Duke University Women's Golf

Duke women’s golf head coach Dan Brooks knows what it takes to make it to the pinnacle of a collegiate sport. In 41 years as the coach of the Duke Blue Devils, he has helped guide his squads to seven NCAA National Championships, 21 ACC Championships and 144 team victories, which is the most of any women’s golf coach in Division I history. In 1998-99, all the hard work paid off as Duke secured the NCAA Championship, the first title for any Blue Devil women’s program in school history and the fourth overall. Duke withstood the high expectations of being ranked No. 1 in the country during the preseason, fought off the pressure of sporting the top ranking for most of the year and finished by holding the lead from start to finish at the NCAA Championship in Tulsa, Okla. It was one of the greatest seasons for any sport in school history. In 2001-02, Brooks once again claimed the NCAA Championship in Auburn, Wash., as his Blue Devils fought off adversity in the fall without senior All-America and reigning NCAA Individual Champion Candy Hannemann. The Blue Devils struggled, winning only one of four tournaments, but rebounded in the spring with Hannemann back in the lineup to win all seven tournaments they played. Duke headed to the championship as the hottest team in golf. The Blue Devils hung in the top four during the entire tournament and made up nine strokes in the last three holes of the final round to capture the title by six strokes. In 2004-05, Brooks headed to his home state

Chase Crawford joined Duke Athletics in March of 2025 and currently serves as Assistant Director of Creative Video. In this role, he works directly with women's soccer, women's golf, track and field, cross country and wrestling. Before joining Duke Athletics, Crawford was a Creative Video Intern for Mississippi State Athletics where he served as the primary creative video contact for the softball team from 2022-2024 and the primary video contact for the women's soccer team during the 2021 season. Crawford earned a Bachelors of Arts in Broadcast and Digital Journalism from Mississippi State University in 2024.

Chelsea Groves joined the Duke Athletics Creative Services team in 2022 and currently serves as Director of Social Media. Her main responsibilities are managing the day-to-day operations of the Duke Athletics social media platforms, oversight of the Creative Services team members, and manages the men's golf and women's golf accounts. In her previous role as Associate Director for Social Media, Groves created and executed content for Duke's softball and women's soccer official accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook while ensuring that it aligned with the communication and marketing goals of the team, department and university. Groves also played a key role in creating the Creative Services student worker team, and she oversaw its day-to-day operations. Before joining Duke Athletics, Groves was the Director of Digital and Social Media at Stephen F. Austin where she was responsible for managing social media platforms on a daily basis, developing content calendars and supervising student workers and graduate assistants. Previously, Groves also served as Assistant Director of Strategic Communications at SFA, where her duties included keeping statistics, updating the athletics website, serving as on-air host for the department and fulfilling media requests. Groves holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Media from Butler University, with a minor in Human Communication and Organizational Leadership.

Dr. Stephanie Gdovin started with Duke Athletics in August of 2021 as a postdoctoral fellow in Behavioral Health before transitioning into a her role as Assistant Director of Mental Health & Performance in July of 2022. She was promoted to Director of Mental Health & Performance in January 2026. Gdovin is currently responsible for providing individual psychological and team consultation services to Duke student athletes and teams. Services include treating mental health issues, as well as college adjustment, relationship concerns, injury rehabilitation, identity, self-esteem, career transition/retirement, and body image/eating concerns. She develops and delivers programming to student athletes related to mental health and psychological well-being, and serves on the Eating Disorder Integrated Care Team with physicians and dietitians in Athletics providing comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment, consultation and referral services to athletes with eating disorders. Gdovin is a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) advisory group promoting social justice and DEIB initiatives within the Athletic Department, and is a licensed psychologist in North Carolina and Certified Mental Performance Consultant by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). She's active in professional organizations, including AASP and the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (Division 47), and was the 2022 recip

Elise Gentile joined Duke Athletics in September 2024 and serves as the Varsity Golf Operations Assistant for the Blue Devil men's and women's golf programs. Gentile provides administrative and operational support for both programs, including expense processing, compliance documentation, recruiting visit planning, donor relations assistance, uniform and equipment coordination, and support for facility and vehicle scheduling. She also helps manage event planning and communications, including a monthly newsletter for alumni and supporters. Before joining Duke, Gentile spent nearly five years at Immaculata Catholic School in Durham, serving as athletic director from 2019-24 and as director of facilities from 2021-23. She previously worked for the Town of Cary from 2009-19 in roles that included athletics program assistant at the USA Baseball National Training Complex and athletic aide IV. Gentile spent more than four years with Palm Beach County from 2004-09, serving as golf course manager at Okeeheelee Golf Course, recreation center manager, and recreation specialist II. She began her career as national director of continuing programs for the National Alliance for Youth Sports from 2001-04. Gentile earned a master's degree in athletic administration from Central Michigan University in 2000 after completing a bachelor's degree in sports studies with a business administration concentration in 1999.

