Bahnsen’s legacy: Karen Bahnsen’s journey from LSU’s first women’s golf signee to the hall of fame

From being the first women’s golf signee to becoming one of the longest-tenured head coaches in school history, Karen Bahnsen dedicated over half of her life to the LSU women’s golf program and is respected nationwide for her contributions to growing the game.

The LSU women’s golf program has been around for over 40 years, and Bahnsen has seen it grow from the ground up. Bahnsen was the first women’s golfer to receive an athletic scholarship from LSU and played from the 1979-1980 season until the 1982-1983 season.

“Being a fledgling program, that’s kind of a big deal,” Bahnsen said. “So that was pretty interesting.”

Having been a part of the program for 39 years total, Bahnsen says that the change in support toward women’s golf and women’s athletics in general has “been crazy” to watch unfold.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s early years were focused on the building and funding of men’s programs, so women’s programs were a part of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. It wasn’t until 1982 that all divisions of the NCAA took control over women’s athletics from the AIAW.

“When we were AIAW, the guys had the athletic cafeteria, we didn’t,” Bahnsen said. “The scholarships were similar, but not, you know, but it was a program that was just starting out. We literally bought our own uniforms at the Student Union building. It was kind of crazy, so now you look at it: we’re flying privately, we have an unbelievable practice facility. It’s phenomenal, it’s just all state of the art.”

How colleges treat prospective athletes is also a huge aspect of collegiate sports that Bahnsen has been able to see change. She recalls her process of recruitment to have been drastically different compared to what it’s like now.

“When I went on trips to visit different colleges—you know, now athletes get all their trips paid for to go visit a school and all that kind of stuff—well, we had to pay for our own,” Bahnsen said. “Because I come from a big family, it kind of limited where I looked.”

Before committing to LSU, Bahnsen was sought after by several programs. Her success in the sport was apparent on her stupendous resume—she helped her high school, McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, win two state titles and won an individual state championship herself.

“I’m from Alabama, so I looked at Alabama, Auburn—they really wanted me—and Georgia and Miami, and then I looked at LSU and they were just starting a program,” Bahnsen said. “It was really neat to see what they were doing here. LSU put a lot into their program right from the get-go and I just loved it.”

After her last season as an LSU golfer, Bahnsen graduated and was soon offered the head coach position in 1984. In just two years, she was named the SEC and NGCA South Region Coach of the Year and led the team to a ninth-place finish in the NCAA Championships.

Throughout her 34-year tenure, Bahnsen gathered over 3,000 wins while leading the program to 12 NCAA appearances and 22 NCAA Regional appearances. The memories and accomplishments made during her time as head coach are endless, but a few come to mind as Bahnsen’s favorites.

“Number one would be when Jenny Lidback was on one of the first teams we had,” Bahnsen said. “She won seven tournaments in one year and we were ranked as high as No. 1 that year. We won like five tournaments as a team, so that was a really fun year… [also] when we finished third place in the NCAA Championship two years in a row.”

“One of my favorite things was when we won SECs. We were hosting it that year. I worked really hard to make it a special event for the girls. I was like, ‘Okay, we’re going to make this a true championship.’ We went out of our way to be able to do that, and then to win it on top of that was really fun.”

Bahnsen certainly gave her all when it came to helping her players win, but she cared about more than just the stat sheet. While coaching her players to success, she also dedicated time to building relationships with the young women she recruited and made sure to make them feel heard as people rather than just athletes. 

“[The wins] were fun, but [that’s] on the golf course,” Bahnsen said. “Really, my favorite things were some of the fun relationships I’ve had with these girls. It’s a family, and that’s how I always ran my program, like they were a part of my family. And I was a momma sometimes, I had to be that momma, but that’s okay because it was just showing that I loved and cared about them beyond golf.”

The inevitable day had come when Bahnsen would step down as head coach and depart from the program that she had been with from the start. In 2018, she retired to focus on family matters and knew it would be unfair to try and balance both at once. Since the golf program had turned into such an important piece of her life, Bahnsen wanted to put it on track to remain on top without her personal life affecting the program’s success.

As the search for a new coach began, Bahnsen worked with the athletic department to ensure the program she helped build would be left in good hands. In June 2018, it was announced that Garrett Runion would take over the role of head coach. Runion is an LSU men’s golf alum and was the assistant coach for the men’s program from 2012 to 2018.

Runion also works with assistant coach Alexis Rather, an LSU women’s golf alumna who played under Bahnsen from 2003 to 2008 and served as her assistant coach from 2010 to 2018.

“Garrett and Alexis both, they went to LSU and were both involved with golf,” Bahnsen said. “Garrett was on the men’s team and Alexis was on our team and I coached her, then she was my assistant, and then we hired Garrett. I thought, ‘What better way than to have two LSU people there?’ I knew Garrett was a really good coach, I knew Alexis was a really good coach and I knew together they would be tremendous. They were already really good friends, so I’m proud.”

The 3,000-plus career wins and genuine passion for golf from Bahnsen is recognized by many and the accolades continue to roll in even after her retirement. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women’s Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame, then in 2015, she joined her mother as a member of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame. On May 13, Bahnsen will add another Hall of Fame honor to her name as she joins the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s so exciting, and there’s 19 women total in the whole [Alabama] Sports Hall of Fame,” Bahnsen said. “I’m the 19th woman and I’ll be the 4th woman golfer…I went and counted them all, I went through the whole history of it.” 

“Being from the state of Alabama, it’s really great to see how many golfers there are and I’m going to tell you, there’s some more to come behind me that are going to be inducted that are really great. It’s a great honor.”

The legacy Bahnsen left behind at LSU goes deeper than just her success as a player-turned-coach. Her passion for the game and women’s athletics fueled her determination to work for equality between men and women in sports, and because of this, Bahnsen will go down as one of the greatest in LSU history. 

“Over the years, it wasn’t always a commitment. It’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, we just have women’s golf, but we don’t really care,’ but it became important, and other women’s sports as well. [People] started really committing and investing in our program, and that made a big difference.”