Women's Golf
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Phone:
- 541-346-5917
* Click here to see a Golf Week interview with Coach Rouillard from the 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.
Shannon Rouillard has experienced a remarkable career that has seen her go from walk-on to all-league golfer; from tour rookie to the U.S. Open and Women's Amateur Championship. The latest step in her remarkable progression is from athlete to successful collegiate coach.
It is a step that has brought things full circle for the former Oregon standout and assistant coach Rouillard (pronounced RUE-lard), who is now in her ninth season as head coach of the Ducks' women's golf program.
Oregon's youthful squad shined in the 2007-08 season giving promise to even more honors in '09. Duck individuals scored a record three individual tourney championships courtesy of Cathryn Bristow in the Indiana Invitational, Felicia Eastick in the Giustina Memorial Classic and Kendra Little in UO's own Duck Invitational. Bristow also rewrote the school three-round tourney record (69-69-70-208) in the UNLV Spring Rebel Invitational, and her seven-under final round 65 at the Indiana Invitational also stood as a school all-time best that bettered Little's five-under 67 score from the Las Vegas stop. UO had a pair of All-Pac-10 Second Team honorees who ranked top 100 nationally most of the season - Cathryn Bristow and Kendra Little - and Kate Hildahl was a repeat Academic All-American and Pac-10 All-Academic choice.
Team-wise, the young Oregon squad won the Duck Invitational for the first time in school history among its five top-three placings in 2007-08, then ended the season 13th in the West Regional - the team's fifth postseason trip under her guidance. Scoring-wise, the Ducks were among the West Coast's best with scores of 905 or better in eight of their 12 contests, including a school record 869 (292-291-286) in the 2008 UNLV Spring Rebel Invitational in early March.
Rouillard had the Ducks in the hunt for another postseason berth in 2006-07. The squad opened the spring in the Baja Classic with its third team victory of her coaching career, and two more top-five team finishes to close the regular season. In the fall, UO also scored an impressive sixth-place finish as a squad on the Stanford Golf Course in the fall vs. the all-star field with rounds of 297, 295 and 286. Senior Kim McCready successfully rebounded from an injury-ended junior season to win the Baja Classic, broke the school single round record (4-under 67) at the Stanford Intercollegiate, and added two other top-10 finishes and her second Pac-10 honorable mention award. In the classroom, senior Therese Wenslow added Pac-10 All-Academic First Team laurels, and McCready was a Second Team selection.
The Ducks jumped out to one of their best fall campaigns ever in 2005-06, and ranked 28th (74.32) nationally in the Golf Week rankings thanks to their lowest fall scoring average in her tenure (75.4 / 301.0, 12 rounds, 3,612 strokes). Freshman pupil Cathryn Bristow won the individual title in the season opener, the Oregon State Invitational, then added another title later in the year in the Illini Spring Classic - both by one stroke thanks to strong final day scores.
In 2004-05, the Ducks were again in the hunt for team and individual honors at the Pac-10, Regional and NCAA levels. Senior Johnna Nealy show a two-over 73 in the final round of her NCAA Championships debut in Sunriver, Ore., and ended 85th overall. The Grants Pass, Ore., native earned an NCAA invite after she tied for sixth in the West Regional on the New Mexico State University Golf Course and won a two-hole playoff, while the Ducks took 10th as a team - only two places and five shots from the final NCAA team bid. In the Pacific-10 Conference Championships at Ruby Hill in Pleasonton, Calif., Nealy posted her third straight top-20 league finish (18th, 11-over 227), while UO took eighth in a field that featured seven top 25 teams and another eventual NCAA qualifier. During the regular season, the Ducks enjoyed top-five team finishes in the Oregon Duck Invitational (second), Pinehurst Challenge (third) and Kent Youel Invite (fourth), and eight top-10 individual efforts from Nealy (5), Kim McCready (2) and Erin Andrews (1). McCready added the Oregon amateur title in June at Pumpkin Ridge near Portland after she edged Nealy 3 & 2 in their semifinal.
