Futcher coaches rising senior Irene Wang by pointing to a spot on the course. (Courtesy of Katie Futcher)
Emory University Women’s Golf Head Coach Katie Futcher announced her retirement on May 14. After joining the program at its inception in July 2018, Futcher leaves behind a legacy of national success.
Futcher played golf for Pennsylvania State University, where she earned two NCAA All-American honors in 2002 and 2003. She then competed professionally on the Futures Tour for one year and the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour for nine years.
Futcher initially believed she would return to coach at the Division I level, but she said that after her rewarding experience coaching at Emory, it was the right time to step away from the program.
“I love my players, I love my team, I love my colleagues but the priorities have switched in our lives and that’s OK,” Futcher said. “Mainly trying to start a family, but the passion for coaching has lost its luster a little bit for me.”
Her background in professional golf and a desire to help others led her to college coaching, according to Futcher. She served as a volunteer coach for Penn State and an assistant coach for James Madison University (Va.) before applying for the head coach position at Emory. Futcher said she could not pass up the opportunity to “set the tone and the culture” for a brand new golf program.
“I was really intrigued by the challenge of building something from scratch,” Futcher said. “In coaching, you really don’t ever get the opportunity to do that, and so I was very interested in my vision as a coach — would that vision work to produce a successful team?”
The women’s golf team first competed during the 2019-2o season. However, the COVID-19 pandemic cut their spring season short in 2020. The team was unable to compete again until the spring 2021 season, but the young program was ranked No. 10 by April 9, 2021. In the same year, they finished seventh at the Division III Women’s Golf Championship.
Futcher and the team built on this success the following season, capturing their first University Athletic Association (UAA) title in 2022 en route to the 2022 Division III Women’s Golf Championship title. In 2o23, the team retained the UAA title, beating Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) 3-2 in March, and they finished fifth at nationals. During the previous two seasons, the team spent 41 weeks at No. 1.
Assistant Vice President of Campus Life and Clyde Partin, Sr., Director of Athletics Keiko Price said that Futcher is a “one of a kind” coach whose experience playing professionally and coaching at other successful programs helped her make a big impact at Emory.
“She’s very, very competitive and she is not complacent in anything that she does, and so I think that combination breeds excellence,” Price said. “She’s very organized, she’s very big on establishing accountability within the team, she’s very good at managing the course … She’s got all the main ingredients that are needed to be successful.”
Futcher credits her success to many factors, including her thorough recruitment process, structured workouts and purposeful practice rounds before tournaments. Futcher said she attended about 1o tournaments every summer and talked to over 250 recruits to pick athletes that would succeed both in athletics and in Emory’s “rigorous” academic environment.
Futcher said that she and Emory Women’s Golf Assistant Coach Christel Boeljon ran the program in a “very, very structured” way.
“Our players were required to put in time and effort,” Futcher said. “A lot of Division III schools have a revolving door: come when you want, stay as long as you want. That was not our program.”
Emory University Men’s Golf Head Coach John Sjoberg said that Futcher was a “fantastic” person to work with. He said that she handled the challenges of starting a program extremely well, notably not having any upperclassmen to guide new recruits, and that her thorough, detailed approach to coaching raised the level of the entire program.
“She was super detail-oriented,” Sjoberg said. “[She] had a plan for her women on how to get better every day and set them up for the best chance to be successful. I think that’s what I’ve gotten from her. It’s just trying to give our guys the best chance to be successful every day.”
Rising junior Ellen Dong won the 2022 individual national title. She also said that Futcher was a very “detail-oriented” and “caring” leader. Futcher would attend every workout, which made the team feel supported.
“She gave the program a really good foundation,” Dong said. “She knows how to recruit student athletes and she knows what kind of athletes that she wanted to fit into the program.”
During the 2022 national championship, Dong said Futcher walked the last playoff hole with her, helping her remain “confident” and “focused” on every shot. Futcher said that one of her main goals in practice was to prepare athletes for these high-pressure moments.
“It was our job to prepare them for that biggest challenge, and so that’s what our practices were about,” Futcher said. “Our practices edged on sometimes being uncomfortable because when you’re in a competition, and you’re feeling those nerves, and you’re feeling that pressure, that’s what we were always striving for towards our practice.”
Futcher said she hopes that the high expectations set by her athletes over the last few seasons will continue to lead the team to contend for national championships.
Regarding her lasting impact on the program, Futcher said that she hopes the team will continue to put all their effort and heart into the game before worrying about scores.
“I just hope that my players know that I cared about them beyond any score that they could possibly shoot,” Futcher said. “For us, it was always about their effort, and you know I always hope that my colleagues and fellow coaches know how grateful I am in terms of their excellence, and it pushed me to be better too.”
Price said that Futcher established a level of excellence for the women’s golf program and that her success has inspired other coaches at Emory.
“She’s like a breath of energy because she came in here, she handled business and got what every coach wants,“ Price said. “Any coach she talked to would like to say they have a national championship, and so she’s just been an inspiration for the department, for me and her student-athletes.”
Sjoberg believes that Futcher’s impact on women’s golf extends beyond Emory’s program.
“She’s now set the standard and set the bar and shown what the level of play can be at Division III women’s golf, not just here but anywhere,” Sjoberg said. “S0, she’s raised the bar across the country.”
Futcher added that after leaving her position as head coach, she will continue to be the team’s “biggest fan.”
“I’ll be watching,” Futcher said. “I hope to maybe get to a tournament. I hope to maybe come back for graduation next year because I’ve had some relationships that are very, very special to me and I won’t ever forget some of the players that I’ve coached and who have put their whole heart and soul into making this team as great as it is.”
Madeline Shapiro (she/her) (26C) is from Stamford, Connecticut and is planning on majoring in creative writing and classic civilizations. She enjoys playing low-stakes games of soccer and spending time outdoors, as well as watching as many Premier League games as possible.
