LAS VEGAS — The coaches for the American and International teams at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup were named Tuesday during the annual coaches convention at Planet Hollywood.
Auburn’s Nick Clinard and South Carolina’s Kalen Anderson will lead Team USA as co-head coaches, while Kansas State’s Stew Burke and East Tennessee State’s Aaron O’Callaghan will guide the International team.
Anderson, hired as head coach in 2008, has helped South Carolina earn four consecutive No. 1 NCAA Regional seeds, winning five since 2010, and qualifying for the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship in 12 of the past 14 seasons. The Gamecocks have won 28 tournaments under Anderson, including the Annika Intercollegiate this fall, and have earned 48 WGCA All-America honors by 15 different players.
Clinard is in his 16th season as head coach at Auburn, and last year was his best season, guiding the Tigers to their first national championship in school history. This fall, Auburn finished inside the top three in all five tournaments this fall, including a win at the East Lake Cup.
A 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup assistant coach, Burke is in his second season as Kansas State’s head coach. The Wildcats tallied four top-five finishes this fall, including a victory in the season-opening Powercat Invitational.
Also an Arnold Palmer Cup assistant coach in 2024, O’Callaghan was named head coach at East Tennessee State on June 10, 2024. He led the Buccaneers to top-15 finishes in all five tournaments this fall. O’Callaghan spent the last six seasons as the associate head coach at Wake Forest.
The Palmer Cup is an annual competition between the top collegiate players from the United States going against their International counterparts. The U.S. leads the Palmer Cup series 15-12-1.
There will be no immediate changes in the day-to-day operations of the WGCA.
Roger Yaffe took over as executive director of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association in 1998. Next year will be his last.
The WGCA announced Wednesday that Yaffe would step down at the conclusion of 2025 as the association’s executive director. A national search will begin next week to fill the position by July 1, 2025.
“It has been the pleasure of my career to have served the Women’s Golf Coaches Association,” Yaffe said in a release. “The strides that we have taken together could not have been imagined 26 years ago. I owe a debt of gratitude to so many coaches, past and current, and members of the golf industry, for their support and common goal to growing our sport. I look forward to the next year as we transition together.”
In 1998, Yaffe became the executive director of the WGCA, formally known as the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA). He has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the WGCA and works closely with the WGCA board to implement the association’s initiatives. Yaffe has worked with 14 past WGCA presidents and assisted in the organization’s growth from 300 women’s collegiate golf coaches to more than 750 in 2024.
“We are excited for Roger and support his decision as he steps away from the college golf world he has served for the last 26 years,” WGCA President Kelley Hester said in a release. “We are thankful for his invaluable experience and expertise in our niche of women’s college golf. It has been an honor to serve alongside him and see our organization thrive under his tutelage.”
In the meantime, there will be no immediate changes in the day-to-day operations of the WGCA.
Stanford, Dallas Baptist, Carnegie Mellon and Keiser are in the No. 1 spots in the preseason polls.
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association has released its preseason polls for the 2024-25 season.
The Preseason Mizuno WGCA Coaches Polls are headlined by Div. I, which is topped by the defending national champion Stanford Cardinal.
Stanford is a unanimous No. 1 with former Pac-12 rival USC starting in the No. 2 spot. NCAA runner-up UCLA will start third, with South Carolina and Texas tied for fourth.
In the wake of the latest round of college realignment, there are 10 SEC teams in the top 25. The breakdown:
SEC (10) – South Carolina, Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Florida.
Big Ten (5) – USC, UCLA, Oregon, Northwestern, Michigan State.
Big 12 (2) – Arizona State, Arizona.
