Westfield woman named Holy Cross women’s golf coach – Western Massachusetts News

WEST SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – A Westfield woman is entering the Division I level by becoming the new head coach of women’s golf at the College of the Holy Cross.
Meet Taylor Schmidt. She is currently a lead assistant golf professional at Springfield Country Club. It is the sport of golf that has been her lifeblood her entire life.
“I grew up on a golf course. It’s been a huge part of my life. My grandpa used to take me to Agawam Municipal and have me play the first three holes for as far back as I can remember,” Schmidt said.
Part of her career included being the only female on the Westfield High School golf team.
“There’s not a ton of female golfers, especially in New England or western Mass. [It’s] definitely a male-dominated sport, so it wasn’t anything that really threw me off-guard, but definitely a different experience than most high school female athletes have,” Schmidt noted.
At the country club, Shmidt teaches boys and girls the fundamentals in playing and also helps prepare some advanced kids for PGA junior league competitions. Now, she is taking a big stroke in her career. Earlier this month, the 26-year-old accepted an offer to be the head coach of Holy Cross women’s golf, an NCAA Division I program.
“It’s definitely an exciting leap. There’s no doubt about it and it’s going to be great for my resume, great for my experience…I’ve had juniors from my program here asking me about the schedule for Holy Cross because they want to try to come to a tournament or see how the team’s doing,” Schmidt explained.
For the last seven years, Schmidt played and was an associate head coach for the golf program at New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce University. As a player, she made a trip to the 2018 NCAA Division III tournament east super regional. While coaching, the Ravens won the 2019 and 2021 Northeast-10 Conference championship. Even though Schmidt will miss spending time at her alma mater, she told Western Mass News there is an event on Sunday where she will bring all three of her “homes” together.
“We do have a scrimmage set up. Holy Cross against Franklin Pierce women’s golf at Springfield Country Club, so a lot of tying all of my roots together, which is exciting,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt is looking forward to bringing her teaching and coaching skills to the D-1 level and said her expectations involve more than winning.
“My expectations are for this team to become kind of more of a family dynamic like I had at Franklin Pierce. My overall objective is to offer these girls the same experience that I had,” Schmidt noted.
Schmidt will make her head coaching debut at Holy Cross’s first tournament on September 24 as she hopes this new chapter will be a hole in one.
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