Oklahoma Christian Cuts Women’s Golf

To reach their goal of cutting $500,000 from their budget, Oklahoma Christian University has chosen to end the women’s golf team after the 2024 spring season. 

Athletic director David Lynn described his involvement with the team.

“In 2011, I recruited the entire first team myself. I’ve worked closely with the girls golfers. My dad, Greg Lynn, has coached the girls and traveled with the girls. I’m obviously intertwined heavily in women’s golf, and so it certainly wasn’t an easy decision for us,” Lynn said. “My heart goes out to those kids on our team currently, and we’re going to do everything we can to honor their scholarships while they stay here pursuing their undergrad degrees and support them if they can find a better opportunity to compete somewhere else.” 

David Lynn shared the personnel who made the decision to cut women’s golf.

“I communicate on our campus, representing athletics, with our campus administration, our CFO, COO, President and our budget manager, all of those the people that are key on our campus when financial decisions are made,” Lynn said.

David Lynn said there is a plan to reach the $500,000 in cuts.

“There’s no other plans to cut any other sports at this time,” Lynn said, “I have nothing to say about [the plan to reach $500,000 in cuts]. Each team and each program is working. I was working on figuring out how to best serve the university with their program.” 

David Lynn discussed the criteria used to evaluate the budget cut decisions. 

“In general on campus, you’re looking at the cost of a program versus what revenue the program generates,” Lynn said, “If a program loses money, or it costs more money to run a program than it brings in, then that’s probably not a wise decision from a business standpoint. And sport would be the same way.”

Freshman Abigail Lynn, who came to Oklahoma Christian for golf, recollected when the team found out they were getting cut. 

“We were all really shocked. I wish they told us before spring season started because it’s very stressful with classes and our qualifying and tournaments and then trying to find their place next year,” Lynn said. 

Abigail said she is glad she came to Oklahoma Christian for the time she could.

“I’m thankful for all the people I met. I love my coaches. We all get along very, very well. I’m glad I met and I think they’ll be lifelong friends,” Lynn said. 

Senior Sofia Benavides talked about her time on the team.

“We have always been ranked inside the top 30 teams in the nation throughout the whole history of the women’s golf team. It’s really disappointing that the school decided to get rid of such an accomplished program,” Benavides said. “This has been the closest group of girls in my time at OC and once you have team chemistry like that, the possibilities were gonna be endless going forward.” 

Benavides shared the team’s plans for their last semester. 

“This semester, we get to play, so we’re going to try to make the most out of it and finish the strongest we can. And have fun because we get to go to good tournaments and qualify for regionals and nationals, which we are totally capable of,” Benavides said. “I think it’s just sad because the team was truly a family and it was just growing.”