Updated: June 18, 2025
A Florence, Ala., native, Neil Self has served as head women's golf coach at the University of North Alabama since the program's inception in 2018 following assisting with the UNA men's golf program for three seasons. He enters his eighth season as the head women's golf coach in 2025-26.
Self recruited and coached the first UNA women's golf team in the Fall of 2018 as the Lions competed in three tournaments and another four in the Spring of 2019. UNA showed continued improvement in its second season in 2019-20 before the Spring slate was unexpectedly cut short.
A product of Kilby Laboratory School on the UNA campus and Bradshaw High School, Self began playing golf at age six under the tutelage of local PGA professional and teaching icon Chris Burns. After a successful junior and high school career that included multiple team and individual state championships, Self attended Louisiana State University on a golf scholarship. He played three years at LSU before transferring to Birmingham Southern College, where he graduated in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in history.
He returned to the game of golf in 2015 as an assistant coach of with the UNA men's team where he specialized in player development and helped the team to two NCAA Regional Tournaments and one Division II National Championship Tournament.
In January of 2018, Self transitioned from the men's assistant to women's golf coordinator where he has had oversight of the first women's golf team at UNA. He is the first and only women's golf coach in program history.
Beyond the course, the Lions have succeeded in both the classroom and community. Under Self, the women's golf program became the first team in school history to finish a semester with a team 4.0 GPA in Spring 2024. Additionally, Self's program earned the Bank Independent Community Engagement Award in both 2024 and 2025, while Jahnavi Prakhya earned the individual honor both years. UNA was also ranked fourth among all women's golf programs in NCAA Division I in community service hours in 2025 according to Helper Helper.
Self is the grandson of former UNA head football coach and athletic director Hal Self.
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