Courtney Gunter was named head coach of the Catamount women’s golf team in the summer of 2018. A former women’s golf student-athlete at the University of North Carolina, Gunter served as an assistant coach at both East Carolina and Coastal Carolina prior to making the move to Cullowhee as just the seventh head coach for the Catamount women’s golf program all-time.
Under Gunter’s guidance, the Catamount women’s golf program has reached new heights culminating with a return to the postseason in the spring of 2023. WCU has won six team championships since 2018 including a program-best four team titles in the 2022-23 season, opening the fall portion of the schedule with three-consecutive team championships. All told, WCU had eight combined podium finishes in 2022-23.
Three Catamount individuals – Brie Mapanao (73.63), who earned Southern Conference Freshman of the Year honors, Elizabeth Lohbauer (73.70), and Madison Isaacson (74.37) – each broke the program’s 13-year old single-season scoring record in 2022-23 with the trio landing on the All-SoCon team. The squad posted five of the top six 54-hole team scores in program history including a career-low tournament score of 848 at the Aggie Invitational in the fall 2022. With the successful regular season, the Catamounts earned an at-large berth into the inaugural Golfweek National Golf Invitational (NGI) – the first postseason bid for the school since 2007.
Gunter collected Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors following the 2022-3 season, joining WCU Athletics Hall of Famer Steve Lott as the only two WCU head coaches to collect coach of the year plaudits from their peers.
In 2022, WCU recorded nine Top 10 team finishes with six Top Five showings including winning the Oyster Shuck Match-Play tournament hosted by The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., in March 2022. Combined, WCU tallied three podium team finishes in 2022. Led by SoCon All-Freshman team recipient Elizabeth Lohbauer, the Catamounts posted their best finish at the Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship since 2016 at the 2022 tournament, finishing sixth overall.
In two seasons on staff at Coastal Carolina under head coach Katie Quinney, who was the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, Gunter helped lead the Chanticleers to their first-ever Sun Belt Conference title in the program’s second year in the league. Four of the Chants were named to the All-Sun Belt team including three first-team selections, and senior Malene Krolboll Hansen was named the Sun Belt’s Golfer of the Year for the second-consecutive season.
Prior to making the move to Coastal, Gunter was an assistant coach at East Carolina for three years while earning her masters in sport management. She helped the Pirates women’s golf team to three NCAA Regional berths in consecutive seasons (2014, 2015 and 2016).
Gunter was a four-year member (2009-2013) of the North Carolina team and helped the Tar Heels to four consecutive NCAA Regionals and two NCAA Championship appearances. As a junior (2011-12), Gunter was a part of a Tar Heel squad that finished second at the ACC Championships and 10th nationally at the NCAA Championship in Franklin, Tenn.
In her sophomore season, North Carolina won the ACC Championship and finished tied for eighth nationally at the NCAA Championship. She averaged a career-low 75.44 over 18 rounds in her second year as a collegian, guiding UNC to a team title at the Cougar Classic where she finished tied for sixth overall at 3-under par 215. She played in 11 tournaments as a freshman in 2009, posting a 76.03 stroke average over 31 rounds. Gunter recorded three Top 20 finishes in her first season at North Carolina, adding a sixth-place showing at the Tri-Match at Ironwood Country Club and placing in a tie for 16th at the ACC Championship.
In all, Gunter was a member of a North Carolina team that won five team titles, recorded 20 Top Five finishes, appeared in four NCAA regionals and a pair of NCAA Championships during her four-year career.
Off the course, Gunter was 2010 National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) All-American, a 2010 All-ACC Women's Golf Team selection and a two-time All-ACC Honor Roll member (2010, 2012).
A native of Matthews, N.C., and a graduate of Porter Ridge High, Gunter was a four-time all-conference selection including a three-time Player of the Year as a prep as a part of winning four-consecutive conference championships and three North Carolina state championships. As an amateur golfer, she won the 2011 Carolinas’ Amateur and was named the 2008 Carolina’s Golf Association Female Golfer of the Year.
Gunter earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and exercise sports science from UNC-Chapel Hill in May of 2013.
