Following subpar spring season, women’s golf team hopes new coach will help reverse tide
September 11, 2019
The Tulane women’s golf team welcomed head coach Stew Burke, pictured here with freshman Hanna Liu, to the Green Wave family this fall.
Following the resignation of head coach Lorne Don, the Tulane Women’s golf team announced the arrival of new head coach Stew Burke in June 2019. With fresh leadership and budding talent, the Green Wave hopes to claw its way out of the depths of mediocrity in the new season.
Burke, previously the associate head coach at the University of Southern California, led the team to 14 first-place victories in his three seasons in Los Angeles.
His impressive resume also includes a 2019 NCAA West regional championship and a 2019 Pac-12 championship. Last year, USC was ranked the No. 1 team in the nation according to Golfstat and Golfweek rankings.
Despite Burke’s arrival, the Green Wave’s performance at its season opener was subpar. The team competed in the Trinity Forest Invitational at Southern Methodist University in Dallas this past Monday, where Tulane finished eighth of 11 teams.
Though the team faces an uphill battle on the links, its academics are commendable. Last season, Haydyn Gibson, Sofia Goicoechea, Laura Munoz and Isabella Cardena all garnered Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American scholars.
This is an impressive feat for a program, given the requirement of a cumulative GPA of 3.5 for such status. Nationwide, only 1,097 women’s college golfers received the award. As one of the team’s top academic achievers, Gibson also succeeded on the links, posting the second-best scoring average on the team last season at 76.03.
Freshman Carlota Palacios tied for 10th individually in the 2019-20 season at the SMU Trinity Forest Invitational on Sep 9, 2019.
Combined with this academic confidence, Tulane looks to build on a strong offseason in which Junior Jennifer Rosenberg claimed her second amateur title at the 2019 Long Island Women’s amateur stroke play championship. She scored six under par, for a score of 138. She did this after a sophomore campaign in which she racked up three top-10 finishes.
The accomplishments of the offseason furthers the leaps that the team made at the end at the 2019 American Athletic Conference Championship, where the Green Wave climbed four spots in the leaderboard to reach sixth place at the event.
This season’s schedule features 10 tournaments, including a trip to The Bahamas. Tulane will next compete on Monday, Sept. 16, at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship.
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