April 11, 2025 • by David Tenneson
It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the end of the college golf regular season. Soon, 18 teams — four more than last year — will make the trek to one of the best courses in Maryland for the Big Ten Women's Golf Championship. All have their sights set on the postseason, but some are uncomfortably close to both the Regional bubble and a .500 record. Who, as college golf historian David Tenneson, will add their names to this illustrious record book?
Women’s college golf got its start in Big Ten country. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that it owes its very existence to the hard fighting leadership at the Ohio State University. Names like Gladys Palmer and Mary Yost still garner respect today for their work in establishing the first championship tournament in 1941 and then rekindling the flame after World War II. By the time Title IX opened even more athletic opportunities for women in the early 1970s, golf had a firm establishment at schools across the nation, especially in Big Ten territory.
The Big Ten record book officially begins in 1982, not coincidentally the same year the NCAA superseded the AIAW in running women’s college sports. This, however, leaves out some important history.
Once again it was Ohio State — specifically assistant AD Phyllis Bailey — championing women’s college golf by organizing and hosting the first Big Ten championship in 1974. The Michigan State “Spartanettes” (below), led by Coach Mary Fossum, dominated the early stretch by winning the team title 1974-77 and sharing the championship with Minnesota in 1978. Though Fossum’s team played host in 1979, it was Ohio State that captured the team title, the first of three straight.
With this context, the 1982 championship carries even more weight when Michigan State won back the title despite Ohio State’s Cathy Kratzert taking the first of her two individual titles. Kratzert, whose married name is Gerring, had a successful pro career just like her brother Billy, and together they are one of the few known sister-brother tandems to have both won on their respective pro tours.
Coach Mary Fossum reached legendary status long before her passing in 2020. She and her husband were longtime Spartan coaches; Bruce as the established men’s coach in 1973 when Mary began the women’s golf program.
By the time Fossum (above left with Michigan State Head Coach Stacy Slobodnik Stoll) retired in 1997, she was already considered one of the greats and had been inducted in multiple state and national halls of fame, and received the prestigious Rolex/Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award. Starting in 2007, the Big Ten began handing out the Mary Fossum Award to the player with lowest season stroke average to par. Incredibly, a Purdue player captured the award the first seven years it was offered.
Purdue has a strong history at the Big Ten Championship with the fourth most team titles (6) and third most individual medalists (9). Ohio State leads the conference in both categories with 15 team titles — most recently in 2019 — and 12 individual championships. Indiana has 10 individual titles, three of which were won by Erika Wicoff (1994-96) which is a conference record.
Only one Big Ten player has won the NCAA championship since 1982 — Maria Hernandez (above) of Purdue in 2009 — and she just so happened to have also captured Big Ten medalist honors that year.
The 2010 Purdue team (above) also won the Big Ten championship and likewise is the only Big Ten team to have won the NCAA championship in that same timeframe. In 2023, Crystal Wang (Illinois) shot a conference record 62 (-9) on her way to setting the 54-hole scoring record at 201 (-12). Northwestern and Ohio State both shot 852 in 2016 to share the team title and the 54-hole scoring record.
The women’s Big Ten championship is unique in that it was still played as a 6-count-4 event up to last year. Somewhere along the way, the conference had to adapt to the NCAA not recognizing the format for official postseason consideration. This led to the unorthodox game-within-a-game method of conducting a secret 5-count-4 tournament at the same time by designating a non-counting player before the tournament began.
Confused yet? So too have been players and coaches for decades as the team holding the trophy wasn’t always the team viewed as the winner for postseason considerations. Starting with last year’s championship, the 6-count-4 format has finally been accepted by the NCAA and the results on paper were deemed (double?) official. Due to conference changes, however, the tournament is moving to the 5-count-4 format beginning this year.
The 42nd — but actually 51st — Big Ten Championship in 2024 saw some great play despite the low temperatures. Indiana won their first team title in 26 years by finishing at 856 (-8), just one stroke better than Michigan State.
Three players shared co-medalist honors (the most in the history of the tournament): Monet Chun (Michigan, above left), Caroline Craig (Indiana, above middle), and Isabella McCauley (Minnesota, above right). With the win, Chun joined a list of nine other players with multiple Big Ten individual titles. With her season-long 71.97 scoring average, she also earned the 2024 Mary Fossum Award.
This year, the Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Maryland will once again play host to the Big Ten Championship. Designed by Pete Dye and named after the first thoroughbred racehorse brought to North America, Bulle Rock has been the top ranked public course in the state of Maryland since opening in 1998. It has a rich history as a championship site having played host to the LPGA Championship from 2005 (Annika Sorenstam’s third consecutive title) to 2009 (Anna Nordqvist).
Newcomers Oregon, Southern California, UCLA, and Washington from the Pac-12 bring even more firepower to an already competitive conference. Oregon has three players ranked inside the top-30 individuals in D1 women’s college golf.
Kiara Romero (Oregon, above), Jasmine Koo (Southern Cal, below), and Vivian Lu (Washington) are among those leading the nation in rounds under par this season. The sensational freshman Koo leads the Big Ten in individual wins (4) and will look to add both herself and her team to an unfamiliar record book.
Three of the four newcomers — Oregon, Southern California, and UCLA — made the NCAA semifinals last year and make up three of the seven Big Ten teams ranked inside the top 50 nationally coming into this tournament. Before they can think about NCAAs, however, teams have to navigate the Big Ten gauntlet which serves as their last chance to get on the right side of both the bubble line in rankings as well as a .500 record to even qualify for Regionals.
The bluebloods of the Big Ten such as Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State and Purdue all are rounding in Spring form, shattering program records while taking home multiple team and individual titles to close the regular season. When the dust settles, who will be the last team standing?