Therese Hession competed in her first national championship in 1976, and any school that could afford to go to nationals headed to Michigan State.
“I think there might have been about 26 teams in the country,” said Hession, who graduated from Southern Methodist.
Now, Golfweek lists 268 Division I women’s programs in its national rankings.
Hession has seen firsthand how dramatically the landscape has shifted over the years. In 2018, she was named director of golf for both the men’s and women’s programs at Ohio State, becoming the first woman to hold such a position at a Power Five conference. She retired at the end of last year.
As Title IX – the federal law that prevents discrimination on the basis of sex by any education program receiving federal funds – turns 50, Golfweek asked Division I coaches who played competitively across five different decades to weigh in on what has changed in women’s golf, and what still needs to change.
Here are excepts from those conversations.