Theresa Luu’s parents put her in a golf camp at seven years old. The two things she noticed were: She was the only girl there, and she was a lot better than most of the boys around her.

After switching to private lessons, Luu ’22 competed in the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour, the American Junior Golf Association Tour and at New Jersey and Philadelphia Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) events.

When it came time to make a college decision, Luu chose St. Joe’s, a university without a varsity women’s golf team.

“I played on the club team here, and then from coaching summer camp at my local golf course, Town & Country Golf Links, I realized, ‘Wait, I really like coaching,’” Luu said.

So, last October, when St. Joe’s announced the addition of a varsity women’s golf program that would start the following fall, Luu’s friends started sending her articles about it. Now, two years after graduation, Luu is at the helm of the Hawks’ first varsity women’s golf team.

“I emailed Jill [Bodensteiner, vice president and] director of athletics, and I said if there’s any way I can get involved — I wasn’t even sure if there was a head coach position yet — and she brought me in and explained how excited she was and how the whole athletics department was really excited,” Luu said. “After that, she asked if I was interested in head coaching, and I said yes, and here we are.”

Growing the game

The team is comprised of five women — three freshmen, a junior and sophomore Olivia Cooper. The Hawks competed in their first NCAA Division I event Sept. 6-8 at the Bucknell Invitational.

When Cooper’s parents heard St. Joe’s was starting a women’s golf team, they were quick to encourage her to get involved. She was on the fence about joining, but Cooper said her parents reminded her the team would “be making history.”

“[I was] a little scared at first, of course, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for me,” Cooper said. “I made the decision to be a part of history.”

After being a part of the first girls’ golf team at her high school in Guilderland Center, New York, freshman Hanna Mitchell had similar sentiments.

“We’re trying to make a pathway for the future girls of women’s golf,” Mitchell said. “It’s a growing sport. It’s something great to be involved in. There’s a couple bumps in the road, but that’s how it’s going to go. I think what’s most important is we’re setting up a good foundation for a good program for years to come.”

Luu is focused on growing the women’s game, too.

“Since it’s a male-dominated sport, it can be very intimidating for young girls to get involved in it,” Luu said.

Luu, a Ladies Professional Golf Association-certified instructor, believes her history with the game and her experience as an active competitor allows her to connect with the women more.

“It’s really cool to be able to coach and also play at the same time,” Luu said. “I think it’s really important to have a coach that understands the game, not just fundamentally in terms of technique, but also out on the course playing the mental side of it, because it is very challenging.”

Mitchell said the team also can talk with Luu about being Hawks.

“We’ll talk about the professors that we had; she’ll talk about her stories. So it’s a lot of fun,” Mitchell said. “Any questions that we have about the campus or the area around campus, she knows that. She’s right there. She’s our biggest help on the course and off the course.”

Cooper said there is strength in having a small number of players on the team. It has allowed them to more easily become closer through meeting at the dining hall or finding other ways to spend time together.

“There’s a lot of, ‘Let’s meet at Campion,’ or ‘Who wants to meet at the swing room?’ or ‘Is anyone doing anything tonight? Does anyone need help?’ and just doing the little things together,” Cooper said.

‘Trial and error’

Luu said building this bond is helping teach “what being a competitive teammate [means] in the collegiate world of athletics.” It’s just one part of the learning process for all involved in the program.

“There are a lot of questions that I always have, and I’m unsure of where to go about it, or just even double checking if I’m doing this correctly,” Luu said. “The men’s coach, Terry [Scollin], has been a great help, too, since he’s played on the team and had assistant coached for two years. Now, he’s the head coach. Him and I are really figuring it all out.”

She added: “It’s all trial and error. I don’t have a perfect program yet, and I’m figuring it out as we go. So really, just having the girls be patient has been really helpful.”

As the program begins to take shape, Luu said one of the areas she thought she’d struggle with, recruiting players, has been a pleasant surprise.

“Honestly, my emails have been flooded with a bunch of recruits. I get … four to five emails a day with new recruits, and it’s just been amazing,” Luu said. “I think St Joe’s is a really, really strong school academically and athletically, and I think a lot of girls are excited to see that there’s a women’s team started, and a lot of them want to be part of making history.”

An earlier version of this article was first published by the Philadelphia Inquirer Sept. 30 as part of the Inquirer’s college correspondent program.