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Women's Golf

WGolf Coaches
Kory Henkes Julia Johnson
Kory Henkes Magnolia
Kory Henkes
Kory Henkes
Kory Henkes - Kennedy Swann
Kory Henkes
Coach Henkes
WGolf Coaches
Kory Henkes Julia Johnson
Kory Henkes
Kory Henkes
  • Title:
    Head Coach, Women's Golf
  • Year at Ole Miss:
    Ninth
  • Email:
    kthenkes@olemiss.edu
  • Phone:
    662-816-2636
  • Alma Mater:
    South Carolina (2004)
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• 2021 WGCA National Coach of the Year
• 2021 NCAA Team National Championship
• 2019 SEC Team Championship
• Career Tournament Wins (Team): 14
• Career Tournament Wins (Individual): 10
• All-American Honorees: 6
• All-SEC Honorees: 8


Kory Henkes was named head coach of the Ole Miss women’s golf team on June 22, 2015 and is entering her ninth season at the helm of the Ole Miss program in 2023-24.
 
In Henkes’ eighth season as head coach, the Rebels saw another successful year under her leadership. Ole Miss finished in the top 5 in seven of their 12 tournaments including title wins at the Cougar Classic, The Ally, and the Clemson Invitational. She also led the Rebels to its four NCAA Women’s Golf Championship appearance in program history. Henkes was named to the 2022-23 Division I Jackie Steinman WGCA National Coach of the Year Watch List for the second time in her career.
 
Under Henkes’ guidance, Chiara Tamburlini and Andrea Lignel earned a lot of recognition throughout the season including All-America accolades, SEC All-Conference selections, and SEC Women’s Golfer of the Week honors. Lignell also saw an impressive appearance at the NCAA Championships by claiming a tie for 14th place individually, the third-highest finish in program history.

Henkes' seventh season in charge of Ole Miss women's golf proved to be yet another successful venture for the Rebels under her guidance, with Ole Miss reaching the NCAA Regionals for the 13th time in program history. A season highlighted by a medalist finish by senior Julia Johnson and a co-team tournament victory at the Valspar Augusta Invitational, Henkes helped to lead the Rebels to a total of six top 6 team finshes across eight tournaments on the year, as well as 17 individual top 10 finishes as a team.

With Henkes leading the way, the Rebels would also have Chiara Tamburlini play her way into becoming the fourth WGCA All-American in program history, with Tamburlini receiving first team All-America honors for her astounding 2021-22 season that was capped off with Tamburlini earning an eighth place individual finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships, the second-highest finish at NCAAs in program history. Additonally, Henkes helped to lead the Rebels towards earning a program-record five golfers to be named as WGCA All-American Scholars.

Season six was a monumental one for Henkes at the helm of the team, as she helped lead the Rebels to the 2021 NCAA National Championship. The title marked the first ever Ole Miss women’s team NCAA National Championship in school history, while also marking the university’s first national championship since the football team’s 1962 win.

The team saw seniors Julia Johnson and Kennedy Swann both earn WGCA All-American honors at the conclusion of their title winning season in 2020-21, with Johnson being named onto the first team and Swann receiving honorable mention recognition.

With her national championship winning team beside her, Kory Henkes became the first Rebel head coach to be named as the WGCA National Coach of the Year, and just the seventh SEC coach to receive the award since its inception in 1984.

Henkes led the program to a record-breaking season in year five, with four team tournament titles, setting the record for most wins in a single season. The team also led the SEC in scoring (284.22, -3.78) which broke the program record for single-round average for a season. She also earned her first honor as SEC Coach of the Year, with a trio of Rebels receiving all-conference honors.

At the Battle at the Beach, the team fired an 11-under 277 on the last day, the fourth-lowest single round total in program history, and to earn their third title of the season. Junior Julia Johnson shot a course record 61 in her final round, tying the NCAA record for lowest individual round, which had only been done three times before. 

Johnson became the second Rebel in program history to earn All-American honors, as she was named second-team by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and third-team by Golfweek. 

Senior Kennedy Swann claimed a first-place finish at the Illini Invitational at Medinah going 9-under (68-72-67-209) and earning second-team All-Conference recognition. Freshman Andrea Lignell was tabbed with all-freshman team honors after a stellar first season where she ranked fifth in the conference among freshmen in terms of stroke average (72.20), the third-lowest single-season stroke average in program history.

Ole Miss concluded the season with five players ranked in the top-10 in the SEC in scoring average, and nine top-ten finishes before the season was cut short due to COVID-19.

The Rebels ended the shortened campaign ranked at No. 11 in the WGCA Coaches Poll, No. 12 in Golfstat’s team rankings, and No. 13 on Golfweek’s national rankings. Ole Miss was one of only two teams nationally to have four or more wins on the year.

The Rebels continued their remarkable success under Henkes in Year 4. The Rebels put together one of the best seasons the program has ever seen, highlighted by its first SEC Championship title when Ole Miss upset Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to take home the hardware.

Henkes coached sophomore Julia Johnson to yet another stellar season, one in which Johnson compiled six top-10s, 19 rounds at par or under, and featured an SEC individual runner-up performance at the conference championship.
 
The Rebels had great young talent on hand in 2018-19, with Ellen Hutchinson-Kay being tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week twice in the spring, and Macy Somoskey leading the team to their first conference title by winning three matches spanning 63 total holes on the weekend at the SEC Championship.
 
