Brett Bennett enters his seventh season in the 2024-25 season at the helm of the South Dakota women’s golf team. Bennett, a 2009 graduate of USD, was named as the women’s head coach in July of 2018.
Bennett’s team continued to rewrite the record book in his fifth season as head coach. He guided the Coyotes to a team title and Akari Hayashi to a tie for first place at the Ozark National Invitational. It was the team’s first tournament title since the 2018 season. Bennett also led USD and Danica Badura to a runner-up finish at the Summit League Championship. It was the best finish for South Dakota at the conference tournament since joining the Summit League in 2011. At the Summit League Championship, the team broke the lowest-round record twice (289, 286) and also the 54-hole record (868) – shattering the previous best by 26 strokes. Under his guidance, freshman Catie Nekola recorded two of the best three rounds in program history including a tie for first with a 68 at the Summit League Championship. He earned an all-Summit honoree for the third consecutive season with a first-team selection in Akari Hayashi and an honorable mention appearance by Catie Nekola. Bennett’s 2022-23 team recorded the lowest team scoring average in program history with an average score of 303.03.
In his fourth season at USD, Bennett led the team to six top-five placements including three-straight runner-up finishes before heading into the Summit League Championships. The Coyotes ended the season with a fourth-place finish at the Summit League Championships in late April. In all 11 tournaments in 2021-22, South Dakota claimed at least one individual in the top-20.The Coyotes had a few unique instances in program history on the season in two different tournaments. USD had three individuals finish inside the top five for the first time in program history at the Diane Daugherty Invite while four individuals finished inside the top 10 for the second time in program history at the Stampede at the Creek.
Bennett had an all-Summit selection for the second straight year as coach of the Coyotes. Laerke Jensen was voted to the all-Summit first team and became just the third Coyote women’s golfer to receive the award. Jensen later went on to be selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI team and earned a spot on the Academic All-Summit team. With Jensen voted to the Academic All-Summit team, a Coyote has appeared on the list in every season under Bennett.
In his third season as head coach, Bennett guided the team in placing in the top-10 in all six events in the spring only season. The Yotes recorded four top-five finishes including back-to-back runners-up honors at the Diane Daughtery Invite and The Stampede at The Creek. The Yotes placed in fourth at the Summit League Championships with a three round score of 971. Bennett help guide freshman Danica Badura to second-team all-Summit League, the second ever women's golfer to earn all-Summit League honors. Individually, the Yotes had seven top-10 finished as well as four top-five finishes. Badura and fellow freshman teammate Akari Hayashi tied for second place at the Diane Daugherty Invite. Junior Laerke Jensen was named Summit League Golfer to Watch and picked up a Golfer of the Week honor in February.
The Yotes excelled in the classroom in the 2020-21 season as well recording a 3.46 team GPA. Additionally, Jensen was named to the Summit League All-Academic team and Jensen, Hayashi and Badura were named WGCA All-American Scholars.
In his second season at the helm, Bennett guided the team to a pair of top-10 placings on the season highlighted by a second-place finish at the Loyola Fall Invite (Sept. 16-17). In their only event of the spring season, the Coyotes shot a total score of 967 and placed 11
th at the Gunrock Invite (March 2-3). Bennett saw a young group improve and set several career bests throughout the season.
In his first season as the Coyotes’ head coach, Bennett coached Katie Bartlett to an individual title, USD to a team title and oversaw true freshman Megan Munneke claim Summit League All-Tournament honors.
Bartlett, a junior, won the Creighton Classic shooting 1-over-par, giving USD its first individual victory since 2016. As a squad, USD won its first team event since 2014 when it claimed the Loyola Fall Invitational. Munneke earned all-tournament honors with a tie for fifth place at the Summit League Championship. She sank a hole-in-one, the first known ace in Coyote history, in the second round of the event.
Bennett spent the previous five seasons (2013-2018) at the University of Sioux Falls leading the men’s golf team along with being the head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs from 2013-16.
He led the Cougars men’s team to a runner-up finish in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in 2014, had a women’s regional qualifier in 2014 and 2015, and a women’s national championship qualifier in 2015.
In his time at USF, Bennett coached a trio of Cougars to NSIC all-conference honors including 2015 NSIC Golfer of the Year Tavia Rutherford.
Bennett, who holds a Professional Golf Association Certification, has also been the assistant golf pro at the Country Club of Sioux Falls for eight years. He also spent time as an assistant teaching professional and PGA apprentice.
Bennett was a four-year letter winner for the Coyotes, from 2005-09, and earned all-Great West Conference second-team honors his senior season. As a sophomore, Bennett was named to the North Central Conference all-tournament team.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in business management from USD in December 2009 and his master’s degree in business administration from USF in 2020.
Bennett Accomplishments:
- Danica Badura Summit League All-Tournament Team (2023)
- Akari Hayashi First Team All-Summit (2023)
- Catie Nekola All-Summit honorable mention (2023)
- Laerke Jensen First Team All-Summit (2022)
- Laerke Jensen CoSIDA Academic All-District VI Team (2022)
- Laerke Jensen Academic All-Summit (2022, 2021)
- Danica Badura Second-Team All-Summit (2021)
- Laerke Jensen, Akari Hayashi, Danica Badura WGCA All-American Scholars (2021)
- Megan Munneke Summit League All-Tournament Team (2019)
