Galloway, N.J. – After playing as a club sport during the 2018-19 academic year, the Stockton University women's golf team will compete at the intercollegiate level beginning this fall. Women's golf will become Stockton's 19th intercollegiate sport.
The program is taking the next step one year after the hiring of
Rodger Gottlieb as its head coach. Gottlieb has been a fixture in the local golf community, with several decades of experience in playing and teaching. He is a lifelong student of the game with considerable expertise in the fundamentals of the golf swing, training, conditioning and the mental aspect of golf.
Gottlieb served as the director of the ShopRite LPGA Classic for 16 years and also spent time at the chairperson for the LPGA Player Relations and Communications Committee. He is the founder of RLG Associates, a strategic communications firm that has consulted with more than a dozen golf courses. In addition, he is a founding board member of The First Tee of Greater Atlantic City.
Stockton competed in four events as a club team this spring, including a dual match against Rowan College at Gloucester County at the Seaview Bay Course, which hosts the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Tatum Henry (Galloway/Absegami) finished in the top 10 out of more than 30 golfers at all three tournaments in which the Ospreys played (T-4th, T-5th, T-7th).
Danielle Elia (Little Egg Harbor/Pinelands) registered one top 10 (T-9th) plus two top 20's (T-13th, 17th) in the three tournaments. Elia and Henry also shot 83 and 85 respectively in the match versus RCGC at Seaview.
Women's golf was sponsored by 230 NCAA Division III institutions in 2018-19. Stockton will become one of four Division III institutions in the state of New Jersey to sponsor the sport, joining established programs at Drew University and FDU-Florham plus New Jersey City, which also announced the addition of women's golf this week.