Alexis Rather Season 2024-25
Updated on July 14, 2024
Arnold Palmer Cup Assistant Coach (USA – 2024)
WGCA Assistant Coach of the Year — 2023
Alexis Rather, who starred as a player at LSU, enters her 15th season with the Tigers and her seventh working with head coach Garrett Runion. Rather spent eight seasons under the tutelage of long-time LSU head coach Karen Bahnsen in addition to playing for Bahnsen in the purple and gold from 2003-2008.
Rather is a consummate recruiter and on-course coach and can be seen all over the world searching for talented future Tigers.
Rather’s long constant work effort and abilities were recognized at the conclusion of the 2023 season as she was named the national Assistant Coach of the Year for 2023 by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association.
Her national reputation was rewarded when she was named the Assistant Coach alongside Head Coach Garrett Runion for the winning U.S.A. team at the Arnold Palmer Cup at famed Lahinch Country Club in Ireland.
During tournaments, Rather can be seen at various spots on the course, offering help and encouragement to the Tigers when needed. She knows the advice to give and the proper times to give it. She knows when to press and when to back off.
Rather is an LSU program veteran and, like Runion, she knows the history of the team and what is necessary to get teams through delicate moments in important rounds because they have lived it.
During her time at LSU, she has helped put together a class of golfers that finished third in the NCAA championships both in 2011 and 2012 and continues to bring some of the world’s top recruits to come to Baton Rouge, including ANNIKA Award finalist Madelene Sagstrom (2015) and ANNIKA and Inkster Award winner Ingrid Lindblad (2024).
The Tigers run to consistent national prominence in recent years has been led by five-year letterwinners Lindblad and Latanna Stone and four-year letterwinner Carla Tejedo. Lindblad was a three-time SEC Player of the year, five-time first-team All-American and WGCA Player of the Year in 2024. Stone finished her career with four Arnold Palmer Cup appearances, a spot on the victorious 2022 Curtis Cup team and a runner-up finish in the U.S. Amateur.
Also, the past two years Indiana transfer Aine Donegan from Ireland has been a big part of the Tigers success and will help lead the team in her senior season of 2024-25.
The Tigers have won 14 times under the Runion-Rather pairing, including three times in 2023-24. LSU won its NCAA Regional in Bryan, Texas, the first outright win in an NCAA Regional in 2024 as the Tigers advanced to a fourth straight NCAA Championship, tying the school record for consecutive NCAA appearances. LSU finished in a tie for the top spot in the 72-hole stroke play qualifying in the NCAAs, qualifying for match play for the first time in school history.
In 2022 for the first time in 30 years, LSU won the SEC Championship trophy in Birmingham.
After 54 holes of stroke play, the Tigers swept three matches, two in dramatic fashion, defeating Vanderbilt, Alabama and Florida in the nationally-televised finals.
Before the team finals, Lindblad eagled the final hole in stroke play to capture the school’s first individual SEC title in 31 years.
In 2021, Runion and Rather put together a squad that got LSU back to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2015, finishing ninth. The Tigers were just one shot out of advancing to the match play portion of the event for the first time.
Since Rather joined the staff in the Fall of 2010, LSU has made 11 NCAA Tournament team appearances and sent two individuals in the other seasons. LSU was on pace for a team appearance before the 2020 season was cut short by the pandemic.
The Tigers advanced to the NCAA championships placed third in back-to-back seasons in 2011 and 2012. In 2011 Austin Ernst won the NCAA individual title. LSU has also won 24 regular season tournament titles over the past 14 seasons that Rather has been on staff.
Rather assists with planning and running practice routines, and coaching on the course for tournaments. She has also played a vital role in LSU’s recruiting efforts at home and overseas.
Rather served two years as an assistant coach at Ole Miss before beginning her professional tenure at LSU. At Ole Miss, she helped guide the Rebels back to postseason play and won a tournament for the first time since 2004 as the women’s golf team earned the Chancellor’s Cup for the women’s varsity team at Ole Miss with the highest grade point average.
The native of Tupelo, Mississippi, was a four-year letter winner at LSU, appeared in two NCAA Women’s Golf Championships as a player and was a four-time Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar.
Rather, a two-time First-Team All-Louisiana golfer, had three top-10 finishes in her 2008 senior season. That year, she also chipped in for the only birdie in a sudden death playoff for the eighth and final qualifying spot at the NCAA East Regional that got LSU to the NCAA Women’s Championships.
Over the course of her collegiate career, Rather posted six top-20 performances and her 125 career rounds played is among the most rounds played in a career by an LSU women’s golfer. She was also a four-time member of the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
Rather was named LSU’s recipient on the SEC Community Service Team while in college and has been heavily involved her entire LSU career with the school’s Life Skills Program and service projects throughout the community. She graduated from LSU in July 2007 with an honors degree in communications and her master’s in sports management from LSU in 2008.