ABOUT THE PROGRAM

2015 NCAA Champions

Excellence at Williams is an expectation and a tradition.

In the short history of women’s golf the program has become a part of this tradition, claiming their place as a top competitor in the northeast and nationally. 

Since the program’s inaugural varsity season in the fall of 2004, women’s golf at Williams College has won five NESCAC Tournaments and has had one top-three, two top-five, and three top-ten and finishes in the NCAA Championships.

Though varsity play began in 2004, women’s golf began competitive play in the fall of 1998, when the Ephs competed in their first tournament at Middlebury College as a club team. 

After only two short seasons under the leadership of Cathy Pohle the Ephs began their winning tradition, earning third place at Ann S. Batchelder Invitational hosted by Wellesley College and building a foundation for a successful future to come.  

The evolution of the program continued in the 2006-2007 season as the Ephs finished second in the first two tournaments of their season.  More success followed as they went on to post an all-time team best score to capture the Columbus Day Tournament, winning their first NESCAC Tournament.  Their overall season performance earned the team a place in the NCAA Championship, where women’s golf would represent Williams for the first time at the national level.  The season concluded with the team finishing in tenth place and Pohle receiving the East Region Coach of the Year honors for her commitment to and influence in the vision of the women’s golf program at Williams.

Read The Color of Royalty, published in Golfer Girl Magazine, for an inside look at the 2007 Ephs - CLICK HERE.

2013 NCAA Ephs (l. to r.): Georgi Salant, Emily Wickstrom, Becky Miller, Shelby Shote, Paige Whidbee & head coach Erika DeSanty

The winning tradition carried on in the 2007-2008 season as the Ephs recorded their most successful season to date. The team, led by Kris Herman and Fran Vandermeer, claimed top honors at Middlebury, Vassar, the Massachusetts State Championship, and the NESCAC Tournament for the second year in a row. Additionally, women’s golf earned a place once again in the NCAA Championship, finishing eighth overall.  ??

The 2009-2010 season found the Ephs stepping it up yet another notch under rookie head coach Erika DeSanty with a seventh place finish at the NCAA Championship along with compiling a team best single round of 314 and a team best two-day total of 628 at home in the Williams Invitational at Taconic Golf Club.

2013 NESCAC Tourney Champions (l to r): FRONT: Georgi Salant, Head Coach Erika DeSanty, Emily Wickstrom BACK: Sarah Hasselman, Shelby Shote, Caroline Sawin, Tracey Kim & Kelly Kung

In September of 2010 at the Mount Holyoke Invitational the Ephs posted their best team score in round one (304) and followed that up with a 311 for their best two-round score in program history (615). ??On October 9, 2010, in the first round of the Williams Fall Invitational at Taconic Golf Club, first-year Alex Groetsema carded an even par round of 71 on the famed layout, marking the lowest round ever by an Eph woman. Groetsema's 71 was both the lowest round ever recorded by an Eph woman and the first even par round. She was one under on the front (34) and one over on the back (37). 

Click to see INDIVIDUAL HONORS (All-Region, All-American & Scholar Awards)

At the Williams Fall Invitational on October 6-7, 2012, junior Georgiana Salant shot 73-71 for a 144 total (two over par) to register the best two-round score ever by an Eph woman and to claim medalist honors for the third time in a row that season. In the spring of 2013, Salant posted an impressive 71 (one under) at the Vassar Invitational at Dutchess Golf and Country Club to surpass the previous record held by Groetsema.

Following a terrific junior season and an incredible performance in the 2013 NCAA Championships, finishing fifth individually, Salant placed her name in the Eph record book permanently as she was honored as the program's first First Team All-American. 

Salant would follow up her First Team All-American junior year performance with a stellar senior campaign, again garnering First Team All-American accolades and ultimately earning the invidiaul national championship title by way of a four-round total of 303. Salant's game led the Ephs to their highest finish in NCAA championship play, placing them on the podium in third place nationally.

In 2015 under the direction of interim head coach Bill Kangas the Ephs captured thier first NCAA title at El Campèon Golf COurse in Howey-in-the-Hills, Floridia when they shot 1,263 over four days.

The 2016 Ephs finished fifth at the NCAA Championships, extending their streak of top five finsihes to five. First year Cordelia Chan earned Honorable Mention All-America honors at the Championship by finsihing 9th in a field of 109 competitors.

Click to see INDIVIDUAL & TEAM BESTS

NCAA Championship Finishes

Year	Place	Coach
2021	5th	Tomas Adalsteinsson
2020	N/A	Covid 19 pandemiccanceled the event
2019	2nd	Tomas Adalsteinsson
2018	2nd	Tomas Adalsteinsson
2017	4th	Tomas Adalsteinsson
2016	5th	Bill Kangas
2015	1st	Bill Kangas
2014	3rd	Erika DeSanty
2013	5th	"
2012	5th	"
2011	T 8th	"
2010	7th	Erika DeSanty
2008	8th	Kris Herman & Fran Vandermeer
2007	10th	Cathy Pohle