Kentucky Women’s Golf Head Coach Golda Borst Signs Contract Extension

LEXINGTON, Ky. – College of Kentucky girls’s golf head coach Golda Borst, who’s in her thirteenth season on the helm of this system, has agreed to a contract extension, UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart introduced Thursday. Borst signed the contract extension on Sept. 28, and it’ll run via June 2026.

“We’re enthusiastic about Golda’s dedication to proceed as head coach of our girls’s golf workforce,” Barnhart stated.  “As evidenced by our record-setting match championship this week, together with a number of NCAA Match appearances and extra milestones in recent times, Golda has our workforce on a constructive trajectory, and we look ahead to continued development of this system below her management.”

The Wildcats are coming off their first match championship of the season, topping a 15-team area on a school-record, 34-under-par 830 on the Illini Ladies’s Invitational. In pursuit of that triumph, the Cats recorded three of the top-four workforce rounds in program historical past, together with their school-record, 13-under-par 275 put collectively within the first spherical at Medinah Nation Membership.

“I’m past grateful for Mitch and the College of Kentucky for his or her determination to increase my contract,” Borst stated. “My household and I really like Lexington and UK, and we’re simply so excited for the years forward.  Our program has come a great distance, and we’ll proceed to pursue success on the highest degree. I really recognize Mitch’s steadfast belief and perception in me to guide our program ahead. I’ll proceed to do my greatest in order that we will compete for Championships and make Kentucky proud!”

Borst has taken the ladies’s golf program to new heights in her 12 seasons on the job. Along with eight NCAA regional appearances and 7 workforce championships, the workforce broke via with an NCAA Championship finals berth in 2021. It marked this system’s first since 1992.

Borst’s groups have rewritten the varsity report books, constructing a fair stronger basis for the long run. Beneath Borst, UK has posted all 10 of the highest 10 single-season workforce scoring averages in program historical past, along with her current groups stacking on the prime of the listing, together with incomes the varsity report scoring common in 2019-20 (289.53) and the second-best scoring common simply final season in 2021-22 (291.23).

Her groups have additionally claimed 25 of the highest 25 lowest 18-hole rounds, which is highlighted by their school-record, 13-under-par 275 from this week on the Illini Ladies’s Invitational.

Moreover, all 20 of the highest 20 single-season participant scoring averages in class historical past are within the Borst period. Actually, the 2 gamers that maintain the highest three spots on that listing are nonetheless present student-athletes with remaining eligibility (Jensen Citadel – 71.88 in 2019-20 and 72.72 in 2021-22; Laney Frye – 72.76 in 2021-22).

Furthermore, all 25 of the highest 25 marks for many single-season, par-or-better rounds came about with Borst on the helm. Frye simply set the varsity report on the finish of final season with a formidable 14 rounds of par-or-better, whereas she is already on monitor the break that report once more this season.

Academically, this system has been simply pretty much as good because the on-the-course performances. The Wildcats have racked up 29 Ladies’s Golf Coaches Affiliation All-American Scholar Workforce honors, and this system persistently finishes amongst UK’s workforce grade-point common leaders, together with a 3.598 GPA final semester in Spring 2022. UK has additionally earned 4 straight NCAA awards below Borst for ending within the prime 10% of all girls’s golf groups within the Educational Progress Charge, which measures tutorial eligibility, retention and commencement (APR paused resulting from COVID-19).

This system is stronger than ever with Borst main the way in which, and that was evident after its NCAA Championship finals look in 2021. With nearly the identical workforce again from its record-setting 2019-20 group, the Wildcats navigated via a troublesome schedule and positioned fourth on the NCAA Columbus Regional to earn a spot within the nationwide finals for the primary time in 29 years. There, in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kentucky tied for 18th and recorded its greatest rating in class historical past on the nationwide championship. Individually, Laney Frye made the Southeastern Convention All-Freshman Workforce and Rikke Svejgård Nielsen gained SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Yr, Kentucky’s third all-time winner and the primary since 2009.

The NCAA Championship Finals breakthrough was two years within the making. In 2019-20, with a mixture of the strongest recruiting class in class historical past and a stability of expertise and expertise, the Wildcats gained two tournaments within the fall and completed the season ranked No. 25 within the Golfstat rankings. UK was poised for a powerful NCAA run however the postseason was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The back-to-back championships in 2019-20 marked the primary multi-win season since 1997-98 and have been the primary consecutive titles since 1990-91, when Kentucky would go on to win a school-record 4 tournaments. The 2019-20 group shattered the varsity scoring report by almost seven strokes whereas freshman sensation Jensen Citadel posted the very best 18-hole scoring common in program historical past and have become UK’s first All-SEC First Workforce choose since 1989.

Borst hit the bottom operating in her first yr in 2010-11 and hasn’t seemed again. Along with reducing this system’s stroke report on a close to annual foundation, Kentucky has gained seven workforce titles below Borst, claimed 11 particular person match titles and posted 34 top-five workforce finishes, together with 5 in 2021-22.

Kentucky almost broke via with its first NCAA Championship finals look below Borst in 2014-15 when the Wildcats completed in seventh place on the 2015 NCAA South Bend Regional, one spot and 4 strokes behind the minimize. Though the workforce simply missed out its much-anticipated breakthrough, Isabelle Johansson earned a slice of historical past by changing into the primary Wildcat qualifier for the nationwide championships since 1998. Johansson would go on to tie the varsity’s 18-hole report low two seasons later with a 64 on the 2017 UCF Problem.

Johansson included, Borst has coached and mentored plenty of Kentucky girls’s golf greats, together with 2019 All-SEC Second Workforce choose Leonie Bettel. The switch from NC State set plenty of marks in her two seasons at UK — together with the very best 54-hole spherical in class historical past and essentially the most rounds of par or higher in a season with 14 in 2018-19 — however her crowning achievement was three particular person titles in her senior season, only one shy of the college report.