UCLA Women's Golf Hires Alicia Um Holmes as Next Head Coach
After nearly two decades on staff, an ascending assistant coach is in line to lead the Bruins into the future.
UCLA women's golf has hired Alicia Um Holmes as its next head coach, the team announced in a statement Thursday afternoon. Um Holmes has been an assistant and associate head coach for the Bruins since 2006, and she was a student-athlete with the program from 1997 to 2002.
Um Holmes is replacing longtime head coach Carrie Forsyth, who closed out her 24-year tenure by announcing her retirement on April 24.
"I am excited, honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to be the next leader of our women's golf program," Um Holmes said in a statement. "Most of my adult life has been at UCLA living the dream, and to be able to continue to do so as head coach is surreal. I want to thank Martin Jarmond for putting his faith in me and Chris Carlson for his unwavering support. A special thank you to my mentor, coach and friend, Carrie Forsyth, who has been my champion and who I owe everything to. I look forward to the challenge of following her footsteps, winning championships and upholding our high level of academic excellence."
Um Holmes was part of the staff that helped lead UCLA to an NCAA championship in 2011, as well as the one that won back-to-back Pac-12 championships in 2017 and 2018.
Some of the most successful Bruins to come through Westwood over the years have been coached by Um Holmes, including ANNIKA Award and PING WGCA Player of the Year winners Alison Lee, Bronte Law and Lilia Vu. Under Um Holmes, 32 Bruins have made the Pac-12 First Team and 10 have been named to the WGCA All-American First Team.
Um Holmes – who was an All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention as a student-athlete in 2002 – won WGCA Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2013-2014 season.
This marks the sixth head coaching hire athletic director Martin Jarmond has overseen since taking over at UCLA in May 2020. Um Holmes joins UCLA rowing coach Previn Chandraratna as just the second in-house promotion under Jarmond.
"Alicia has instilled our student-athletes with a drive for competitive excellence in her previous 17 years as an assistant," Jarmond said in a statement. "She knows our elite culture and history, having competed as a student-athlete at UCLA and leading the Bruins to a National Championship as a coach in 2011. I am ecstatic to name Alicia as our new head coach."
With Um Holmes taking over for Forsyth, the Bruins technically have one head coaching vacancy remaining heading into the summer. Stein Metzger left UCLA beach volleyball to take the top job at Texas on May 16, but associate head coach Jenny Johnson Jordan was immediately announced as the interim replacement.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF VINNY LAVALSITI/UCLA ATHLETICS