Jay Albaugh started as William & Mary's director of golf, overseeing both the men's and women's programs in 2003, before resigning in March of 2021.
During his nearly two decade tenure, Albaugh's teams have collected 18 winning seasons, including seven years in which either the men's or women's teams have eclipsed 100 wins. That same stretch has seen the men's team post the eight best season averages ever, breaking the school record three times, and the women's team record the 10-best single seasons ever, with five records broken. The 2015-16 women not only set the all-time stroke average (304.54) by more than 3.6 strokes, but also set mark for the best win-loss percentage ever at .733 (107-39).
Success has not just been limited to on the course for Albaugh's teams, who have also led the way in the classroom. Since the start of the NCAA's Public Recognition program in 2004-05, the Tribe men have been honored 10 times (including each of the last eight years from 2012-20) and the women's team have won 11 awards, including every year since 2010-11. The Public Recognition program honors teams that rank in the top 10% nationally in the APR in their sport. Over that same time, both programs have earned a perfect 1000-pt APR eight times, and the women's team has achieved a 100% graduation rate each of the 11 years tracked by the NCAA. The men's team earned its first 100% graduation rate in the most recent release by the NCAA, in the fall of 2016 (for the students that entered college in 2009-10), and boasted the best team GPA in the W&M Athletics Department for 2016-17 at 3.53.
With Albaugh at the helm, the men's golf team has won five team championships, including The Invitational at Savannah Harbor in the spring of 2017 and 2018. The Tribe has finished top-three at the CAA Championships five times, including a program-record three-year stretch from 2012-13 to 2014-15, which culminated in a tie for second at the 2015 conference championships. W&M also finished second in 2009-10. During the regular season, a fruitful partnership with Kingsmill Resort has led to the spring's Kingsmill Intercollegiate growing into the largest men's collegiate tournament in the country, regularly welcoming more than two dozen teams from around the country including powerhouse squads from the SEC, ACC, the Big Ten, and the Big 12. In 2005, Albaugh was named the Virginia Golf Coaches Association State Coach of the Year.
Individually, the Green and Gold men have boasted the likes of Tim Pemberton and Gary Barton, who both graduated in 2005 as the top two golfers in school history. Pemberton was a two-time first-team All-CAA player who graduated with a 74.32 average and 2,969 head-to-head wins, both the school records. His 2,969 wins are still the all-time most by more than 300 wins. Barton meanwhile was named second-team All-CAA three straight years, and during his senior year set the Tribe's all-time record with eight top-10 finishes in a single season. The next great player was Brent Paladino, whose junior year of 2007-08 is still the gold standard with a 71.88 stroke average. He also set the still-standing record 14-under in a 54-hole tournament that season, and graduated in 2009 as a three-time first-team All-CAA honoree.
Jeremy Wells was another three-time all-conference player, earning first-team honors as a senior in 2013 after two second-team citations in the preceding two years. As a sophomore, he set the school record with 11 rounds of par or better, and in 2013, he was named the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Alex Hicks matched Paladino with three first-team All-CAA awards when he graduated in 2015, and also shared the school record for best 54-hole score at 14-under that he earned while winning the 2013 Joe Agee Invitational. That week saw Hicks shoot 66-66-67 (199, -14), including a final-round hole-in-one, and a school-record 36-hole score of 10-under. Recent years have featured Austin Morrison, who graduated in 2017 as the school-record holder for a single round after shooting 65 (-7) en route to winning the Invitational at Savannah Harbor. Morrison also set the Tribe's all-time record with 33 rounds of par or better in his career. David Hicks, the younger brother of Alex, began his career with a bang in 2015-16, shattering the freshman record by nearly a stroke and a half with a 72.59 average, a mark that is second all-time behind only Paladino's 2007-08 campaign. The younger Hicks also tied Wells' season record with 11 rounds of par or better in his freshman season, en route to earning second-team All-CAA honors.
On the women's side of the ball, Albaugh's tenure has led to five tournament titles and four top-three finishes at the CAA Championships. After taking third at the inaugural conference tournament in 2004, the Tribe also took third in 2008 while hosting the event and again in 2016, and a best-ever tie for second in 2014. Individual standouts have included Alessandra Liu, whose career was one for the ages not just at W&M but in all of college golf. As a freshman, she averaged 80.55 strokes per round and 78.67 as a sophomore, then exploded for a school-record 75.00 average as a junior in 2014-15 to earn first-team All-CAA honors. Then, as a senior, Liue averaged a jaw-dropping 72.14 strokes per round (which would rank second all-time on the men's team) and won four tournaments to be named CAA Player of the Year. She became the first Tribe women's golfer to advance to the NCAA Regionals, where she finished tied for 29th overall, her only finish outside the top-10 that season. Liu also set the school record in 2015-16 for wins with 891, and winning percentage at .958 (891-39), and had 20 rounds of par or better which was more than the next three career totals combined. Liu was also a standout in the classroom, earning third-team Academic All-America honors and induction into Phi Beta Kappa, as well as being named the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Other individual standouts for the Tribe women's team include Ann Schnell, who was a two-time first-team All-CAA selection and the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year in both 2003 and 2004. She graduated in 2004 as W&M's career record-holder with a 79.34 stroke average and 2,795 head-to-head wins, the latter a record that still stands by more than 200 wins. Schnell was named the CAA 25th Anniversary team in 2009-10, and inducted into the W&M Hall of Fame in 2016. Morgan Stepanek was another member of the 25th Anniversary team, earning three All-CAA citations including first-team honors as a senior in 2010. Stepanek held the school scoring records both for a season (75.69) and career (78.09) when she graduated, and still ranks third and fourth in those categories, respectively. Brielle Paolini (2006-10) was another academic standout, earning induction into Phi Beta Kappa and Second-Team Academic All-America honors as a senior before going on to earn both her M.D. and Ph.D. from Wake Forest medical school. In addition to Alessandra Liu, three more Tribe graduates have been working their way through the professional ranks in recent years, including Erika Oldenkamp '08, Kellie Edelblut '15, and Kelly Okun '15.
Albaugh came to the Tribe from Eastern Illinois University where he served as the head coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams. In his five years at Eastern Illinois, Albaugh saw both squads achieve their best finishes at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, including a runner-up result for the women in 2003. Overall, Albaugh coached his teams to four wins during his tenure, which included the women’s first win as a program. He also led each team to its lowest stroke average in history. Previously, Albaugh served three years as the head golf coach at Mount St. Mary’s College. While there, he oversaw the creation of the women’s golf program and also led the men’s team to its best conference finish (fourth).
Albaugh, a 1996 graduate of Mount St. Mary’s, was a four-year letterwinner in golf and was named first team All-Northeast Conference his junior and senior seasons. The Mountaineers’ number one golfer for three years, Albaugh won the American University Invitational in 1994 and was a two-time selection to the NEC Scholar-Athlete team.
 Albaugh holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mount St. Mary’s and a master’s degree in athletic administration from Eastern Illinois.
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