Cedarville will tee off new women’s golf program

By Emily Tuttle

The Yellow Jackets celebrate their 100th year of athletics by adding another sport, women’s golf, in the fall of 2025. 

Vice president for athletics, Chris Cross, said that President Dr. White and the president’s cabinet noticed a lack of like-minded Christian schools offering the program. They received interest from many prospective students and asked themselves how to fill that gap.

“How can we strengthen the athletic department, and how can we strengthen the university?” said Cross, “and we feel like this is a great opportunity at the right moment.”

Cedarville last added a sport in 1997–women’s soccer. Almost 30 years later, the time is right to launch the women’s golf team.

While prospective students’ interest is encouraging, it does not diminish the difficulty of getting a new program off the ground. The athletic department is still searching for a coach but values taking time to find the right person.

“Recruiting students to a brand new program who they don’t know who their coach is going to be is going to be a challenge, but since we’ve announced the program, there’s been a lot of good interest,” Cross said.

Excitement for the program goes beyond new students. Cross hopes to hold a tryout sometime in the fall for existing students. He knows some high school golfers may have foregone the opportunity to play collegiate golf for Cedarville’s culture.

Now, these women can play on a high-level team at a high-level school. 

Cross hopes to have at least seven women on the team, including freshmen, transfers and existing students. The team will compete in the G-MAC against teams like Findlay, a recent national champion. 

“We’re excited to compete with them and challenge them for G-MAC championships,” Cross said.

He believes Cedarville’s women’s sports teams are especially talented because of the student-athletes’ passion for the Lord and desire to attend a Christian university.

“Women’s athletics here is a gem,” Cross said. “A lot of young ladies are attracted to what Cedarville offers as an institution, so we’re able to attract a high caliber student-athlete, specifically on our women’s side, that are choosing Cedarville over mid-major division one schools.”

Cross attributes these teams’ success to a mission beyond the playing field. They want to honor the Lord through their sport and use it as a platform to share the gospel; the heartbeat behind Cedarville athletics. 

“We’re trying to honor our gifts and abilities that God has given us and really put them on display for the world to see,” Cross said. 

He is confident that the women’s golf team will buy into this mission and expand Cedarville’s reach of influence.

“Our number one goal is to make sure we are honoring what God has gifted us with,” Cross said. 

The women will likely play at the same location as the men’s golf team but with separate events. The athletic department looks forward to finding athletes to steward their gifts through golf in the fall of 2025

Emily Tuttle is a sophomore majoring in Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism. She is passionate about Philly sports, weight lifting and all things silly.