Katie Rudolph was hired as Head Coach of the New York University’s Men’s and Women’s Golf teams in April 2021.
Both the men’s and women’s teams experienced a great deal of success in Rudolph’s initial campaign. Rudolph and her assistants earned Liberty League Men’s and Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year honors as both squads won their respective titles and received automatic qualification to the NCAA Division III Championships.
Competing at the NCAA’s for the first time since winning the National Championship in 2019, the women finished eighth. Aliea Clark, who took fifth place individually and was selected Honorable Mention All-America, won both the Liberty League and Vassar College Invitational titles en route to being named First Team All-Liberty League and Second Team All-UAA (University Athletic Association). As a team, the Violets captured the St. Lawrence Invitational, the Vassar College Invitational, the Jack Leaman Invitational, and the Liberty League Preview.
Individually, Nalinda Wanikpun was selected Liberty League Player and Rookie of the Year, won the Jack Leaman Invitational title, was Second Team All-UAA and earned Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-East Region honors. Madison Phung was the St. Lawrence Invitational Champion, earned WGCA All-East Region accolades and was selected Second Team All-Liberty League.
The men’s team finished 10th at the NCAA’s, as both Joey Burlison (tie 16th) and Robbie Keyes (tie 19th) produced top-20 finishes. The Violets finished first at the St. Lawrence Invitational, the Liberty League Preview and the Farmingdale Spring Invitational while placing second at the UAA Championship and the Duke Nelson Invitational.
Both Burlison and Keyes earned Division III PING Honorable Mention All-America and were chosen to the Division III PING All-Region 2 Team along with Kevin Kim, Chris Lee and Jorge Montero, who was the St. Lawrence Invitational Champion. Burlison was a First Team All-Liberty League and All-UAA honoree while Keyes earned Second Team status with both entities. Lee (First Team) and Kim (Second Team) were also cited by the Liberty League.
Accolades extended to their classroom work as a total of nine team members (5 women. 4 men) earned both UAA and Liberty League All-Academic honors. In addition, Montero, Sophie Bian and Charlotte Kwong received the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award.
Rudolph joined NYU after spending the previous decade as the Chief Operating Officer for First Tee of Metropolitan New York, a non-profit youth organization that promotes the sport of golf in underserved communities.
Rudolph, who also serves as a private coach for Megha Ganne, currently one of the top amateur golfers in the United States, won the Minnesota State Amateur Golf Championship when she attended Little Falls (MN) High School and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
A 2002 graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, Rudolph served as a two-time captain of the Demon Deacons’ women’s golf team. She finished second at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship as a senior.
At NYU, Rudolph took over a women’s program that won the NCAA Division III National Championship in 2019 (the 2020 Championship was canceled and the Violets did not compete in 2020-21 due to the coronavirus pandemic).
The NYU men’s team qualified for the Division III Championship in consecutive seasons, finishing 31st nationally in 2018 and 27th in 2019, and rose to a best-ever #10 national ranking in 2019-20 before the remainder of the season was canceled.
A native of Little Falls, MN, Rudolph currently lives with her wife Jen and their dogs Winnie and Archie in New York City.
