Rice to Add Women’s Golf in 2026-27
5/10/2024 9:44:00 AM | Women's Golf
Landmark Gift Will Endow Rice’s 17th Intercollegiate Sport
Thanks to a historic $5 million commitment from a former Rice women's basketball player, Rice will expand its opportunities for female student-athletes by introducing women's golf to the Owls' list of intercollegiate sports beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
Rice Vice President and Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland announced on Friday that Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, and her husband, John, have endowed Rice Athletics with one of the largest gifts by any former female student-athlete to offer future generations of competitive women golfers the opportunity to attend Rice and compete for the Owls.
Elsenhans was one of the initial group of women who ushered in the era of intercollegiate athletics at Rice as a letter winner on the Owls' first basketball team in 1974-75 and went on to a distinguished career as an executive in the energy industry.
After graduating from Rice in 1978, Elsenhans went on to earn an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1980. For more than 28 years, she worked for Shell, rising to become president of its U.S. refining and marketing operations and then executive vice president of global manufacturing for its refining and chemical manufacturing operations worldwide. She joined Sunoco in 2008, serving as chair, president, and CEO until retiring from the company in 2012.
Elsenhans sits on the board of directors of Baker Hughes Company and is the first woman to sit on the board of Saudi Aramco. She also served multiple terms on the Rice Board of Trustees.
"In our conversations with Lynn, she made it very clear that this was a sport she wanted to support, and it is one that made sense," McClelland stated. "25 schools in the state of Texas compete at the Division I level. 24 of them have women's golf. Rice was the only one that did not... until now."
"College golf is one of the sports that's both an individual sport and a team sport, and golf is a game in which you learn humility and it builds character," said Elsenhans. "It's the only sport in which you call penalties on yourself. John and I wanted to make this gift to have top scholars who play golf have the opportunity to choose Rice."
"We are thrilled to launch women's golf at Rice. This is a part of our overall commitment to excellence in every area, including Rice Athletics, and especially women's sports," Rice President Reginald DesRoches stated. "We thank Lynn for this gift to launch the program and encourage other dedicated alumni to join us in supporting women's golf."
McClelland indicated Rice will immediately launch a national search for the program's first head coach who will begin the process of identifying and recruiting the student-athletes who will usher in the era of women's golf at Rice. An announcement on the future home course for Rice women's golf will be announced in the coming months.
Rice has launched a specific interest group for women's golf designated as the Women's Golf Excellence Fund to allow others to support the Owls' newest sport before their historic first season on the links.
"Lynn is going to lead in this effort, but I know she wants others to join in this effort so that we can ensure the quality of success that we want and that we know is possible from a Rice women's golf program," said McClelland.
"I hope that they can see this as an investment in a game that builds character in young people and that it's fitting for Rice to have women's golf in that top academic institutions have proven that they can be competitive in this sport. There's no reason why we can't be competitive in this sport," Elsenhans stated.
Women's Golf will expand the Owls' list of intercollegiate athletic teams to 17 and become the first new sport added to the roster since soccer was added in 2001.
Earlier this year, Rice announced the swimming program will see the return of a diving program for the first time since 1991.