The Ducks capped another fine season in 2003-04 with a pair of tournament championships, and a near-miss in the NCAA West Regional, which saw the young Ducks extended to a three-team playoff before falling just short of a bid to the NCAA Championships. The Ducks began the season by winning the Lady Vandal Fall Invitational, where Erin Andrews took individual medalist honors. Oregon also had top five finishes at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational and the Oregon Duck Invitational before winning again at the Santa Clara Colby Invitational. Michelle Timpani earned medalist honors for Oregon in that event.
Rouillard did a masterful job in 2000-01, her first season as head coach, bringing an inexperienced group of players to the brink of a bid to the NCAA Championships. Oregon had a phenomenal run at the NCAA West Regional, falling just seven strokes shy of the NCAA Championships. Rouillard also helped polish the remarkable career of Jerilyn White, who ended her senior season with eight straight top 20 finishes, won the Peg Barnard California Collegiate and became just the second Duck golfer in school history named to the Pac-10’s first or second team.
After the 2006 spring slate, Rouillard enjoyed a successful return to the amateur stage as a player, and competed in the United States Women’s Amateur Championship held on Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club’s Witch Hollow Course. She shot an 11-over 153 (77-76), and was only two strokes away from making the cut. She qualified for the national event after she shot a four-over 77 in her qualifying tournament at Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Wash., in mid-July, and advanced in a playoff after she finished regulation in a five-way tie for third place.
In the summer of 2007, she won the Oregon Golf Association Tournament of Champions (77-69-146), and finished second in the same event in '08 (74-72-146) held both seasons on the OGA Golf Course at Tukwila near Portland. She added 35th in the 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur qualifying rounds (80-81-161) at the Desert Forest Golf Club in Carefree, Ariz., after she won the local qualifier (74) at the Oswego Lake Country County Club.
She staked her name on the national scene nearly a decade earlier as a Women's U.S. Open qualifier in 1999, thanks to her medalist honors at the Lake Merced (Calif.) qualifying tournament. Later that season, she returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach for the 1999-2000 season after playing on the Players West Golf Tour (1995-96) and serving as an assistant women's golf coach at California (1997).
She was also an assistant golf pro at San Mateo Municipal Golf Course (1996-97) and Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club (1997-99).
The Covina, Calif., native played for the Ducks from 1990-95, starting her career as a walk-on. The former Shannon Hare was the program's two-time most improved player and team captain as a senior in 1994-95. Rouillard also garnered team MVP honors as a senior. Named to the team of the decade (1990s) for Oregon women's golf, she was a member of the highest-finishing squad at an NCAA Regional (1995, 4th) and tied for 29th individually at that year's NCAA Championships.
Rouillard earned Pac-10 honorable mention all-conference honors in 1995 and was a member of the Pac-10's all-star team that toured Japan that summer. As a sophomore in 1993, she finished seventh in the conference championships as Oregon's top finisher, with the Ducks tying for fourth to equal their best team finish at the league tournament.
With Rouillard as an assistant coach, the Ducks finished tied for 11th at the 2000 NCAA Championships ? the school's second-highest finish ever ? after taking seventh at both the NCAA West Regional and the Pac-10 Championships.
She has recently returned to the course as a player with a host of fine results in return. In the summer of 2007, she claimed medalist honors by two strokes in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Qualifier at Oswego Lake Country County Club, thanks to her two-over 74. She earned her invitation to the qualifier in 2005 after she won the Shadow Hills Country Club title. She was also a U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier in 2006 after she tied for third in the Oregon qualifier, and was only two strokes from making the cut in the national event.
Rouillard (8-29-72) earned her master’s degree from Oregon in June in 2002. She and her husband, Tim, have one son Brady (6-24-03) and a golden retriever, Watson.