Jack Winters joined the Duke Athletics staff in 1987 and has held several leadership roles throughout his career at Duke. Most recently, he was elevated to Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Iron Dukes Annual Fund in September 2022. After beginning his Duke tenure as an intern in the Iron Dukes office, Winters was promoted to Assistant Director in 1989. He then was elevated to Associate Director in 1994 before taking over as the Director five years later. Winters was a three-year letterwinner in golf at Denison University, twice earning All-NCAC honors in 1987 and 1988, while serving as team captain in his senior season. Winters graduated from Denison with a degree in psychology in 1988. Athletics runs in the Winters family as his grandfather, Jay Winters, played professional football with the Cleveland Panthers in 1927. Winters and his wife, Lori, have two children, Jay and Ellie.

Jen McCollum joined the Duke athletic medicine staff in July of 1995 and currently serves as an Associate Athletic Trainer. She was promoted from her previou...

Jon Whithaus, who boasts 15 years of coaching on the men’s side, enters his 11th season with the Blue Devil women’s golf program and the fifth as associate head coach. Whithaus was rewarded for his hard work in 2020-21 as he was selected the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) National Assistant Coach of the Year. He was also selected to be an assistant coach for the United States at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup and helped lead the squad to a 33-27 victory over the Internationals. Whithaus teamed with Duke golfers Gina Kim and Erica Shepherd to help the U.S. to the win in Sugar Grove, Ill. In just his fourth season with the Blue Devils, Whithaus helped lead Duke to the school’s seventh NCAA Championship with wins over Stanford (3-2), Arizona (3-2) and Wake Forest (3-2) at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Whithaus is the only coach in NCAA Division I to lead both a women’s (2016) and men’s (2011) program into the match play semifinals of the NCAA Championship. He has also coached both a women’s and men’s individual to an NCAA Individual Championship. Whithaus has coached women’s and men’s student-athletes that have gone on to win on seven of the biggest tours in the world -- LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour, Symetra Tour, PGA Tour, European Tour, Web.com Tour and Challenge Tour. Since joining the Blue Devils, Duke has won the NCAA Championship in 2019, won ACC Championships in three of the 10 seasons and advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championship in

Joined the Duke Sports Performance Staff in the Fall of 2016 as an assistant director of sports performance. He handles women’s tennis, women’s golf, men’s g...

Kenny King has been on the staff of his alma mater since 2002. In his role as Assistant Director of Academic Services, he works directly with the Blue Devil field hockey, women's golf, men's lacrosse, swimming & diving and volleyball programs. King served four seasons as a student manager at Duke from 1997-00. Following his graduation, he worked at Morgan Stanley for two years as an analyst in the Fixed Income Division in the company’s New York and London offices. In his previous role at Duke, he worked directly with academics for the men's basketball team. A native of Harrison, N.Y., King graduated cum laude from Duke with a B.S. in economics and a minor in chemistry. He earned an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 2008. He and his wife, the former Robin Hutchison, have three sons, John Kenny III, William and Alexander, and one daughter, Kathryn. Updated on October 31, 2024

Kerrin Meseck joined the Duke Athletics staff in July of 2021 and serves as the Assistant Director of Sports Nutrition. In her role, she primarily works with...

Lindy Brown enters his 25th year as a member of the Duke Communications Office after joining the department in November of 1999. He spent seven years as an assistant sports information director prior to being promoted to associate SID in the summer of 2006. Over the summer of 2015, he was elevated to senior associate SID. In 2019, Brown received the CoSIDA Achievement Award for the University Division and was honored at the CoSIDA convention in June. In recognition of his long service to the game of women's basketball, Brown was presented with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Mary Jo Haverbeck Award in 2023 at the NCAA Final Four in Dallas. Brown joined the Blue Devil family after serving as the sports information director/marketing and promotions coordinator at the University of South Carolina Aiken for three years. A native of Raleigh, N.C., Brown serves as the primary contact for the women's soccer, women's tennis, women's golf and wrestling teams. His 2001-02 women's basketball media guide placed second nationally in the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) publications contest. The contest was for Division I institutions and received 102 entries. His 2006-07 women's basketball guide also placed fifth, while the 2007-08 guide was sixth and the 2008-09 guide was seventh in the CoSIDA contests. He has been a part of six NCAA Women's Golf Championships (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2019), three NCAA Women's Basketball Final Fours (2002, 2003, 20