The University of North Florida is adding a women’s golf team as a Division I athletic program. The addition of the team was announced by Director of Athletics Lee Moon July, 19.

“When we joined the Atlantic Sun Conference one of the stipulations was we were going to have to add women’s golf as a team sport at some point in time,” said Moon.

The women’s golf team is set to begin competing in the Atlantic Sun Conference in the 2012-13 season. Moon does not have anyone specific in mind to coach the team. However, he plans to start a national search for a coach next spring. He plans to have the coach in place for a year before the team starts competition.

“We have a lot of things we have to finalize before that happens,” said Moon. “Once we start advertising and see the level of interest, then we’ll know the pool of candidates. But we’ll plan on offering the job the next spring; let them be here for a year to be able to recruit. Then we’ll compete in 2012-13.”

The addition of the women’s golf team will bring UNF to 18 varsity sports sponsored by the University. Moon believes the success of UNF’s men’s golf team and the golf facilities UNF has to offer will help bring in strong recruits.

“Having a successful men’s program will allow us to recruit and build a successful women’s program,” said Moon. “The Hayt Center is a very good recruiting tool.”

While UNF is allowed six scholarships, Moon hopes he can stager the distribution of them to build a stronger team to start out with.