Ole Miss put together seven top-10 finishes throughout the season, including two runner-up performances. The first came at the Ron Moore Women’s Intercollegiate in the fall, which was led by phenomenal play by Conner Beth Ball and Julia Johnson, who each shot a career-low 66 at the event en route to top-5 finishes. The Rebels started their historic month of April with their second runner-up finish of the season at The Bruzzy, where Ellen Hutchinson-Kay and Conner Beth Ball each finished top-10 individually.
 
The Rebels made it to their second straight NCAA Championships with a sixth-place finish at the Norman Regional. Ole Miss finished tied for 14th at the NCAA Championships in late May, good for a new program-best finish.

Ole Miss opened its 2017-18 campaign by tying for fifth place among outstanding competition at the toughest golf course in America, The Ocean Course. Freshman Conner Beth Ball, Henkes’ No. 1 recruiting target when she arrived in Oxford, made her name known in her debut. The Madison, Miss. native tied for third to begin her career as a Rebel.

Just weeks later, another freshman took center stage. Julia Johnson of St. Gabriel, La. captured Henkes’ second individual title at the team’s co-hosted event, the Magnolia Invitational. The Rebels also secured their first team tournament title of the Henkes Era in a championship sweep at Old Waverly Golf Club. The historic weekend saw Johnson become the first freshman to win a 54-tournament for the Rebel program. Team 32 also set the record for the lowest score ever in a tournament win (854) and was just one stroke shy of the all-time three-round scoring mark.

The remarkable fall season continued with Diane Lim’s individual victory at the Palmetto Intercollegiate. The NAIA transfer led a second straight team win, clinching individual and team title sweeps in back-to-back tournaments —another first for the program. Ole Miss kept it going as it traveled to Hawaii to close the fall season. All six Rebels to make the trip finished in the top 15, leading to yet another team championship, tying the single-season school mark. They became the first team to win three tournaments in the fall, and they entered winter break tied for No. 1 in the NCAA with those three wins.

The success of the team in the fall of 2017 foreshadowed a monumental achievement the Rebels would accomplish in the spring.

The spring of the 2017-18 season saw Ole Miss reach a new height in the women’s golf record books, securing the first NCAA Championship berth in program history. 

The Rebels earned the first postseason spot in five years when they were named the ten seed at the NCAA Regional out in San Francisco. There began the run to the NCAA Championship when Ole Miss finished in third place at the regional, seeing freshman Julia Johnson shoot a remarkale 67 in the final round to propel the Rebels to a third place finish on the way to a berth in the NCAA Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The 2016-17 squad set a new school record for the lowest tournament average at 298.47, the program’s first sub-300 mark. The campaign was highlighted by the Oct. 25 victory by Katy Harris. She became the first individual medalist for Henkes in Oxford. Harris shot 4-under to win the Palmetto Intercollegiate. Ole Miss cracked the top 60 of the national rankings over the early season and enter the spring with high expectations.

Junior Martina Flori nearly became the second in the spring. The Montecatini Terme, Italy, native wrapped up her third round at El Tigre Invitational in a tie for first place—but the nation’s No. 17 golfer, Martina Edberg, birdied her final hole to bump the Rebel to a runner-up finish.

In her first season, Henkes led the Ole Miss squad to new heights, highlighted by a seventh-place finish at the SEC Championship, which was the best finish for the Rebels since 2010 and the third best finish in program history. The Rebels also took runner-up honors at the 2016 Rebel Intercollegiate. In total, the Rebels set 10 new team or individual records in Henkes’ first year at Ole Miss and saw scoring averages go down significantly across the board.

Henkes came to Oxford after a four-year stint as head coach at GRU Augusta. Henkes brings six years of head coaching experience to Ole Miss.

Henkes was successful in building GRU Augusta into a perennial top-25 program over the course of her four years at the helm. The Jaguars advanced to the NCAA Regionals in three of Henkes’ four years and played at the Raleigh regional this past season. Henkes also guided two individuals at the NCAA Regional in Casey Kennedy and Natalie Wille in 2013.

Under Henkes’ watch, the Jaguars achieved their highest ranking in program history, checking in at No. 21 in the fall of 2014. GRU Augusta’s Dick Wallace Coach of the Year in 2013-14, Henkes and her squad closed the season ranked No. 33 nationally with eight top-five finishes in their nine tournaments, including earning top billing at the 2014 Rebel Intercollegiate and the Lady Pirate Invitational. In total, Henkes guided her GRU Augusta squads to 17 top-five tournament finishes and 38 top-10 individual performances with two medalist honors.

Prior to her appointment at GRU Augusta, Henkes spent two years as the head coach at Charleston Southern. In her first season with the Buccaneers, they claimed the 2010 Big South Championship while setting a new league championship record for lowest 54-hole total. Under the tutelage of Henkes, Olivia Jordan-Higgins captured medalist honors at the 2010 conference tournament and cracked the top 100 in the national rankings (96th) while being nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year. The Lady Bucs registered the most improved GPA (3.51) among all Charleston Southern athletic programs as well as the highest team GPA. They were also recognized by the NGCA for having one of the top-25 team GPAs in the nation.

A 2004 graduate of South Carolina, Henkes is no stranger to the rigors of the SEC and was a member of South Carolina’s 2002 SEC Championship team and a four-year letterwinner for the Gamecocks from 2002-04.

Henkes spent time on the LPGA Tour serving as a caddy to Kristy McPherson, who finished in the top 50 on the money list in 2008 and also caddied for her older brother Kyle, who earned his PGA Tour card for 2012 by finishing 15th on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2011.

Henkes lives in Oxford with her husband, Kenneth, and two daughters: Parker and Kate.