All hits, no misses, for Carrie Roberts and BYU Women’s Golf
BYU Women’s Golf has had a tee-rific two weeks.
They achieved back-to-back wins at the Dick McGuire Invitational and the Mercedes Benz Collegiate Championship; an NIL deal between SmartyStreets and all female BYU student-athletes presented an opportunity to earn up to $6,000, and BYU Athletics announced the induction of head coach, Carrie Summerhays Roberts, into the BYU Athletics Hall of Fame.
When Roberts finished her college career with the second-highest all-time wins in the NCAA Golf Championship, she wasn’t playing to enter a hall of fame — she didn’t even know there was one. Now, with a hall of fame induction to her name this weekend, Roberts continues to lead the women’s golf team through what looks to be a killer season.
“I was very surprised, then kind of excited to share the news with my family. I was pretty humbled that they would choose me. I had to accept it too, which I thought was funny. I was like, sure!” said Roberts, on receiving the news from Cougar Club Director, Greg Vehar.
Before her coaching career at BYU, Roberts enjoyed a professional career on the LPGA Tour, and qualified for two U.S. Women’s Open Championships. When asked what a hall of fame induction meant to her, Roberts said it was validation for years of hard work.
“What it means to me as a golfer, is a recognition of hard work, dedication, and a love of the game. That’s kind of who we were taught to be — if you wanna do it, work hard at it, love it and be great,” Roberts said.
As head coach, Roberts now leads the BYU women’s golf team to success through the exact same values she learned throughout her career.
“It’s not how much time, but how you work. You have to believe in yourself and learn from everything. Golf is such an up-and-down game. There’s a lot of emotions. The more you can remove the negative emotions and just kind of learn from everything and move on, those are kind of the three things I try to teach them,” Roberts said.
With two consecutive wins in the last week, Roberts’ lessons seem to be putt-ing the women’s team ahead of the game.
Ending the Mercedes Benz Collegiate Championship with a two-over-par total of 854 on Tuesday, BYU put itself ahead of two top-25 teams to take consecutive wins for the first time since the fall of 2016.
“All the credit goes to the girls. I teach them, I guide them, but they’re the ones that have to do the work. They’re the ones that have to want it,” Roberts said. “We had a kind of hard experience at a conference (tournament) where we were leading and ended up not winning. We talked about doing better, and they did. It was the captains stepping up, helping them set goals over the summer and being determined from that experience.”
Not only does the team benefit from Roberts’ expertise and guidance, but also from a collaborative and supportive network at BYU that extends beyond the golfing green, and prioritizes the success of female athletes.
“I don’t know of any other program in the country that has created something for all female athletes,” Roberts said.
The SmartyStreets’ NIL deal with all female student-athletes at BYU is hopefully going to recruit really good talent, she said. “That’s once again an example of Tom Holmoe’s leadership in providing opportunities to succeed. That’s what he does — takes a situation and makes it better.”
As the women’s golf team moves into the Golfweek Challenge in Colorado next week, they are set to have another challenging but rewarding set of contests.
“Keep trying to support and keep watching these girls hopefully take it to the next level. It’s hard to win, and the fact that they’ve won twice is amazing,” Roberts said.
Readers can receive live updates on BYU Women’s Golf during tournaments on the Golfstat website.
