University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Golf
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- mrredman@umn.edu
- Phone:
- 612-625-0017
The 2019-2020 season marked Michele Redman’s ninth season as the head coach of the University of Minnesota women's golf program. Redman officially joined the "U" family in August of 2011.
Redman has provided the team with an influx of young talent in recent seasons. In 2019-2020, two Minnesota freshmen, Annabelle Ackroyd and Grace Curran, produced top-ten finishes at The Gold Rush, leading the way as the team placed a season-high seventh at the tournament. Junior Joanne Free recorded a team-best and personal record 75.73 average, and Kate Lillie finished with an average of 75.76 on the year. The spring season ended on March 12, 2020, when the Big Ten and NCAA announced they were ceasing competitions and championships because of COVID-19 public health concerns.
Under Redman’s direction, Grace Kellar and Muyu Wu posted top-ten season average records during 2018-2019. Kellar, a sophomore, completed the season with a 74.31 average, placing her at fourth-best in school history. Wu finished with the sixth-best season average (74.85). Also in the Spring 2019 season, Wu set a program 18-hole record (66) at the Moon Golf Invitational. As a team, the Gophers placed 10th at the Big Ten Championship.
In 2017-2018, two Gopher freshmen in Joanne Free (76.58) and Grace Kellar (76.88) ranked among the top-five debut seasons in program history, placing fourth and fifth, respectively. The team's veterans have also made their mark, with senior Sabrine Garrison leading the team with a 75.19 scoring average, placing seventh at the Big Ten Championships and wrapping up her career one-hundredth of a stroke off the program record (75.52). The Gophers continued their outstanding work in the classroom, earning three WGCA All-American Scholar awards in 2018 while also receiving the NCAA APR Public Recognition Award.
Redman coached senior Emie Peronnin to the eighth-best season average (75.00) in school history as she finished third at the Big Ten Championship and earned an NCAA regional berth in the 2016-17 season. Peronnin (75.90), along with senior Heather Ciskowski (76.26), graduated in the spring of 2017 ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, on the all-time lowest career scoring average list.
In 2015-16, Redman's team just missed a spot in the NCAA regional field, finishing the year with a Golfstat ranking of 60th. The Gophers saw several records fall including the lowest single-season scoring average in program history (Heather Ciskowski, 73.93) and the lowest 54-hole score in school history (Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, 851 [-13]). Redman guided the team to three top-10s and eight top-20 individual finishes. Off the course, the Gophers succeeded in the classroom with the highest team GPA in program history and perfect multi-year and single-year APR scores of 1000, earning an NCAA APR Public Recognition Award.
In 2014-15, Redman helped the Gophers to two top-five tournament finishes, including a share of the title at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown in October. In that tournament, the Gophers posted a school-record 54-hole score of 863, while also posting single round (278) and 36-hole (568) records as well. Individually, Redman guided the Gophers to seven top-10 finishes, including a runner-up placing by senior Anna Laorr at the Minnesota Invitational to open the season. Four of the top eight tournament scores in school history were posted by Gophers in 2014-15, while five individual student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Notably, the Gophers posted perfect multi-year and single-year APR scores of 1000, earning an NCAA APR Public Recognition Award.
Redman and the Gophers put together one of the best seasons in program history in 2013-14. The Gophers' NCAA Central Regional berth in 2014 was just the seventh in school history, while the Maroon & Gold finished just two strokes shy of a trip to the NCAA championships. The team also picked up its first win in six seasons at the BYU Entrada Classic last season while the team also hosted the Minnesota Invitational at the Minikahda Club -- the team's first home tournament in eight years.
Statistically speaking, the 2013-14 season may have been Minnesota's best ever with four of the program's top tournament scores including the 2014 UCF Challenge, which tied the school record at 869, as well as four of the top seven rounds in program history. Individually, Carmen Laguna set a new school scoring average record at 74.19 to lead the Maroon & Gold while Anna Laorr, Banchalee Theinthong and Sarinee Thitiratanakorn also posted averages that ranked among the top-10 in program history. Theinthong graduated with the second lowest career scoring average in Gophers history (76.45) while Laorr earned her first career win in 2014 at the BYU Entrada Classic.
Redman was instrumental in securing funding for the John W. Mooty Golf Facility, the new state-of-the-art indoor training center for Gopher Golf, which officially opened its doors in January 2019.
In her nine years at Minnesota, Redman has coached her student-athletes to 42 Academic All-Big Ten honors as well as 25 WGCA All-American Scholar awards.
Redman, who competed on the LPGA Tour for 20 years, is a graduate of Indiana University, where she was a four-time All-Big Ten selection, a two-time All-American and the medalist of the 1987 Big Ten Championships.
Leading the team in stroke average in two of her four seasons in Bloomington, Redman helped the Hoosiers claim two Big Ten Conference titles. IU also competed in three NCAA Championships in her time on campus, including an 11th place finish at the 1985 Championships.
A member of the Indiana University Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame and the National College Golf Coaches Hall of Fame, Redman comes to Gold Country the winner of three Futures Tour events, two LPGA tour events and ranked 27th in all-time career money earnings in the history of the LPGA Tour. She has been a member of four United States Solheim Cup teams as well as the 2011 United States Handa Cup team.
