Kari Williams is the head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women’s golf program, entering her 12th season at the helm during the 2025–26 campaign. She was appointed to the position on August 7, 2014, and has since overseen a sustained period of competitive growth, academic excellence, and community engagement. Under Williams’ leadership, Rutgers women’s golf has steadily elevated its national profile, recording 11 tournament wins, 51 top-five team finishes, and 12 individual victories. The program has set numerous team and individual scoring records across 18-, 36-, and 54-hole formats, while also achieving back-to-back postseason appearances and the best Big Ten Championship finishes in program history. The 2023–24 season marked a historic milestone as Rutgers captured the National Golf Invitational Championship, the program’s first postseason title.
Williams has also built one of the strongest academic cultures in collegiate women’s golf. Since 2015, Rutgers golfers have earned WGCA All-America Scholar honors 66 times and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognition on 44 occasions. The program has been honored multiple times with NJAIAW Team Academic Awards and consistently ranked among the nation’s top 25 programs in academic performance by the WGCA. Prior to Rutgers, Williams spent eight seasons as head coach at Columbia University, where she led the Lions to their first Ivy League Championship and an NCAA Championship berth. A former collegiate and professional golfer, Williams played at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and later competed on multiple professional tours. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting, a master’s degree in sports management from Columbia, and a master’s degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
