Women's Golf
- Title:
- Women's Golf Head Coach
- Email:
- john.o'connor@qu.edu
- Phone:
- (203) 582-3911
O’Connor enters his 17th season as Quinnipiac’s women’s golf head coach in 2025-26. O’Connor guided Quinnipiac to four Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships, including two back-to-back reigns in 2016 and 2017, and three straight from 2021-2023. The Bobcats made it back to the NCAA Tournament in 2025 as they captured the MAAC Title for the sixth time. O’Connor has won four conference coach of the year honors.
O’Connor has been at the helm of the Bobcats’ women’s golf program from its inception after previously coached the Quinnipiac men’s golf team for three years.
After O’Connor was named the 2013 Northeast Conference Coach of the Year, he was presented with a move to the MAAC Conference.
In addition, O’Connor has recruited five MAAC Rookies of the Year in Nicole Scola (2014), Luciana Tobia-Palza (2016), Alexandra Sazhin (2017), Samantha Galantini (2024), and Sophia Fujita (2025) as well as the five MAAC Players of the Year in Tobia-Palza, Sazhin, Leeyen Peralta, Fuge Zhang, and Sophia Fujita. Most recently, the Bobcats saw three golfers named to All-MAAC Teams in Sophia Fujita, Samantha Galantini, and Marisa Flores.
In the classroom, the team earned APR Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA, have featured more than 60 MAAC Academic Honor Roll selections in four seasons and have committed hundreds of hours to community service.
Prior to two-straight MAAC Championships, O’Connor’s 2013-14 campaign that saw the Bobcats finish second in their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship in program history. In addition, O’Connor’s Bobcats featured the program’s first Rookie of the Year in Scola.
In 2012-13, Quinnipiac finished seventh out of 11 teams, while two student-athletes finished in the top 20 out of the 55 NEC student-athlete field. The Bobcats also won their first QU Classic Championship in the tournament’s third annual competition.
O’Connor completed his second season as head coach in 2011 with a pair of upsets at the NEC Championship at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla. O’Connor guided the Bobcats, who were tabbed to finish last in the NEC 2011-12 Coaches’ Preseason Poll, to upset wins against Mount St. Mary’s and St. Francis (N.Y.), finishing six strokes ahead of the Mount and 152 strokes better than the Terriers.
During his tenure as men’s golf head coach, O’Connor was part of the governing Northeast Conference coaches’ committee and also served as a representative on behalf of the NEC to the NCAA.
