End of an Era: Mary Lou Mulflur steps down as Husky head coach

by Tom Cade, Editor

And so it is over.

After 42 years as the head coach of the women’s golf team at the University of Washington, Mary Lou Mulflur will walk no more fairways with her players, retiring this June.

In the history of the program, two individuals stand out as the cornerstones.

First is Edean Ihlanfeldt, the team’s first coach and PNGA Hall of Famer, who started the program in 1974-75 and continued through the 1980-81 season, when she retired.

But it is Mulflur, who played for Ihlanfeldt at the UW in the late 1970s and then took over as head coach in 1983, who would become synonymous with the Huskies’ women’s golf program and its consistency of excellence.

Since NCAA Regionals for women’s golf were first introduced in 1993, the UW women have earned a berth in all but one season. The program reached the pinnacle in 2016, when Washington won the NCAA Championship for their first national title.

That 2016 NCAA title was the most prominent achievement in program history, but the list of accomplishments, on and off the golf course, is long.

Mulflur has coached numerous Huskies who have gone on to play professionally or coach at the collegiate level. Nancy Kessler-McDaniel, a member of Mulflur’s first recruiting class, played at Washington from 1984 to 1988. She went on to play professionally and has been head coach at the University of California for three decades. Former Husky All-American Kelli Kamimura, who served as an assistant to Mulflur after her playing career ended, went on to spend 12 seasons as head coach at Washington State University.

“There are so many things I admire about Mary Lou,” says Kamimura. “She is an incredible coach and person, and I’ve been lucky to have had her as a coach, a colleague, and a lifelong mentor and friend.

Mulflur’s players have also achieved in the classroom. During her tenure, UW golfers have been named to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-Scholar Team on 30 occasions. Her teams consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation in terms of the NCAA’s two primary academic ratings: Graduation Success Rate and Academic Progress Rate.

Mulflur was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year on three occasions – in 1998, 1999 and 2016 – while also earning Golfweek National Coach of the Year in both 2015 and 2016. She was also honored as the WGCA National Coach of the Year in 2016. In 2010 Mulflur was presented with the WGCA Founders Award which recognizes a coach who has made significant contributions to the sport during the year. And in 2014 she was inducted into the WGCA Hall of Fame, as was her mentor, Ihlanfeldt, who was inducted in 2007.

Mary Lou is the daughter of Bill Mulflur, who for 30 years was the lead golf writer and sports editor for the Oregon Journal and Oregonian newspapers, before retiring in 1988.

Mulflur was quite a player herself. She won state titles in 1974 and 1975 for Grant High School in Portland, Ore. She also won the 1975 Oregon Junior Championship, and won Southern Oregon titles in 1980, 1982, 1995 and 1997 as well as the Oregon Coast Invitational in 1979, 1982, and 1990.

She was one of the first women to receive a golf scholarship to the University of Washington, where she lettered four years, graduating in 1980.

Mulflur competed in seven USGA national championships, including three U.S. Women’s Amateurs and two U.S. Women’s Opens. In October of 2004, she was inducted into the Portland Interscholastic League Hall of Fame, and in 2006 was inducted into the Grant High School Hall of Fame.

She also served on the LPGA SAFECO Classic Advisory Board for many years and helped develop a junior golf program for inner city girls.

There will be a retirement party for Mulflur in mid-June in the athletic building on campus, and she will also be part of the university’s homecoming events in the fall.

“If you have great kids, you’re a great coach,” Mulflur says. “I’ve been lucky enough to have some great players.”

“I’ve been fortunate to be doing what I did for that long, and 42 years is a long time to do anything,” she said.

Mulflur does have some concerns about the shifting landscape for student-athletes. “There’s so much money involved now,” she says. “Education is not even being talked about, and the kids are not being prepared for life. It would be good to see more of ‘and this opportunity to play on the golf team is in addition to your education.’”

When she first made the announcement about her retirement, Mulflur was flooded with responses from former players. “A lot of people reached out,” she said. “Even some players I didn’t expect to hear from. It was really great.”

After four decades, Mulflur is ready to step away, but will remain available. “I would do anything to help the program,” she says. “Whatever they ask, I would do it. But that will be the new coach’s decision.”

Mulflur was the sort of coach that has a profound effect on her players without really knowing how or why. She is a natural-born coach and unable to specify exactly what made her, or anybody else, good at it.

“I have no idea,” she says before throwing out a few characteristics she believes are essential, and which she possessed in spades. “Patience, persistence and being relentless in your effort,” she says. “Understanding that it is not a perfect science, and that the job of a coach is fluid. I also think it’s important to absolutely love what you do.”

And that she did.