Div. I Preseason Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll
Rank
University (First-place votes)
Points
1
Stanford (31)
775
2
USC
692
3
UCLA
671
T4
South Carolina
599
T4
Texas
599
6
Auburn
565
7
Wake Forest
544
8
Arkansas
528
9
Texas A&M
480
10
Oregon
470
11
Northwestern
448
12
Arizona State
428
13
LSU
414
14
Florida State
356
15
Duke
349
16
Mississippi State
254
17
Arizona
247
18
Clemson
222
19
Vanderbilt
221
20
Virginia
204
21
Ole Miss
199
22
Florida
198
23
Michigan State
139
24
Pepperdine
134
25
San Jose State
47
Others receiving votes: Central Florida (39); North Carolina (36); Georgia (34); Southern Methodist University (29); California (26); Oregon State (20); Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (17); Kansas (17); Missouri State (14); Oklahoma State (13); Purdue (13); Georgia Southern (10); Ohio State (7); Baylor (6); Kansas State (5); Eastern Michigan (3); Alabama (3)
Dallas Baptist opens the season atop the Division II rankings after receiving eight first-place votes, followed by Flagler College at No. 2 with three votes. Findlay received one first-place vote to claim the No. 3 spot, while West Texas A&M and Anderson come in at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.
Dallas Baptist golf. (Photo: Dallas Baptist golf)
Div. II Preseason Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll
Rank
University (First-place votes)
Points
1
Dallas Baptist (8)
430
2
Flagler College (3)
409
3
Findlay (1)
396
4
West Texas A&M
382
5
Anderson
363
6
St. Mary’s (Texas) (1)
336
7
Nova Southeastern
332
8
Lynn (2)
330
9
Indianapolis (3)
302
10
Rollins College
243
11
Saint Leo
234
T12
California State San Marcos
231
T12
Lee
231
14
Henderson State
227
15
Barry
196
16
Central Missouri
193
17
Grand Valley State
139
18
Wingate
113
19
Lander
104
20
Midwestern State
102
21
Florida Southern College
86
22
California State East Bay
63
23
Southwestern Oklahoma State
50
24
California State Monterey Bay
48
25
Rogers State
46
Others receiving votes: North Georgia (44); Tampa (35); Texas at Tyler (35); Augustana (South Dakota) (29); Ashland (23); Missouri-St. Louis (21); West Florida (19); California State Los Angeles (18); Lenoir Rhyne (14); Davenport (8); Eckerd College (6); Central Oklahoma (5); Northeastern State (3); Lincoln Memorial (1); Palm Beach Atlantic (1); Texas A&M International (1); Nebraska at Kearney (1)
In Division III, the defending NCAA champs Carnegie Mellon claims the top spot after receiving all but two first-place votes, while Emory and Pomona-Pitzer come in at a tie for the No. 2 spot. George Fox opens the season at No. 4, while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps rounds out the top five.
Div. III Preseason Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll
Rank
University (First-place votes)
Points
1
Carnegie Mellon (17)
473
T2
Emory
439
T2
Pomona-Pitzer (1)
439
4
George Fox
407
5
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
393
6
Williams College
363
7
University of Redlands
328
8
Illinois Wesleyan
326
9
St. Catherine
313
10
Washington University in St. Louis
282
11
Amherst College
239
12
Wellesley College
236
13
Washington and Lee
215
14
Trinity (Texas)
184
15
Centre College
177
16
Carleton College
170
T17
Methodist (1)
151
T17
New York University
151
19
Mary Hardin-Baylor
136
20
Denison University
135
21
Hamilton College
93
22
Middlebury College
91
23
Grinnell College
83
24
Rhodes College
75
25
Randolph-Macon College
48
Others receiving votes: Chapman (47); Sewanee: The University of the South (35); Adrian College (20); Trinity College (20); Saint Mary’s College (17); Wisconsin Whitewater (16); Central College (14); Oglethorpe (11); Ohio Northern (10); Christopher Newport (8); Rose Hulman Institute of Technology (7); Whitman College (6); California Lutheran (5); Calvin (3); California Santa Cruz (3); LeTourneau (2); Macalester College (2); Hardin-Simmons (1); Trine (1)
In NAIA, last year’s champs, Keiser, opens the season as the unanimous No. 1, followed by runner-up Oklahoma City and SCAD Savannah at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
NAIA Preseason Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll
Rank
University (First Place Votes)
Points
1
Keiser (10)
100
2
Oklahoma City
83
3
SCAD Savannah
72
4
British Columbia
71
5
Texas Wesleyan
60
6
William Carey
48
7
Dalton State College
40
8
Lindsey Wilson College
33
9
Embry Riddle Aeronautical
14
10
Loyola New Orleans
8
Others receiving votes: Indiana Wesleyan (7); SCAD Atlanta (6); Truett McConnell (6); Ottawa University – Arizona (2)
The next Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll will be released on Friday, Oct. 4.
