By Carson Vercoe | Sports Writer
The 2025 season for the Baylor women’s golf team proved to be yet another successful season in the Jay Goble era.
The Bears finished third in the NCAA Waco Regional, earning them their sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA championship. The Bears went on to finish 25th at the NCAA championship, marking the end of another great season.
Now entering the 2026 season, the Bears will look to continue this success and improve on what they did last year.
The Bears are once again led by head coach Jay Goble. Now in his 15th season with the program, Goble has built the Bears into one of the nation’s best. He has led them to their first conference championship, first NCAA regional title, first No. 1 national ranking and the only three top 10 NCAA championship finishes in history.
But while Goble gets this team ready to compete in tournaments all over the country, his main focus is building a sense of chemistry between him and his young roster.
“All of them have had lots of success around the world playing golf, so I think the bigger thing for us is we need to get to know each other as a group,” Goble said. “We need to understand and try to learn what makes each other tick and what I and my assistant can do to help them improve.”
Creating that chemistry looks like a tough task as the Baylor bring in four freshmen this fall and one in the spring, making up half of the Bears’ roster. Freshmen Abigail May and Sofie Nooij will be some of the new faces competing.
“A typical recruiting class for me is one or two, and to have five is a little bit insane,” Goble said. “But I know how talented they are, and I know how much high-level tournament golf experience they have, so I feel confident that at some point we’re going to be really awesome.”
While the roster may have half freshman, the Bears roster will still feature familiar faces from a year ago.
Senior Yurang Li and junior Malena Castro will be key returners for this Baylor team. They will become veteran presences for the newcomers.
“I think that if they can lead by example in what they do in practice and what they do when they’re playing on the golf course, then they could be really good leaders,” Goble said.
The Bears are also in the process of bringing back Bridget Boczar. She is currently working on getting her fifth year of eligibility, hoping to add another veteran player to a talented and young roster.
“I can tell you that if we can add Bridget to the lineup, then we are going to be really tough to beat,” Goble said. “She’s a veteran player. She’s playing the best golf of her life right now, and I think more importantly she’s just an absolute workhorse.”
As the Bears head into the start of the season looking strong on paper, Goble is focused more on the improvement of his players than immediate tournament wins.
“If we come out and win next week in Charleston, that would be great,” Goble said. “But also, I would love to see this group grow as players over the year and play their best golf in April and May.”
The Bears will open their new season on Sept. 7 at the Charleston Intercollegiate in Charleston, South Carolina.
