Biography
Jeff Groff is in his 29th year at Allegheny and 13th as the head golf coach. He led his Gator men’s squad to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament in each of his first five seasons -- part of a 30-year streak by the program, and has continued to keep Allegheny at the top of the national and regional rankings.
Groff, who has served as head coach of the women’s program since its inception in 2006, has guided the Gators to unprecedented heights. The Gators qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in their first seven years as a varsity program, producing six top-10 finishes.
In 2006, Groff became just the fifth coach in NCAA history to lead both the men’s and women’s teams to the NCAA Championships in the same year, while both teams also bagged a top-10 finish that season.
In 2013, both teams fared well, garnering a score of individual honors. In addition to capturing the team title at the Rosencrans-Maurer Invitational, hosted by Wittenberg, the Gator men turned in four second-place team finishes. Individually, senior Patrick Fritz and junior Oliver White each earned First Team All-North Coast Athletic Conference laurels, after finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, at the conference championships. White went on to earn his second career PING All-America honor, while he was also named a GCAA/Cleveland Golf-Sirixon Scholar All-American, after posting a stroke average of 74.2, fourth best in program history.
The Gator women captured a trio of team invitational titles, as they took first as the Allegheny Invitational, the Capital Invitational, and the Gannon Invitational. The team finished third at the rugged NCAC Championships, with three golfers earning All-NCAC laurels. Junior Miranda Santucci earned First Team All-NCAC honors for a second consecutive year, finishing fourth at the conference championship with a four-round total of 320, while she was also named to the WGCA All-Scholar Team. Senior Liz Blyth earned her third All-NCAC honor, and second First Team nod, after taking fifth, while junior Sarah Vorder Bruegge finished 11th to earn Second Team All-NCAC recognition.
In 2012, both teams fared well, although the women shined down the stretch as they rallied to finish ninth at the NCAA Championships following a victory over national runner-up DePauw at the second event of the NCAC Championship Series. The men finished fifth in the NCAC Championship Series, although the team picked up back-to-back victories late in the spring for the program’s first team titles in two years.
The women’s squad earned its 2011 NCAA bid following another outstanding campaign in which it captured six tournament titles, including the inaugural North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship. The Gators, who were ranked int he top-20 nationally throughout the season, captured their first league title by an astounding 98 strokes in four rounds of play. Individually, Hannah Schonau-Taylor secured medalist honors en route to NCAC Player of the Year, while Groff picked up the first NCAC Coach of the Year award on the women’s side. Under Groff’s tutelage, all five Allegheny players competing at the championships earned All-Conference honors. The team capped the season with a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships, their highest finish at the national tournament in team history.
“Any time a team gets a bid to the national playoffs, it is a testament to the program and what the players have done throughout the year,” Groff said. “...I’ll be honest, this was never the plan coming in. Our primary focus was on building a program. In a few short years, the ladies have created their own identity and tradition of excellence. It has been an exciting story to say the least.”
Over the last 10 seasons, eight athletes have earned All-America honors under Groff, including four-time winner Ben Rathfon, who was also the recipient of the Frank Fuhrer III Award as Western Pennsylvania’s top collegiate player in 2005. In 2006, freshman Chris Moore picked up the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation’s top freshman. Mike Wolfe earned PING/All-America honors in 2009, while earned his first career All-American honor in 2010-11. In 2010, Liz Blyth became the first women’s player to net All-America accolades, a feat she replicated in 2011.
In 2004, Groff was named the Easton Golf Pride Mid-Atlantic Regional Coach of the Year (men) as he led the Gators to wins at both the fall and spring Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournaments. The following season, he picked up his first of three NCAC Coach of the Year honors as the squad won six events and captured runner-up at the conference championship. In 2008, Groff was also the National Golf Coaches Association East Region Coach of the Year (women), while earning GCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for the men a season later.
Groff is a 1983 graduate of Millersville (Pa.) University, where he played baseball and was an Academic All-American outfielder as a senior. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from his alma mater and went on to earn his master’s in sports administration from Kent State University in 1985.
Groff has been a member of the NGCA Division III Awards Committee, the NGCA East Region Advisory Committee and the Golf Coaches Association of America Mid-Atlantic Regional Committee, where he served as the chairperson and voting member of the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches Poll for several years.
A native of Lancaster, Pa., Groff attended Penn Manor High School, where he played varsity soccer, basketball and baseball. He also is an avid golfer and a student of the game. Groff is married to the former Chris Binnie, a 1989 Allegheny graduate.
