Greg Allen Position: Head Coach Experience: Fifth Season

2011-12: Greg Allen, considered one of the outstanding collegiate golf coaches in the NCAA, enters his fifth season at the helm of the Vanderbilt women's golf program.

Allen made an impact in his first four seasons - his Commodores have been to four consecutive NCAA Regionals and broke through in 2010 to finish seventh at the NCAA National Championship in Wilmington, N.C. Also in 2010, he coached the SEC Player of the Year in Marina Alex and had two freshmen make the All-SEC Freshmen team in the spring of 2010 in Anna Leigh Keith and Lauren Stratton.

In 2011, his Commodore team qualified for the NCAA Championship after winning a one-hole playoff against Florida State in the NCAA East Regional. It is Allen's second consecutive trip to the national championship as Vanderbilt's coach and eighth overall. He also guided Vanderbilt to their first back-to-back top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championship after his 2011 squad ended the event in a tie for 10th place. Two of his players, Alex and senior Megan Grehan, were named to the All-SEC Second team at the end of the regular season.

Allen came to Vanderbilt after a seven-year tenure as the head coach at the University of Arizona, where he twice won the Pac-10 Conference, finished as NCAA runner-up in 2002 and coached Lorena Ochoa - currently the No. 1 ranked player on the LPGA Tour - among nine other All-Americans.

Allen had a lengthy record of achievement at Arizona during his seven years there. In addition to his Pac-10 titles and 10 All-Americans, he coached eight NCAA All-Scholars, 13 Academic All-Pac-10 student-athletes, three NCAA Players of the Year, two National Freshmen of the Year, three Pac-10 Players of the Year, two Curtis Cup selections and 21 All-Pac-10 performers. Two of his players won three Golfstat Cup Award for the nation's lowest stroke average. His Wildcat teams also won nine tournament championships and registered 28 individual victories. Allen has also coached LPGA and PGA stars Natalie Gulbis, Erica Blasberg, Laura Myerscough, and David Gossett during his coaching career.

Allen arrived at Arizona after serving as assistant men's golf coach at Texas from 1998-2000. He helped lead the 1999-2000 Longhorns to a banner year that included the NCAA Central Region championship and a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championship, its highest finish in five years. The squad ended the season ranked No. 8 in the final MasterCard Collegiate Rankings. The 1998-99 team had its best showing in six years, as it earned three tournament victories and finished in the top three in seven of its 13 competitions. Well known for his rapport with collegiate players, Allen handled many of the day-to-day operations for the Longhorns and assisted head coach John Fields with scheduling, recruiting and coaching at practices and tournaments.

Prior to that he was Director of Tournament Operations for the American Junior Golf Association in Roswell, Ga., where he spent five years as both director of tournament operations and tournament director. While in Roswell, Allen was responsible for planning and executing 47 national junior golf tournaments and other AJGA events. He oversaw all AJGA tournaments and was responsible for the supervision of eight tournament directors, as well as the hiring of 24 summer interns.

He is a native of Beechmont, Kentucky and graduated from Murray State in 1993 with a degree in journalism. As a student, he worked in the sports information office, where he was a liaison for numerous sports, including golf. Prior to graduation, Allen worked two summers as a communications intern for the AJGA, where he was responsible for all on-site media relations at 10 national junior golf tournaments.

He and his wife Julie, a swim coach who competed in the 1988 Olympic trials, have four children, Maggie (16), Mollie (12), Mason (10) and Mabry Jane (3).

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