Women’s golf has been off to a stellar start this season, earning top-10 finishes in seven of its eight events up until the HBU Husky Invitational, including back to back first-place finishes in two of their last three. The team’s success has started to become unsurprising.
This is the third season of play for the program and just their second season of being able to compete as a team due to roster size, but they’ve already set a high bar for years to come.
Last season, their first year of team competition, the Cougars finished in the top 10 in every event during the regular season, as well as a 3rd place finish at the American Athletic Conference Championships.
From there, they earned an invitation to the NCAA San Antonio Regional, where the team finished 13th out of a field of 18 teams.
The program has used that season as a springboard into this year, as the Cougars earned 6th-place finishes at each of their first three events of the 2015-2016 season, with Cougars placing in the individual top 10 at each of those events.
It wasn’t too long into 2016 when the Cougars earned their first team win of the year, claiming first at the University of Central Florida Challenge.
They topped the leaderboard as a team two of the three days, including a final round combined score of 295, their third-straight round of +7 over par for the weekend — finishing +21 over par — and finising one stroke better than conference rival Tulane University for the team championship.
Stand-out senior Raegan Bremer also earned a 6th place finish at the event. Bremer, who has been a member of the women’s golf program since their first season, has been a consistent and strong contributor for the Cougars during her whole career. Now in her final year, she has continued to anchor the Cougars’ squad and served as an integral part of building the program.
One month after earning their first team win of the season, the Cougars hit the links again at the UNF Collegiate, where the team swept the championships, finishing first as a team, 10 strokes ahead of the 25th-ranked Texas Longhorns, to claim the title with a total score of 14+ over par.
In addition to the team championship, sophomore Megan Thothong and junior Emily Gilbreth shared the individual title after they shot +1 over par for the event, one stroke better than the next best golfers.
Each season, the team has continued to build on the strength from the previous year, adding more wins to the record books and building more momentum. It shows no signs of being a new program, quickly establishing itself as a state and ACC class program.
A lot of the team’s success is due to head coach Gerrod Chadwell, who has helped build the program from the ground up and recruited players who had an immediate impact on the program.
Now ranked 38th in the nation, the Cougars have gone from a surprising upstart to one of the most competitive teams every time out on the course, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans if they are able to capture a conference title this season and earn a second-consecutive berth in the NCAA postseason.
While they may not have the name recognition of the football, basketball or baseball teams, the women’s golf team has consistently been one of the more successful programs for UH athletics over the past few seasons, and when they continue to win, you shouldn’t be surprised. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.