BATON ROUGE – Former LSU Women’s Golf star and NCAA Champion Austin Dods was awarded her LSU degree on Thursday during commencement exercises on the LSU campus.
Dods, then Austin Ernst, won the 2011 NCAA championship and later went on to a decorated career on the LPGA Tour with three wins, three top seven major finishes and over $4.5 million in tour earnings.
Dods earned her degree in Sports Administration through LSU’s Project Graduation program.
The mission of Project Graduation is to assist former student-athletes with completing graduation requirements and obtain their degrees so that they can move forward in their career and individual life pursuits. This is achieved by being proactive in reaching out to former student-athletes and by providing information and assistance to those who reach out to us.
Project Graduation collaborates with individual university departments, provides accurate and easy to decipher information (steps to re-apply, degree audits, health center requirements, financial aid assistance applications, and career counseling), and fosters a positive environment consisting of academic advisement, tutorial assistance, and total person support services. The initial commitment was made to assist these former student-athletes in obtaining a degree and that commitment is still honored and promoted even as they return as a student no matter the length of time since they last attended LSU.
Dods was part of two third-place NCAA Championship teams at LSU in 2011 and 2012, before leaving LSU after her sophomore season to play on the professional circuit. Her 2011 championship came at the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, firing a final round of 6-under 66, which included a hole-in-one on the par 3 second hole, to capture LSU’s first NCAA individual title in men’s or women’s golf in 60 years.
She scored her first win in the Portland Classic in a playoff in August 2014 and then posted her second win in August 2020 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in Fayetteville and followed up the next March with her third victory in the LPGA Drive On Championship.
She tied for second in the 2018 Evian Championship was fifth in the 2020 Women’s Open and T7 in the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship.
Dods would announce her “semi-retirement from tournament play in June 2023 due to lingering neck issues. She served as a college assistant coach for two seasons but is preparing to tee it up in 10-12 events back on the LPGA Tour in 2026.
Dods also represented the United States in the 2011 Spirit International Amateur and the Curtis Cup and Espirito Santo Trophy in 2012. Professionally, she was part of two American Solheim Cup teams in 2017 and 2021.