The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Women's Golf
- Title:
- Women's Golf Head Coach
- Email:
- wilcoxk@uab.edu
- Phone:
- 934-4009
UAB women’s golf head coach Kim Wilcox enters her 16th season at the helm of the program in 2017-18.
Under Wilcox’s guidance in recent seasons, Sydney Snodgrass and Rebecca Chandler have become two of the most decorated student-athletes in program history.
Snodgrass was tabbed a 2017 Third-Team All-Conference USA performer after being named to the C-USA Championship All-Tournament Team. She led the Blazers with a team best six rounds at or under par including two career-low 69s. As a sophomore in 2010 she was named the C-USA Co-Most Improved Golfer and earned Conference Player of the Week Awards.
Snodgrass is also a winner in the classroom. She is a three-time recipient of the C-USA Academic Medal and a listed on the Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll. She was named to the 2017 C-USA All-Academic Team as well as the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholars.
Chandler, a 2017 graduate of UAB, finished her academic career with a perfect 4.0 institutional GPA. She was a four-time recipient of the C-USA Academic Medal as well as being named to the Commissioner’s Honor Roll all four seasons. She was named to the 2017 C-USA All-Academic Team and earned WGCA All-American Scholar Honors. Chandler was earned UAB Presidential and Athletic Director’s Honors every semester while on campus.
Wilcox has led the Blazers to three tournament crowns in school history while also overseeing a program in tremendous academic standing.
In 2011 Carolyn Cochran became the first UAB women’s golfer to ever be named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team. A two-time member of the C-USA All-Academic Team, Cochran was also selected in 2011 as the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women’s golf.
Cochran was the second golfer under Wilcox to be named the league’s scholar-athlete. Brooke Mangan, the most accomplished player in school history, also won the award in 2004-05.
Mangan became the first NCAA Regional participant in program history when she competed in the 2005 tournament. Mangan – a member of the C-USA All-Decade Team for the first 10 years of the league – also became the first three-time all-conference for the Blazers, twice earning third-team honors before closing her career with first-team recognition in 2004-05.
Wilcox also coached Janey Deimling to third-team all-conference honors in the 2004-05 campaign.
That same season, UAB cracked the top-25 percent of the Golfstat Division I rankings. Just two years earlier, the Blazers were in the bottom half of the rankings, but a strong 2004 fall season had UAB at No. 62 heading into the spring of 2005.
In the program’s 18-year history prior to Wilcox’s arrival, only three golfers had claimed individual tournament titles. Since she took over in 2002-03, Blazer golfers have won a total of nine medalist honors.
Mangan, the winningest player in program history, won three titles in her career – the 2004 Samford Intercollegiate, the 2004 Lady Panther Intercollegiate and the 2005 Buffalo Rock Southern Shootout.
Deimling took medalist honors at the 2005 Miss Louis Season Opener and Christina Wentworth won the 2006 Cincinnati Spring Invitational.
A native of Birmingham and 1977 graduate of Vestavia High School, Wilcox began her collegiate golf career as a member of the Auburn women’s golf team from 1977-80. After Auburn, she worked outside the golf industry until 1991 when she became the club manager and golf pro at the Pine Harbor Golf and Racquet Club in Pell City, Ala.
In 1999, Wilcox left Pine Harbor and became the executive director of the Birmingham Golf Association (BGA). Her responsibilities included tournament operations, media relations and an extensive junior golf tour each summer with over 250 children.
While with the BGA, Wilcox also served as the media relations and junior golf coordinator for the Dixie Section of the PGA where she was responsible for running the junior golf program for more than 300 children annually. Wilcox also completed an internship at the Alabama Golf Association.
A four-year letter winner at Auburn, Wilcox was the runner-up in the Alabama State Women’s Amateur Championship in 1988 and won over 50 tournaments as a junior golfer. She also earned Achievement Certificates in Rules and Tournament Administration from the USGA/PGA in 1993 and taught at the Gillette LPGA Clinics in Atlanta from 1996-98. She currently conducts annual local and junior clinics.
Wilcox – who later completed her undergraduate (2013) and masters requirements at UAB in 2015 – and her husband, Bill, have two children, Sarah and Will.
Sarah graduated from Auburn with an undergraduate degree in nursing. She earned her master’s degree from Vanderbilt and is currently a certified registered nurse practioner at the University of Miami hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Will played one year of collegiate golf at UAB under Coach Alan Kaufman, transferred to Clayton State to finish his eligibility. He turned pro in 2009 and has posted four wins on the Canadian and Hoosiers tour. In six years on the Web.com, Wilcox one win, eight top-10 finishes and 23 top-25s.
Will has played in 56 tournaments on the PGA Tour in five tournaments. His career tournament is a second-place finish at the 2015 Barbasol Championship. Overall he has eight top-10, and 18 top-25 finishes. His earnings amass to over $2.4 million and he finished 97th in the 2015 FedEx Cup Standings.