About the Women’s Golf Coaches Association
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association, founded in 1983, is a non-profit organization representing women’s collegiate golf coaches. The WGCA was formed to encourage the playing of college golf for women in correlation with a general objective of education and in accordance with the highest tradition of intercollegiate competition. Today, the WGCA represents over 750 coaches throughout the U.S. and is dedicated to educating, promoting and recognizing both its members and the student-athletes they represent.
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association has announced its fourth and final coaches poll of the spring 2024 season.
In Division I, Stanford remains at the top of the rankings after receiving all but one first-place vote, while South Carolina received the remaining vote to come in at No. 2. Wake Forest and UCLA take the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, while LSU holds steady at No. 5.
Dallas Baptist University remains the unanimous No. 1 in Division I
Here’s a look at the final Mizuno WGCA Coaches Polls for the 2023-24 season:
Division I
Rank
Team (First-place votes)
Points
1
Stanford (20)
524
2
South Carolina (1)
495
3
Wake Forest
286
4
UCLA
454
5
LSU
443
6
USC
417
7
Auburn
395
8
Northwestern
371
9
Texas
351
10
Arkansas
348
11
Duke
316
12
Texas A&M
289
13
Arizona State
280
14
Oregon
230
15
Ole Miss
219
16
Clemson
199
17
Arizona
192
18
Florida
163
19
Florida State
158
20
Vanderbilt
114
21
Pepperdine
109
22
Mississippi State
85
T-23
Georgia
53
T-23
Virginia
53
25
San Jose State
22
Receiving votes: North Carolina (15); California (14); UCF (13); SMU (12); Purduu (5)
Division II
Rank
Team (First-place votes)
Points
1
Dallas Baptist (11)
275
2
Flagler College
261
3
Findlay
245
4
West Texas A&M
231
5
Anderson
225
6
Nova Southeastern
225
7
Indianapolis
194
8
Rollins
190
9
St. Mary’s (Texas)
184
10
Barry
175
11
Lynn
168
12
Central Missouri
145
13
Saint Leo
133
14
CSU-San Marcos
131
15
Henderson State
123
16
Lee
113
17
Oklahoma Christian
111
18
Wingate
88
19
Midwestern State
85
20
Lander
63
21
Grand Valley State
57
22
CSU-Monterey Bay
40
23
Florida Southern College
39
24
North Georgia
19
T-25
CSU-Los Angeles
17
T-25
Tampa
13
Receiving votes: West Florida (11); Southwestern Oklahoma State (8); CSU-East Bay (6); Texas at Tyler (3); Rogers State (1)
Division III
Rank
Team (First-place votes)
Points
1
Carnegie Mellon (8)
318
2
Pomona-Pitzer (1)
306
3
George Fox (1)
291
4
Emory
289
5
Claremont-Mudd-Scipps (2)
277
6
Illinois Wesleyan (1)
270
T-7
Redlands
229
T-7
Washington St. Louis
229
9
Wellesley College
211
10
Texas at Dallas
201
11
Truett McConnell
184
12
St. Catherine
179
13
Washington and Lee
177
14
Amherst College
163
T-15
Centre College
137
T-15
Trinity (Texas)
137
17
Carleton College
107
18
Mary Hardin-Baylor
101
19
Methodist
94
20
Middlebury College
74
T-21
Hamilton College
57
T-21
Rhodes College
57
23
Chapman
40
24
Sewanee
27
25
Grinnell College
23
Receiving votes: Denison(14); Huntingdon College (14); Ohio Northern (11); Whitman College (6); Wisconsin, Whitewater (2)
NAIA
Rank
Team (First-place votes)
Points
1
British Columbia (8)
89
2
Keiser(1)
82
T-3
Oklahoma City
64
T-3
SCAD Savannah
64
5
Texas Wesleyan
55
6
Dalton State
42
7
William Carey
38
8
Truett McConnell
28
9
Loyola-New Orleans
15
10
Ottawa-Arizona
7
Receiving votes: Embry Riddle (5); Lindsey Wilson College (5); Indiana Wesleyan (1)
These are the first polls of the 2024 spring season.
