NEWBERRY — Newberry College head women’s golf coach Clarissa Childs has been named the Division II Director on the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s Board of Directors for 2016-18. The appointment was effective June 1.
Childs has been the head women’s golf coach at Newberry since the spring semester of 2012. She coached the Wolves to South Atlantic Conference championships in 2012 and 2013 and was the 2013 and 2015 SAC Coach of the Year. She was also named the Southeast Sectional Coach of the Year by the LPGA in 2013, becoming the first Division II and South Carolina coach to win the honor.
From 1997-2001, Childs competed on the SBC Futures Tour and posted 10 top-10 finishes. Childs joined the LPGA Tour in 2002 and played on the Tour through 2007, competing in 71 career events, averaging 74.3 strokes per round in 171 rounds over her career.
In 2004, Childs carded a career-low 67 during the final round of the Longs Drugs Challenge. Her top tournament finish was a tie for 27th at the 2007 State Farm LPGA Classics at the Panther Creek CC in Springfield, Ill., with a 5-under par 283.
Childs has experience in the U.S. Women’s Open, hitting a hole-in-one in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, which was the 14th in the history of the prestigious tournament.
In her collegiate career, Childs was a four-year all-Southeastern Conference honoree who competed at South Carolina from 1992-96 and was a key member of Gamecock teams that advanced to the NCAA Championships in 1993, 1995 and 1996.
Childs earned first-team all-SEC honors in 1994 and 1995. She finished third at the 1995 SEC Championships and finished 14th at the 1995 NCAA Championships with a score of 71-75-74-76=296 to help Carolina to a ninth-place finish at NCAAs, marking the school’s best showing ever at the NCAA Championships.
Childs was South Carolina’s top finisher at the 1996 NCAA East Regional, finishing 12th with a score of 77-71-78=226. She had seven top-five finishes during her career as a Gamecock, a mark that ranks third in school history.
Childs earned medalist honors at the 1993 Carolyn Cudone Intercollegiate and graduated from Carolina in 1996 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies.