Katy Baxter has developed quite the coaching philosophy to elevate our women’s golf program to the next level. From how the girls practice, to recruiting new talent, Baxter is pushing her roster to improve every single day. Overall, her main focus is building a culture within the program to generate success organically.
From her time playing in Long Beach, Baxter was a four-year letter winner and helped LBSU to its first National Collegiate Athletic Association regional appearance. She then went on to play professionally as a Class A member of the Professional Golfer’s Association and the Ladies Professional Golfer’s Association.
Her experience has formed how she coaches here at Cal State Bakersfield, and her coaching philosophy plays a heavy role on how she runs her squad, even as early as the recruitment stage.
“I think recruiting is like 70% of the job because you have to forecast a lot. It’s getting so competitive with all power five schools and all these mid major schools. You have to be a couple of steps ahead and start forming those relationships,” Baxter said.
Baxter also preached the importance of “golf IQ” in developing the women’s golf team. That term, as Baxter uses, is important to her philosophy for the culture of the women’s team. This influences the preparation before invitationals by looking at courses before the meet and prepping clubs that need to be practiced with. This also helps get ready for the elevation of a course along with any weather factors.
“We go over a lot of course management. We have a statistical system. The girls enter in their stats every day and we go over whether they are losing strokes again to the field from 7 to 20 feet of putting, or if recovery rate from the rough is where you’re losing strokes,” said Baxter.
Ashlee Kresha, freshman, believes in what her coach has them do in terms of practice and their approach to each invitational or tournament.
“I’m 100% in it. If you’re not in it, then you can’t grow,”
Nichole Whipple, senior, has also bought in to Baxter’s system, ultimately growing as a player in the golf program by becoming smarter on the course.
She says, “Katy opened my eyes to being smarter on the golf course rather than just hitting the ball and not thinking about the shots. She’s helped me factor in a lot of things like wind and elevation,”
During practices Baxter is very hands on when helping players adjust their shots. The focus for this team has been situational hitting when it comes to which clubs need to be used for which areas of the course.
With women’s golf being a sport that may seem overlooked on other campuses, Katy feels that CSUB has actually been pretty supportive of their program.
“I wouldn’t say we are underrepresented. The media and marketing team and the overall community has really stepped up in making us feel part of the school. For a little bit we’ve kind of felt like a stepchild; a better term is an afterthought. But I feel like in the last four years, when Tiffany took over and then I came into the community, the campus has leaned into the team,”
With more attention being spread to the program, there can be higher expectations for the success of women’s golf. The team has been making strides towards success. Katy Baxter and her players are a team to keep an eye on here at CSUB.
