WoMen's Golf Coach Resigns Position After 13 Years
August 30, 2006 | Women's Golf
Tampa, Fla. (August 29, 2006) ? Susan Holt, who has been the women's golf coach at the University of South Florida the past 13 years, resigned to accept the women's golf head coach position at the University of Notre Dame.
Holt will attend the first women's golf tournament Sept. 11-12 at Charleston, S.C. with the Bulls and will assist in USF's transition and hiring of a new women's golf coach before her departure.
“It's Notre Dame. This is an opportunity that presented itself, a very attractive opportunity, and I have a chance to move my family back closer to the Midwest, where both my husband and I are from,” said Coach Holt. “Right now it suits the needs of my family.”
“Susan has done a remarkable job with our women's golf program,” said USF Director of Athletics Doug Woolard. “Her leadership of the program has led to high levels of success athletically and academically on a consistent basis throughout 13 years. While we will miss her greatly, we are thankful her dedication to USF has positioned the program to be successful for many years to come. Because of that, we expect to draw an outstanding national pool of outstanding candidates to replace Coach Holt.”
“In 13 years the program has had a lot of success and I had the opportunity to coach outstanding student-athletes,” continued Holt. “At USF I was able to surround myself with great student-athletes, support staff and administrators. Because of that, I'm confident USF will place the job in good hands so someone else can run with it.”
Holt has directed the women's golf program to 16 team titles and 17 runner-up titles, including five of 10 Conference USA Championships. She guided the team and/or individuals to 11 NCAA Regional appearances and two consecutive trips to the NCAA Championship Finals in 2001 and 2002.
Holt's teams at USF have won at least one tournament in 10 of her 13 previous seasons and she has been recognized as Conference USA Coach of the Year in 1996, 1999 and 2001. In the spring of 2005, Holt was named Conference USA Coach of the Decade for women's golf (1995-2005).
Under Holt's watch, USF players have been named to the Conference USA All-Conference Team 23 times. Current LPGA player and USF graduate Kelly Lagedrost was named Conference USA Player of the Year in 2001. Current USF golfer Christina Jones was named Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2005.
Over the past 13 years Holt's teams have excelled academically as well. Eighteen times players have been named to the National Golf Coaches Association All Scholar Golf Team and 18 times have earned the Conference USA Commissioners Academic Medal. Seventy-five times players have earned All-Conference USA academic team honors. This past year 10 players were named to the BIG EAST Conference Academic All-Star Team. The overall team grade point average over the past 13 years is an impressive 3.24.
Holt coached at Purdue University where she led the women's golf team from 1990-1993. Prior to collegiate coaching, Holt worked as a club professional in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Ipswich, Mass. She is a 1988 graduate of Ohio State University, where she played on the women's golf team that won Big Ten Championships in 1985 and 1988 and played in the NCAA Championship in those same years.
