Mike Roters’ first impression after being hired last July to lead the Tulsa women’s golf program?
“The unwavering confidence of these girls,” Roters answered. “They had big goals from the get-go; they were making nationals again.”
Even after losing head coach Annie Young, who took an assistant position at her alma mater, Oklahoma State.
Even after finishing the fall ranked No. 100 in the country and 26 wins below .500.
Even after entering the American Athletic Conference Championship in a win-or-go-home scenario.
“It’s all they talk about, and they haven’t proven themselves wrong yet,” Roters added. “They truly believe they’re getting there.”
The Golden Hurricane dominated their conference foes last week at Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, Florida, winning by 21 shots the program’s second AAC title, first since 2021, and nabbing an automatic bid into an NCAA regional. Individually, midseason arrival Romaine Masserey from Collombey, Switzerland, became the school’s first conference medalist.
Now, Tulsa is just a top-five regional finish away from accomplishing that goal of reaching a third consecutive NCAA Championship.
This after the Golden Hurricane almost didn’t have a team.
It was early July with Young announced her shocking departure. Lily Thomas had already turned pro in the middle of last season to compete in LPGA Q-Series, and accompanying Young to Stillwater was the team’s top player, Grace Kilcrease, who is currently the No. 35 player in the nation for the Cowgirls. Sophomore Allyn Stephens also entered her name in the portal, and others were apparently considering the same.
Roters was in Carlsbad, California, recruiting as South Carolina’s assistant at the IMG Academy Junior World Championships when his phone rang. On the other line was a Tulsa administrator. That was a Tuesday; Roters was officially hired that Friday.
He was welcomed by a tight-knit team – a group that included Stephens, who returned to Tulsa after Roters’ hire – that spends a lot of time together, cooking meals, holding team meetings and communicating nonstop. But that cohesiveness couldn’t overcome the loss of Kilcrease last fall. Roters estimates it was around six shots per round that the Golden Hurricane were trying to make up, 18 to 20 per tournament.
“I knew I needed to be patient with them,” Roters said, “but I also knew we needed to find another player.”
And so, Roters reached out to his European contacts and came across a late-bloomer on the Swiss national team who didn’t start playing golf until age 16 and was graduating from Sorbonne University in Paris. Masserey, a skier for much of her childhood, arrived in January to help dig Tulsa out of a sizable hole. Masserey’s 72.8 adjusted scoring average isn’t quite comparable to Kilcrease, but her four top-25s to close the regular season have been enough to spark this program.
“We’re not where we are today without Romaine,” Roters said.
• • •
Notable midseason arrivals
• Eila Galitsky, South Carolina (Scoreboard rank: 18)
• Chloe Kovelesky, Wake Forest (24)
• Eunseo Choi, Pepperdine (190)
• Romaine Masserey, Tulsa (208)
• • •
Starting in March, Roters has urged his players, of which four have NCAA Championship experience, to treat every tournament like a regional. They’ve yet to finish outside the top five since, including at conference, where a runner-up finish still wouldn’t have been enough to get them over the .500 mark.
“I’ve just kept pressuring them, putting those scenarios on them,” Roters said. “And they just answered every time, and at conference, you could see the depth and experience, they just didn’t fold, and they put the hammer down.”
Tulsa is projected right now as a ninth seed heading to Lubbock, Texas. If the fields were finalized today, they’d be joined in that regional by a fifth-seeded Oklahoma State. Roters says his team would relish that opportunity, but truthfully, it doesn’t matter who they’re up against.
“To be honest, I don’t think anybody wants to see us in their regional because we’re playing to a four or five seed,” Roters said. “I don’t care where we go; we’re a dangerous team right now that’s trying to upset someone.”
