STARKVILLE – Mississippi State women’s golf has hired Lauren Whyte as an assistant coach. Whyte comes to Starkville from Indiana where she was the Hoosier’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.

With the Hoosiers, Whyte oversaw all areas of recruiting including skill evaluation, on-campus visits, scholarship distribution and eligibility requirements. She also organized the program’s home tournaments, ordered equipment and apparel and coordinated team travel.

“I could not be more excited about Lauren joining our program and rounding out our coaching staff,” head coach Charlie Ewing said. “She brings in a great deal of worldwide experience as a player and a coach that will be an asset to our program in so many ways. I believe that she will make a strong impact right away with the current team and in recruiting as she is very relational and will invest into the lives of the young athletes right away. I feel very fortunate to have a person like Lauren in our program and am very excited for the future of this program with her in it.”

In the shortened 2019-20 season, the Hoosiers picked up four top-10 finishes. Whyte helped junior Priscilla Schmid earn WGCA All-America Honorable Mention and First Team All-Big Ten honors, as well as a pair of Big Ten Player of the Week accolades after posting a 71.18 average in 11 rounds. Schmid captured her first tournament title at the Landfall Tradition, besting the rest of the field by two strokes.

Prior to her time at Indiana, Whyte served as a graduate assistant coach at Mercer University during the 2018-19 season, where she helped the Bears achieve the best Golfstat team ranking in program history.

“I’m so excited to be joining the program at Mississippi State,” Whyte said. “I’m extremely thankful to Coach Ewing for the opportunity that he has given me, and I can’t wait to start working with him and the team. I truly believe that with the resources and golf facilities available at Mississippi State we have the opportunity to continually compete at the highest level.”

Whyte (pronounced “White”) began her collegiate career at Baylor. As a freshman, she helped the Bears to their first Big 12 Conference team title by finishing in a tie for 28th. The team then went on to win the first regional title in program history, and advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championship. Whyte went 1-2 in match play, but her one win was an important one as she defeated Lisa Maguire from Duke on the 24th hole to clinch Baylor’s spot in the championship match against Stanford.

Following her sophomore season, Whyte transferred to Denver for her final two years of eligibility. In her two seasons with the Pioneers, she posted a 75.06 scoring average and was the team captain. She helped improve Denver’s Golfstat ranking from 53 to 18 and garnered First and Second Team All-Summit League honors while also winning the 2017 Summit League Team Championship.

Her international experience includes being a member of the Scotland National U-18 Girls team for three years and captaining the team at the European Girls Team Championship from 2011-14. She also won the Scottish Girls U-18 Championship in 2012 and participated in the European Young Masters in 2011 and 2012 with Scotland. In 2013, Whyte played for Team GB at Youth Olympic Festival in Australia.

“I can’t wait to get down to Starkville and work with such a talented and motivated group of young women and continue to help them in their development,” Whyte added. “In my first few days as a Bulldog, I have felt such a warm welcome by the athletic community, and I am excited to get to work!

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