Meaghan Kenny is in her fourth season as an assistant coach of the New York University men’s and women’s golf programs. Her main responsibilities include traveling with the women’s team and helping to teach swing mechanics.
Last season, Kenny helped lead the women to a #4 ranking in NCAA Division III according to Golfstat.com. Qualifying for the NCAA Championship for the third consecutive year, the Violets finished a best-ever fifth.
It was also a strong regular-season, as NYU finished among the top-five in each of its 12 tournaments, winning six of them including the Liberty League Championship and the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship.
The women were showered with many awards throughout the season, highlighted by junior Alyssa Poentis being recognized as a Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) Honorable Mention All-American and winning Liberty League Player of the Year. Poentis, along with sophomores Patty Treevichapan and Jennifer Blueting, earned First Team All-UAA honors.
For the team’s outstanding performance, Kenny along with Assistant Coach Todd Kolean and Head Coach Brad Johnson, were recognized as Coaching Staff of the Year by both the UAA and the Liberty League.
Kenny also helped lead the men’s team to six top-three finishes last season. The Violets captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship and went on to be ranked 77th in the NCAA at the end of the season. Individually, sophomore Luke Oberholtzer earned Second Team All-UAA honors.
Kenny’s leadership was instrumental as the women’s team put together an outstanding campaign in 2015-16. The Violets won their first-ever UAA Championship, captured their third Liberty League Championship and qualified for the NCAA Championship for the second consecutive season, taking 13th place nationally. On the men’s side, she helped lead the squad to seven top-five finishes, including a season-best third-place performance at the St. Lawrence Invitational.
Under Kenny’s tutelage, Bluetling earned UAA Player of the Year, as well as
Liberty League Co-Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors. She was named ECAC Division III Rookie of the Month (March), WGCA All-East Region and NYU Female Freshman of the Year. For the men, freshman, Derrek Drozdyk was a two-time Liberty League Rookie of the Week selection and was named Honorable Mention All-UAA.
During Kenny’s first season on staff in 2014-15, the women automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship for the first time after winning the Liberty League title. The Violets posted a 10th-place finish at the national championship behind strong performances from an all-freshman foursome led by Poentis, who took sixth place individually and earned Honorable Mention All-America accolades from the WGCA.
Poentis collected honors all season long, as she won the Liberty League individual title and earned both its Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards. She was named First Team All-East Region by the WGCA and was also selected ECAC Rookie of the Month (September) and Player of the Month (April).
By the time the Violets holed their final putt of the season, they had toppled nearly all of NYU’s team records and posted new standards for individual success, including lowest single-round score (300), lowest 36-hole tournament score (620), lowest 54-hole tournament score (958), and lowest team scoring average (322)
The men’s team’s season was highlighted by three second-place finishes, most notably at the ECAC Championship in the fall. Individually, Paul Park earned both UAA and Liberty League Rookie of the Year honors.
A 2012 NYU graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in professional studies from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Kenny was a four-year member of the women’s golf team and served as a captain her senior year. As a junior, she helped lead the Violets to a #7 national ranking and a first-place finish at the 2010 ECAC Championship.
Kenny’ hit the first hole-in-one in program history as a freshman in 2008.
As a student-athlete at NYU, Kenny was a recipient of the Steinhardt Scholarship and the Women’s Metropolitan Golf Association Scholarship.
In the past, Kenny has worked throughout the New York City area as a golf instructor, including a stint at the Golf Annex for the City Parks Foundation. There she worked with middle- and high-school golfers to prepare them for competition at the collegiate level.
A Titleist Golf Professional through the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI), Kenny also earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Mercy College in 2016.
Kenny is a native of Poughquag, NY, and resident of Brooklyn, NY.
