July 19, 2011
Williams announces personnel moves
With two consecutive NCAA Championship top-10 finishes and the pinnacle of his sport’s season approaching his backyard in the spring of 2012, it’s hard for Vanderbilt women’s golf coach Greg Allen to not be pumped for the upcoming season. Throw in four out of his top five players returning with a stellar recruiting class arriving in the fall, and the makings of a very special season are on the horizon for Allen and his band of golfers.
“We have a great opportunity this year to host the national championship on our home golf course,” said Allen. “We’ve been planning for two years and it’s our goal to run the best championship the NCAA has conducted in a long time. And, having a chance to win a national championship at Legends would be pretty sweet.”
Allen, who recently signed a five-year extension with the Commodores, is excited about his team’s prospects this season.
“In all my years of coaching, I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited about an upcoming year as I am for this one,” said Allen. “I feel like we have some good momentum after the last two national championships. And, this year’s team has the ability to do something really special if we play to our potential. “
The Commodores have advanced those two national in the last two seasons, each time finishing in the top 10 (T-7th in 2010, T-10th in 2011). The 2010 and 2011 teams are the first to post consecutive top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championships in the history of the vaunted Vanderbilt women’s golf program, which began in the 1986-87 academic year. In all, the Commodores have advanced to the national championship six times, and been an NCAA Regional selection 13 times, including the last 12 years in a row.
With the women’s golf world focusing on Franklin, Tenn., and the Vanderbilt Legends Club May 22-25, 2012, for the NCAA Championship, the prospects of the Commodores contending for the championship, as Allen said, look very promising. Vanderbilt returns senior Marina Alex, a 2010 first-team All-America selection and the 2010 SEC Player of the Year, junior starters Lauren Stratton and Anna Leigh Keith, and sophomore Rene Sobolewski, who closed her freshman campaign in 2011 with a strong showing at the NCAA East Regional and NCAA Championship, where the team counted six of her seven rounds played in the two events.
Add to the mix two standout signees in Irina Gabasa and Kendall Martindale, the 9th and 12th-best signees, respectively, in the class of 2011 according to Golfweek, and it is easy to see why things are looking up for Vanderbilt women’s golf, both in the upcoming season and in the years to come.
“This team is going to have some depth, seven, maybe eight players competing for the five starting spots,” said Allen. “That in itself is going to make us better. It should be fun to watch.”
In preparation for the 2012 NCAA Championship, The Legends North Course is undergoing a few renovations, including replacing the bent grass greens with Bermuda. However, Allen sees some other exciting things on the horizon as the team moves forward under his direction. The main focus of those plans is a multipurpose building on the Legends’ grounds which will include offices, study areas, and indoor hitting bays for golfers to use during inclement weather.
“It’s imperative that a shovel goes in the ground after nationals,” said Allen. “Our players will get a big boost from this building during the off-season and we need it in order to keep recruiting the best young golfers in the country.
“We have one of the best golf courses and short game facilities in the country and this building is a missing piece. We feel like we’re one of the few schools in the country that can offer young people a top-15 education while being a part of a top-15 golf program.”
Things are moving in the right direction for the Commodores on the course, and also off of it for the Allen family. Allen, from Beechmont, Ky., has settled in to his life in Franklin with his wife, Julie, and his four children (Maggie, Mollie, Mason, and Mabry) and things could not be better.
“My family and I love living in Franklin and being a part of the Vanderbilt family,” said Allen. “Julie and I couldn’t think of a better place to raise our family.”
