for twenty years during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Amateur career Richard was born in Abbeville, Louisiana in 1963, and raised in ...

in 1985, a Gators team that included Karen Davies, Lisa Stanley, Page Dunlap and Tammy Towles dominated the NCAA tournament field to win the program's first national championship by fifteen shots,NCAA.org, College Sports Statistics and Records, 2010 NCAA Women's Golf Championships Results and Records
All-Time Championship Records and Results
pp. 2–5. Retrieved June 12, 2011. and Richard missed winning the NCAA individual championship by a single shot.Paul Jenkins,
Ryan has built national power with quiet confidence
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 6F (June 15, 1986). Retrieved June 10, 2011. Leading the team of Karen Davies, Lisa Nedoba, Cheryl Morley and Lisa Stanley to its second NCAA national tournament championship eight shots ahead of the runner-up team, junior Page Dunlap won the NCAA individual championship by a single stroke in 1986. For the first time in the history of college women's golf, all five starting members of the 1986 team received All-American honors. The Southeastern Conference sanctioned women's golf as a conference sport in 1980, and the Lady Gators enjoyed immediate success against their SEC competition, winning eight SEC team championships (1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1995, 2008). Six individual members of the Gators women's golf team have also won eight SEC individual titles, including Lynn Connelly (1981), Deb Richard (1982, 1983, 1984), Karen Davies (1986), Cheryl Morley (1988), Dina Taylor (1995) and Aimee Cho (2003). In 2011, coach Jan Dowling's Lady Gators tied for tenth place at the NCAA national championship tournament. The Gators finished twelfth at the 2012 NCAA national championship tournament.

Individual honors

All-American

Eleven Lady Gators golfers have earned seventeen first-team All-American honors, including

Beverley Davis Beverley S. Davis (born c. 1957) is an American former professional golfer who is currently an instructor with LPGA International. Amateur career Davis ranked sixth among the top ten female amateur golfers in America after winning the Trans-Na ...

(1976, 1979), Lori Garbacz (1978), Denise Hermida (1979), Laurie Rinker (1980, 1982), Deb Richard (1984, 1985), Laurie Burns (1984), Karen Davies (1986, 1987, 1988), Page Dunlap (1986), Cheryl Morley (1988, 1989),

Riko Higashio is a Japanese professional golfer and former member of the LPGA Tour. Amateur career Higashio was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As a teenager, she won the 1993 Japan Amateur Championship and the 1994 Japan Junior Championship. Higashio ...

(1998), and Sandra Gal (2007).''2008–2009 Florida Gators Women's Golf Media Guide''
History & Tradition
University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2008). Retrieved June 7, 2011.

All-Southeastern Conference

Fifteen Florida women's golf team members have received twenty-eight first-team All-SEC honors, including Laurie Rinker (1982), Laurie Burns (1984), Karen Davies (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987), Page Dunlap (1986), Cheryl Morley (1987, 1988, 1989), Lisa Nedoba (1987),

Lisa Hackney Lisa Ann Hall (born 24 September 1967), née Lisa Ann Hackney, is an English professional golfer who was previously a member of the LPGA Tour and currently plays on the Ladies European Tour. College career Hall accepted an athletic scholarshi ...

(1990), Laura Brown (1991), Dina Taylor (1993, 1994, 1995), Sarah Jones (1994), Kimberly Little (1994, 1995), Jeanne-Marie Busuttil (1995, 1996), Riko Higashio (1996, 1997, 1998), Sara Beautell (1997), Aimee Cho (2003, 2004), and Sandra Gal (2007).

Players Hall of Fame

The National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Players Hall of Fame recognizes the greatest women's college golfers; five Lady Gators have been inducted, including Donna Horton White (1987), Suzanne Jackson (1993), Cheryl Morley (2000), Deb Richard (2002) and Page Dunlap (2003).

LPGA Tour professionals

Nineteen University of Florida alumnae have qualified as members of the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of week ...

, including former Lady Gators Sandra Gal, Lori Garbacz, Lisa Hackney Hall, Donna Horton White,

and Laurie Rinker.

Coaching staff

Emily Glaser succeeded Dowling as the Lady Gators' head coach position following the 2012 season. The 2014–15 season will be her third. She is supported by assistant coach Janice Olivencia.

Mark Bostick Golf Course

The Gators women's golf team hosts its home matches at the

, located on of the university's campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university course was originally designed by noted Scottish golfer and golf course architect Donald Ross in 1921. It was partially redesigned and rebuilt by noted golf architect Bobby Weed as part of a $4 million renovation project in 2001. The renovated course is a 6,701-yard par 70, and the facilities include the Guy Bostick club house and dedicated practice areas for the Gators women's golf team. The course hosts the annual Lady Gator Invitational tournament, and has also served as the site for the NCAA Regional women's tournament.Kevin Brockway
UF women set to host regional golf
" ''The Gainesville Sun'' (May 6, 2009). Retrieved June 7, 2011.

References

External links

* {{Florida Gators athletic program navbox Sports clubs established in 1972 1972 establishments in Florida