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) has announced the results of the most recent Mizuno WGCA Coaches polls.
These are the first polls of the 2024 spring season.
In Division I, Wake Forest opens the spring at No. 1 after receiving all but two first-place votes, while Stanford comes in at No. 2 with the remaining first-place votes. USC and Arkansas come in at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, while South Carolina rounds out the top five.
Nova Southeastern claims the top spot in Division II with 10 first-place votes, while Dallas Baptist and Findlay each received one vote to open the season at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Here’s a look at the complete Mizuno WGCA polls for Feb. 16.
LAS VEGAS — College golf coaches from across the country were in Las Vegas this week for the Golf Coaches Association of America and Women’s Golf Coaches Association annual convention at Planet Hollywood.
And there was no shortage of discussion points. The main topic? The new ranking system in college golf, which has caused drama, chaos and discombobulation throughout the fall.
Mark Broadie, who is in charge of the rankings, was in attendance and held two sessions to discuss the new rankings and take questions from coaches to clarify how they work. In addition, there were other breakout sessions and news announced.
Here are the big takeaways from the 2023 college golf coaches convention in Las Vegas.
“We’re super excited about this partnership… and we know they’ll get it done.”
The start of the 2023-24 college golf season has been tumultuous, to say the least.
On Monday, Oct. 16, the NCAA announced Clippd, a technology business founded and staffed by passionate golfers, would take over as the official scoring and rankings provider for college golf. This comes on the heels of numerous failures from Spikemark Golf, which replaced Golfstat in July and was supposed to provide tournament scoring, real-time leaderboards, detailed statistics, in-depth analytics and media, allowing fans to keep track of their favorite teams and players.
However, from day one, Spikemark’s website encountered numerous issues, there have been no official college golf rankings with the fall season nearing completion and plenty of questions remain from coaches and those involved with the inter-workings of the sport about the future.
Here’s what you need to know about Clippd, Spikemark’s failures and the future of college golf scoring and rankings.
Three Tennessee women’s golfers, Angela Arora, Kayla Holden and Vanessa Gilly, were named All-American Scholars by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.
Holden and Gilly earned academic honors for a third time, while Arora was recognized for the first time.
The 2022-23 season marks the eighth consecutive year in which three or more Tennessee student-athletes were named All-American Scholars by the WGCA. Tennessee had a record-setting five student-athletes earning academic honors in 2020-21.
A student athlete must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or higher to be selected. A student-athlete must have competed in at least 50 percent of her team’s competition, and through the institution’s conference championship.
Stanford stays on top, Wake Forest draws closer but it’s Mississippi State making the biggest move.
Stanford is still on top, Wake Forest keeps drawing closer but it’s Mississippi State making the biggest move.
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association released its latest Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll, the third of the 2022-23 season, and the Cardinal remain on top in Division I with 12 first-place votes. Wake Forest is close behind at No. 2 with the remaining nine votes. Three weeks ago, Stanford garnered 19 of the 22 first-place votes.
