Women's golf excels, but suffers coaching loss

By Sharon Lin

The women's golf team is one of the smallest but most successful at Yale. Led by two-time MVP and second-year captain Natalie Wong, MC '98, and French transfer student Charity Barras, MC '97, coach Amy Huether's talented coaching and great play have helped bring victory and success to the team.

The mild-mannered but successful Wong leads by example on the course. "I try to play my best for the team, showing them that you can play well, anywhere, anytime. Especially at the Yale course, which is tough," she said. According to Golf magazine, the par 70 Yale Golf Course is the 48th most challenging US course.

The talented Bulldogs spent spring break training on various courses in Arizona, but fall is their major golf season, with five tournaments, including the ECACs, which Yale won. The first of the spring tournaments, typically two-day affairs, was at Penn State last weekend. After the first day, Yale led a 17-team field and broke its impressive scoring record with a 308, especially considering the cold, windy, and wet conditions. On Sun., Apr. 13, they continued to play well, but Penn State managed to escape with a seven shot lead and a first place finish. "We're off to a fantastic start; it was important to have a high finish at Penn State," Bell said. Princeton, a traditionally strong team, was the only other Ivy League school entered in the tournament; Yale beat the Tigers by 31 strokes.

The player-coach relationship has been key to the recent Eli success. Unfortunately, however, Huether is entering her third and final season at Yale. Prior to her arrival, the women were coached alongside the men's team and achieved only mediocre results. A scholarship golfer at Iowa, Huether began golfing at age five. "In a big golfing family of six kids, we always had a foursome ready to play," she remarked. Although she considered joining the women's pro tour after college, she chose law school instead. Huether came east with her husband, a chief resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital, expecting to use her law degree full-time. Instead, Yale hired her as its first women's golf coach.

"Golf has done so much for me in my life; I see coaching as a chance to give back," she commented. During the off-season, however, Huether serves as Assistant General Counsel for Yale, working on real-estate investments and New Haven business developments. Due to her husband's surgery fellowship in Pittsburgh, she joins this year's coaching exodus. Huether plans to do contract law, but immensely enjoyed working with students in a college atmosphere. "I'm reluctant and sad about leaving Yale. I've learned so much about the University," she said.

Finding a replacement coach is the new priority. "We've had about 20 applications, and are reviewing them for interviews," Huether revealed. "It's easy to attract great candidates coming into a winning program. In recent years, we put Yale Golf on the map." The team is helping to make the choice as well, and will meet candidates later in the selection process. "[The Athletic Department] found out what kind of things we look for in a coach," said Margret Bell, MC '98, and will use this information to tailor the search to Yale Golf's needs.

While Huether is busy writing legal briefs, her players are developing cardiovascular strength and lifting weights. "We definitely need endurance after five hours and 18 holes because there are no caddies," Huether explained. This weekend's first-ever Ivy Championships will be a true test of Yale's fitness and skill, and Huether expects her golfers to place at the top.

The final tournament of the official season is the Northeast Championships, in which both Division I and smaller schools compete. "We have a good chance of winning that; we've beaten most of those teams," Huether said. Seven teams and three players from the Mid-Atlantic East Region, selected on the basis of stroke averages, records, and tournament wins, then travel to the NCAA East Regional Tournament in May. "If we go, it'll be the first time an Ivy program sends a team to Regionals," Huether said.

Golf is one of the country's fastest-growing sports, and women like the talented Elis are contributing to the trend. Wong, one of the new women's collegiate elite, predicts that female golf interest will continue to increase. "Women's golf has come so far. It's not just an old man's sport." Back to Sports...