University of Missouri Athletics

Caroline Westrup, a former LPGA player and collegiate standout, was named the University of Missouri’s sixth women’s golf head coach in June 2022.

Now in her fourth season on campus, Westrup has made an early impact with the Tigers in just three short seasons – resulting in the program rising 56 places in the national rankings from 120 prior to her arrival to 64 in 2024-25.

After fielding one of the nation’s youngest teams in her debut season with numerous program milestones, Westrup took Mizzou to another level in her second and third campaigns. During the 2023-24 season, Missouri set a program record with a 293.1 stroke average – nearly a six-stroke improvement from the season before Westrup’s arrival. The Tigers also recorded their best score in school history at the 2025 SEC Championship – setting both 18-hole (284) and 54-hole (869) standards – with two wins over top-25 programs during the season.

In addition, Westrup has mentored a number of Tigers to individual accolades. During her second campaign, Fleur van Beek became the first Tiger freshman since 1997 to claim an individual title, winning the Tulane Classic. Melanie Walker was also the first student-athlete in program history to earn SEC Golfer of the Week honors, while van Beek and Alexandra Berglund have both collected the league’s Freshman of the Week accolades in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Ffion Tynan continued the trend of individual success during the 2024-25 campaign as she became the first Tiger since 2021 to earn an individual invitation to the NCAA Championship and finished her career with the third-best stroke average in school history at 73.79.

Success off the course has been just as important during Westrup’s time at Mizzou. A program-record six Tigers were honored on the 2025 WGCA All-American Scholar Team, ranking as the second most in the SEC and 10th most in the nation.

Westrup came to Mizzou after an extremely successful season as an assistant coach at Georgia, highlighted by a fifth-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Bulldogs were eighth in stroke-play qualifying – reaching the match play bracket. UGA’s Jenny Bae and Candice Mahé both tied for sixth place in stroke play, making the Bulldogs the only team in the nation with two top-10 individual finishers. Georgia dropped a 3-2 decision to Stanford, the No. 1 seed and eventual national champions, in the quarterfinals of match play. Bae was named a Golfweek Honorable Mention All-American for the 2021-22 campaign.

Westrup joined the Georgia program in July 2021 as an assistant coach. Following her retirement after a nine-year professional career in 2018, she started her coaching career at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

PLAYING CAREER
A native of Ahus, Sweden, she joined the Swedish national team at 14 years-old and won the 2006 Espirito Santo Trophy as medalist at the World Amateur Team Championships. Westrup helped lead Sweden to the three European team championships and also was a member of the victorious European team at the 2003 Junior Solheim Cup.

She went on to play at Florida State from 2005-09 and became the only four-time All-American and the only four-time All-ACC honoree in program history. She was inducted into the FSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019 after claiming a school-record five individual titles and added WGCA Hall of Fame accolades to her resume in 2024.

Westrup led Florida State to four team championships and four appearances in the NCAA Tournament. She advanced to compete in the NCAA Championships three times as a Seminole – in 2006 with her teammates and in 2007 and 2008 as an individual. Westrup finished 12th at the 2007 national championship, which was then the highest individual finish ever by an FSU golfer.

Off the course, Westrup was a standout as well, earning a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-District team twice, the WGCA All-American Scholar Team three times and the All-ACC Academic team on four occasions.

Westrup then embarked on a professional playing career. She competed on the LPGA, LET and Symetra Tours and won two professional events, the LET’s 2005 Ladies Finnish Masters (while still an amateur) and the Symetra’s 2015 Sioux Falls GreatLIFE Challenge.

PERSONAL
Westrup received her bachelor’s degree in sport management from Florida State in 2009. Caroline and her husband, Ivan Gaeta, have a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Felipa.