University of Notre Dame women’s golf head coach Susan Holt, a six-time conference coach of the year and longest tenured women’s golf coach in school history, has announced her retirement at the end of the 2021-22 season.
“It has been an incredible experience to lead this program, win championships, develop amazing student-athletes and regularly compete in NCAA postseason events,” Holt said.
“I started coaching over 30 years ago and I believe now is the best time to take a break, spend more time with my family and see what the next leader of this program can accomplish. I want to thank the Notre Dame administration for their support over the past 16 seasons.”
“To the extraordinary women who have taken the course for the Irish during my tenure and who will in the future, thank you for your hard work, love and dedication. I will miss you most of all.”
“Coach Holt has been an integral part of our success in women’s golf over the last decade-and-a-half,” said University Vice President and James E. Rohr Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick. “We thank her for the years of service to the University and to her beloved student-athletes that she supported both on and off the course.”
Holt transformed the Notre Dame program during her time with the Irish, a run that included the program’s first appearance at the NCAA championship in 2011. Notre Dame won four BIG EAST titles under her leadership, 17 total tournament championships and rewrote the women’s golf record book. Irish players earned 16 medalist honors, 27 all-conference accolades and two All-America honors (the first in Notre Dame women’s golf history). Holt also recruited and coached Notre Dame’s first LPGA Tour member, Becca Huffer (‘12).
Holt’s student-athletes found equal success in the classroom, with Fighting Irish players collecting 40 NGCA/WGCA All-Scholar Team citations, 48 conference all-academic team certificates and the first three Academic All-America honors in program history (Ashley Armstrong in 2013, 2014 and 2015). In addition, Notre Dame earned a pair of BIG EAST Team Academic Excellence Awards (2011 and 2012) and has, on 19 occasions, posted the highest combined grade-point average among all 26 Notre Dame athletics teams for a given semester, most notably a then school-record 3.776 GPA in the spring of 2012. Additionally, the team has also posted a perfect 100 in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rating (APR) in each year of Holt’s tenure.
Holt came to Notre Dame in August of 2006 after 13 successful seasons as the head women’s coach at USF. She began her collegiate coaching career at Purdue in 1990.