Kathy Baker-Guadagnino - Women's Golf Coach - Florida Atlantic University Athletics

Kathy Baker-Guadagnino

Title:
Head Coach

Contact Coach: mguadagnino@fau.edu

Kathy Baker-Guadagnino was announced as Florida Atlantic University's head women's golf coach in September 2014 after serving as an assistant coach for women's golf working closely with former Head Coach Joan Joyce.

In her first season as head coach, Guadagnino had a player named Conference USA Co-Most Improved Player of the Year. In 2015, Guadagnino had two players earn All-American Scholar awards by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and Tai Barber earned that distinction in 2016. Her FAU team broke the program record with a round of 282 at the FAU Fall Invitational in October, besting the previous record by seven strokes. In 2018, Guadagnino's squad posted the highest team GPA at FAU with a 3.536 overall. That same group won the FAU Winter Warmup in February, beating out Brown and Dartmouth at Osprey Point.

Prior to coming to FAU, Guadagnino served as the head girls' golf coach at North Broward Prep from 2004-06. She was also the head girl's golf coach at Westminster Academy in Ft. Lauderdale from 1998-03, with her team winning the district and regional championships three years in a row from 2000-03.

Guadagnino spent nearly 20 years as an active member on the LPGA Tour. In 1985, she won the U.S. Women's Open and ranked 13th overall on the LPGA money list. In 1988 she went on to win the Konica San Jose Classic. In the 1993 du Maurier Ltd. Classic, one of the four major championships, Guadagnino tied for eighth. She posted a career-low score of 66 during the first round of the McCall's LPGA Classic in 1994. Prior to her retirement from the LPGA in 2000, she tied for eighth at the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic. She was inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.

While attending the University of Tulsa from 1979-83 on a full golf scholarship, Guadagnino was the Eastern Amateur Champion in 1979 and Western Amateur Champion in 1980. She was a member of the AIAW National Championship teams in 1980 and 1982. She also helped lead her team to an NCAA National Championship victory in 1982 and was an individual NCAA National Champion that year. Before attending UT, Guadagnino was the 1978 National PGA Junior Champion.

Guadagnino received both a bachelor's and a master's degree in biblical studies from South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary. She currently resides in Boca Raton, Fla.