Lindenwood University Athletics

Tavia Rutherford enters her third season as the women's golf coach in 2025-26.

In 2024-25, Rutherford led the Lions to their first tournament title at the Division I level after capturing the title at the Nevel Meade Collegiate held at Nevel Meade Golf Club in Prospect, Ky. Jamie Daniels went on to earn medalist at the tournament. Lindenwood had two other top-three finishes at tournaments during the season and finished fourth at the OVC Championships. 

Under the direction of Rutherford, Lindenwood concluded its season with a fourth place finish at the OVC Championships. The Lions also finished third at the Jan Weaver Invitational in April. During the event, Andrea Alavarez earned a top five finish, and for her efforts, garnered OVC Golfer of the Week honors. 

Rutherford comes to Lindenwood after spending the last two seasons as the assistant men’s and women’s golf coach at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. During that time, Rutherford coached two first-team all-league selections and the 2022 Horizon League Men’s Golf Freshman of the Year in Sam McWilliams. Under her direction, the Jaguars picked up two tournament victories on the women’s side.

Prior to her time in Indianapolis, Ind. Rutherford spent two years as head men’s and women’s golf coach at Sioux Falls. During that time, she directed the USF golf teams to one of the best seasons in program history in 2021. The women's team, led by NSIC Golfer of the Year Lexi Hanson, finished a program-best second (960) at the NSIC Championships in the spring. USF, which was ranked as high as No. 11 in the region, had a program-best four student-athletes named All-NSIC. Two of her student-athletes earned All-NSIC Tourney honors and Hanson also earned a second straight trip to the NCAA DII regionals where she finished tenth. USF had six student-athletes named Academic All-NSIC with four named to the NSIC Academic Team of Excellence.

As for the men's team, USF earned its first-ever berth to the 2021 NCAA DII Central Regional and finished 15th overall with a score of 922. At regionals, USF, which was ranked No. 7 in the final regional rankings, finished third at the NSIC Golf Championships with an 886 total. NSIC Newcomer of the Year Gavin Metz was third overall at the NSIC Championships. Two of her men earned All-NSIC honors and another was named a CoSIDA Academic All-District VII honoree for the second straight year, a program-first. Seven were named Academic All-NSIC and four earned NSIC Academic Team of Excellence honors. In addition, one of her student-athletes was named USF's Representative Man of the Year - the highest honor accorded a male student at USF.

In 2019-20, Rutherford led both the USF men's and women's golf programs to record-breaking years; highlighted by two team wins and five individual medalists. The women’s team was ranked ninth in the Central Region and the men ranked 12th before the abrupt end to their season due to COVID-19. She coached Hanson to her lowest scoring average of 74.50 which ranked first in the NSIC and JJ Cooney who was named USF’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2019-20. Cooney was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and one of 14 golf student-athletes (eight men; six women) honored on the NSIC All-Academic Team. Eight USF golfers were also named to the NSIC Academic Team of Excellence (3.6 or greater GPA).

Rutherford, played at USF from 2011-15 and reached the NCAA DII Regionals three times and the NCAA DII National Tournament as a senior which was a first for a USF golfer.  A three-time All-NSIC performer, Rutherford became USF's first-ever NSIC Golfer of the Year as a senior. She was also named the NCAA Elite 89 Award winner (2014-15) which is the highest academic honor bestowed on a student-athlete.

Rutherford capped off her outstanding career at USF by equaling her best round of the NCAA Championship and finishing tied for 37th.  Competing as an individual out of the Central Region in 2015, Rutherford finished as the fourth-highest golfer out of 18 Central Region competitors. She was the highest finishing representative (seven total) from the NSIC at the NCAA Championship. Rutherford became USF's first-ever selection to the Women's Golf Coaches' Association All-Central Region team for the 2014-15 season. 

One of USF's mostly highly decorated student-athletes, Rutherford earned the Butch Raymond Scholarship Award, and was an NSIC Honor Student-Athlete, Myles Brand Award recipient and FCA Honor Athlete. In addition, she was also named the Outstanding Senior Exercise Science Student and Outstanding Senior Psychology Student for her research exploring the effects of imagery direction on golf-putting performance at USF.

A native of Bakersfield, Calif., Rutherford graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science in 2015 from USF. she earned a Master of Arts degree in sport and performance psychology from University of Denver in 2017. At DU, she served as the Head of Operations for the Center for Performance Excellence (CPEX) as well as a mental skills consultant working with a variety of athletic teams.