Mississippi State, in the “others receiving votes” category last time, has vaulted to No. 3 in this poll after winning a second consecutive tournament, the Blessings Collegiate Invitational. The Bulldogs also won the Mason Rudolph Championship at the end of September. MSU next hosts The Ally, a two-day event which starts Monday.
Fellow SEC programs South Carolina and Texas A&M check in at Nos 4 and 5.
Rank
University (first-pace votes)
Points
1
Stanford (12)
516
2
Wake Forest (9)
512
3
Mississippi State
465
4
South Carolina
450
5
Texas A&M
447
6
Oregon
414
7
Mississippi
392
8
Texas
362
9
Duke
357
10
Virginia
332
11
USC
302
12
Arizona State
280
13
Arizona
256
14
Arkansas
233
15
Florida State
205
16
Florida
200
17
LSU
185
18
UCLA
174
19
San Jose State
158
20
Oklahoma State
136
21
Kent State
82
22
Vanderbilt
81
23
Auburn
58
24
Central Florida
53
25
Clemson
32
Others receiving votes: Southern Mississippi (27); Kentucky (25); Nebraska (17); California (13); TCU (11); North Carolina (11); Houston (10); Texas Tech (6); New Mexico (6); Miami (4); Michigan (4); Baylor (2); Pepperdine (2); SMU (2); Tulsa (2); Michigan State (1)
About the Women’s Golf Coaches Association
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association, founded in 1983, is a non-profit organization representing women’s collegiate golf coaches. The WGCA was formed to encourage the playing of college golf for women in correlation with a general objective of education and in accordance with the highest tradition of intercollegiate competition. Today, the WGCA represents over 650 coaches throughout the U.S. and is dedicated to educating, promoting and recognizing both its members and the student-athletes they represent.
Dallas Baptist more than doubled its share of first-place votes.
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association released its latest Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll, the second poll of the 2022-23 season.
Dallas Baptist more than doubled its share of first-place votes, going from eight three weeks ago to 15 this time around in the Division II rankings.
DBU won its third tournament—and second in two weeks—at the 2022 National Preview in Eureka, Missouri, on Oct. 11.
Henderson State, which jumped from No. 10 to No. 3 in the last poll, has climbed up one more spot to No. 2, while also collecting a first-place vote.
Lynn flip-flops with HSU and slides back one one spot to No. 3.
Nova Southeastern is No. 4 and West Texas A&M is No. 5.
Rank
University (Firs-place votes)
Points
1
Dallas Baptist (15)
399
2
Henderson State (1)
376
3
Lynn
354
4
Nova Southeastern
338
5
West Texas A&M
332
6
Findlay
329
7
Anderson
315
8
Saint Leo
275
9
Indianapolis
265
10
Lee
258
11
Limestone
252
12
Tampa
218
13
Missouri-St. Louis
199
14
Grand Valley State
195
15
Central Missouri
161
16
Oklahoma Christian
149
17
Texas at Tyler
109
18
Midwestern State
103
19
Lander
100
20
Flagler College
91
21
Columbus State
76
22
Tiffin
62
23
Biola
55
24
Florida Southern College
40
25
Rollins College
38
Others receiving votes: California State San Marcos (32); California State East Bay (21); Barry (14); Carson-Newman (13); St. Mary’s (Texas) (10); Lenoir Rhyne (5); Central Oklahoma (4); West Georgia (4); Northeastern State (3); Colorado Christian (2); Rogers State (1); West Florida (1); Western Washington (1)
About the Women’s Golf Coaches Association
The Women’s Golf Coaches Association, founded in 1983, is a non-profit organization representing women’s collegiate golf coaches. The WGCA was formed to encourage the playing of college golf for women in correlation with a general objective of education and in accordance with the highest tradition of intercollegiate competition. Today, the WGCA represents over 650 coaches throughout the U.S. and is dedicated to educating, promoting and recognizing both its members and the student-athletes they represent.
