A confidant, a motivator, a friend.
Some of the many roles of UF assistant women’s golf coach Ashley Sease. Her success wearing many hats has been one of the reasons she’s impacted and energized the program in such epic fashion.
The 30-year-old had a long journey to get to where she is now, though.
It all started at Winthrop University, where she played college golf and learned very quickly how to be independent.
“You spend most of your time by yourself, because it’s not typically a team sport,” Sease said.
During those four years at Winthrop, she learned to savor every moment. It’s so easy to take playing golf for granted, she said. Sease still stays in contact with her college teammates and will be attending one's wedding in a few weeks.
After graduating from college in the Spring of 2018, Sease immediately went into coaching.
Her first stop: Northwood University, in the freezing state of Michigan. She was the assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams.
“I froze my butt off here, but I loved every second of it and am still in contact with the players,” Sease said.
Her next stop: Furman University. She was the women’s assistant coach for two years and happened to coach the No. 1-ranked NCAA golfer at the time, Natalie Srinivasan.
Srinivasan’s swing and efficiency were awesome, she said.
Next stop: Campbell University under 75-year-old John Crooks, who has been the women's program’s head coach since 1991.
Crooks took a big chance on Sease by allowing her to coach the men’s team for the first year and a half.
“I felt like a pioneer, and there’s not many females that are coaching men, so it was really cool to kind of be a trailblazer, and I didn’t even realize what I was doing,” Sease said.
From 2022-2023, Sease helped Campbell to the program’s seventh-straight Big South Title. In her final year, Crooks promoted her to be the associate women’s head coach.
Even with success from those three teams, Sease had her mind set on something bigger: a lifelong dream of hers — coaching a Power Four squad.
In 2024, UF women’s golf head coach Emily Glaser gave her an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. Despite her and her husband, Christian, buying a house in North Carolina a year and a half prior, they had to move for the opening of a lifetime.
“You have to have a good spouse in this career, because obviously we travel an extreme amount,” Sease said. “We’re away from our families, and so you have to have a spouse that’s very supportive of that.”
She and Glaser knew each other from prior golf tournaments.
As soon as Sease stepped into the assistant women’s coaching role at UF, she felt the standard of winning, and since joining, she’s only added to the culture.
“I just really think she’s kind of our energy catalyst,” Glaser said. “She brings a lot of positive energy, a really good attitude, and just, I think, helps these athletes sort of frame how lucky they are to be at a wonderful academic institution.”
Student athletes from across Gators sports share not just the same dining hall but stories and goals as well, Sease said.
She is most focused on the process rather than the end result of an SEC or national championship by embodying the popular philosophy of 1% better every day.
“We tell them to have no expectations,” Sease said. “Each day is a gift, each turn is an opportunity to compete, and we want them to be grateful and to enjoy it.”
Sease has not just been an impactful golf coach but a shoulder to lean on for freshman and Gainesville native Katelyn Huber.
“In tournament time, we’ve been able to walk some holes together and kind of chat about our personal lives,” Huber said.
Despite playing in the same town she grew up in, Huber said entering the college sphere was quite the adjustment. To combat adversity, she went to Sease for advice, which made the transition easier.
“She’d always ask how I’m doing, which means a lot, especially in the first month, because everything is so overwhelming,” Huber said.
Sease’s energy has been a massive motivator for Huber. She comes and lifts with the team for every single workout, which inspires the team to stay present, she said.
Sease’s impact extends beyond just Huber to the team in general, all stemming from her love of the program.
“I'm just super grateful to be a Florida Gator, honored to be able to make a positive impact on these players' lives and get to watch them grow from the moment they step on campus to the moment they walk off that final green,” Sease said.
Contact Colby Kistner at ckistner@alligator.org. Follow him on X @colbykistner22.
Colby is a junior sports journalism student in his first semester with the Alligator covering golf. He has experience covering Buchholz and Santa Fe High School sports. He also worked in UF's innovation center where he wrote and created radio content for WRUF. He is an avid hockey fan with his teams being the Seattle Kraken and Florida Panthers. He is looking to minor in business administration.
