Women’s Golf: What to Know for 2021
Feb 05 | Women's Golf
With a mix of returning talent and proven newcomers, Rutgers women’s golf opens its season Monday, Feb. 8 at the Texas State Invitational in Kyle, Texas. After their 2020 spring season was cut short and fall campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scarlet Knights will compete in seven tournaments and the Big Ten Championships, held from April 23-25 at TPC River's Ben in Maineville, Ohio. The full 2021 schedule can be found here.
2021 Spring Schedule
2019-20 Notable Accomplishments
Under the guidance of head coach Kari Williams, RU produced a 300.85 team scoring average last season, second best in program history. The team’s success included a single-round program record 281 en route to a second-place result at the 13-team Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the University of Kentucky.
Rutgers also finished third at the 11-team Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational at Sahalee Country Club, as Maeve Rossi and Anna-Maria Diederichs both posted top-10 finishes to finish ninth and fourth, respectively. Diederichs also earned Big Ten Conference Golfer of the Week after carding a 219 (72-72-75) to place third in the 68-player field at the Lady Blue Hen Invitational, as she became the first Scarlet Knight freshman to earn Women's Golfer of the Week since RU joined the league in 2014-15.
Returning Talent
Diederichs leads all returnees with her 75.95 scoring average from last fall, while Rossi was second with a 76.20 scoring average in a team-high eight tournaments. Lori Char, Leigha Devine, Nicole Ewing and Eun Won Park also return for the Scarlet Knights this spring, as Park appeared in a team-high eight events and finished with a 77.57 scoring average with three rounds of par or better golf.
International Success
Diederichs and Rossi enjoyed standout performances last year during overseas amateur play. Diederichs finished second at the Austrian International Amateur in August and competed in the 2020 European Ladies' Amateur Championship this past fall in Smlednik, Slovenia. Rossi, who has international experience as a member of the Italian National Team, also appeared in the European Amateur this past fall.
Newcomers
Rutgers added four to its 2021 roster, which includes Ball State graduate transfer Manon Tounalom, Florida Southern transfer Sun Hwang and rookies Rikke Nordvik and Annalie Swanepoel.
One of the top individuals in Ball State history, Tounalom owns the second-best career scoring average at Ball State with a 76.89 mark. During her time with the Cardinals, Tounalom produced three of the top seven single-season scoring averages in program history and provided a counting score in 111 of her 118 career rounds, including all 51 rounds over the past two seasons.
A New Jersey native, Hwang returns to the Garden State after she spent her first collegiate season at Florida Southern. Hwang finished her first collegiate season with a 76.90 average over four events and 10 rounds. Her rookie resume includes two top-15 individual finishes at the World Golf Invitational and at the Battle at Old South last September.
A native of Stavanger, Norway, Nordvik had eight top-10 finishes over 11 events across Norway and the United Kingdom in the summer of 2019. She won the Srixon Tour 6 at Kjekstad Golf Club in September, carding a 207 (71-68-68). In addition, Nordvik place fourth at the Srixon Nordic Winter Open in February (67-76-78-72), fifth at the Scottish Girls' Open Championship in April (74-73-71) and sixth at the Srixon Tour 5 at Arendal Golf Club in August (74-73-73).
A native of Stellenbosch, Western Cape Province, South Africa, Swanepoel captured the Western Province Women's Amateur Championship in March 2019. After two rounds of stroke play, she entered match play as the fifth seed and defeated the fourth, first and third seeds for the title. Swanepoel also placed 10th at the 2019 Free State Championship with a 230 (79-77-74) and fifth at the 2019 Nomads Western Province Junior Championship with a 229 (76-76-77).
Big Ten Players to Watch
Diederichs, Rossi and Tounalom earned 2021 preseason all-conference honors. It marks the second consecutive selection for Rossi, while Diederichs and Tounalom appear on the prestigious list for the first time in their collegiate careers.
Greenham Returns as Volunteer Assistant
Letterwinner Ashleigh Greenham returns to the program as a volunteer coach with the Scarlet Knights. The London native played in 31 events and carded 88 rounds during her three seasons at Rutgers and holds the fourth best career scoring average in program history with a 76.50 mark. Greenham, who is also fourth in school history with a 75.00 season scoring average, set a single-round program record when she carded a six-under-par 66 in the second round of the 2018 Marilynn Smith Invitational.
Also a standout in the classroom, Greenham was a four-time WGCA All-America Scholar and two-time Academic Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. The two-time team captain graduated Magna Cum Laude with her bachelor's in psychology from Rutgers in 2018 and earned her master's in human resource management from the University in 2019.
Academic Success Continues
Rutgers remains one of the top academic women’s golf programs in the country, as the Scarlet Knights were recognized as one of the nation's top 25 programs in academic performance by the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) for a fourth consecutive year. With a team GPA of 3.832 for the 2019-20 scholastic year, RU placed third among Power 5 conference programs and tied for 15th among all eligible Division I schools.
Rutgers also earned public recognition for its perfect 1,000 multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) score in the latest report from the NCAA. Since compilation of data began in 2004-05, Rutgers has garnered public recognition for its APR score nine times and has produced a perfect 1,000 the past seven seasons.
RU had four student-athletes – Diederichs, Rossi, Park and recent graduate Carrie-Ann Lee – named 2020 WGCA Division I All-America Scholars. Under Williams' leadership, Rutgers has accumulated 27 All-America Scholar awards since 2015. The Scarlet Knights also had four players earn 2020 Academic All-Big Ten honors this spring – Char, Lee, Rossi, and recent graduate Ana Corte– as the team produced a 3.94 grade point average to close out the spring semester. The team GPA helped Rutgers secure the National Girls & Women in Sports Day Spring Sport Team GPA award, presented by the New Jersey Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, earlier this month.
New Facility
Thanks to the generosity of the program’s supporters, Rutgers opened the Class of 1957 Indoor Golf Training Center, located inside the College Avenue Gym in New Brunswick, this fall. The state-of-the-art, two-room facility features indoor putting space with Envyscapes turf and a hitting bay with Swing Catalyst technology, allowing student-athletes to train year-round.
