Skip Molitor has over two decades of coaching at Whitman College, much of the time as the men's basketball head coach and later thr women's golf coach. In 2018-19 he became the head coach of both the men's and women's golf teams where he has seen tremendous success over the years
His most recent success came in the spring of 2024 where the men's golf team won the NWC Title, its first since 1986. The Blues went on to make the cut at the NCAA Championships in Las Vegas before closing ranked No. 17 nationally. First year Mason Remington was named as an All-American after winning both Freshman and Player of the Year for the conference.
The 2017-18 season was one for the record books for Whitman College women’s golf. Led by First-Team All-Americans Phoebe Nguyen and Shiyang Fan, Whitman won the NWC Tournament Championship with an outstanding performance at the Oakbrook Country Club in Tacoma, Wash. By winning that tournament, the Whitman women forged a tie with George Fox University in the season-long battle for the NWC Championship. That tie necessitated a sudden-death playoff for the league’s automatic qualifier (AQ) berth in the NCAA Women’s DIII Championship in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. Whitman won that playoff on the first hole by a single stroke over the Bruins, advancing them to their third trip to the NCAA Championship in the last seven years. Molitor was honored by his peers with the NWC Coach of the Year award for the second time in the last three years and third overall. Nguyen and Fan were selected First-Team All-NWC and Emma Beyer was chosen as the league’s Freshman of the Year.
At the NCAA National Championship, the Blues recorded their highest finish in program history by placing seventh, edging Methodist University by one shot (1298-1299) in the four-round format. Shiyang Fan’s 315 (81-80-76-78) was good for a top ten finish on the demanding El Campeon layout. Phoebe Nguyen, who was ranked no lower than second nationally in the final weeks of the season after her record-setting two-under par victory (71-68-75) at the prestigious Jekyll Island Invitational in Georgia, placed twenty-fourth. Another record for the Blues was their final number five national ranking by Golfstat. That ranking was the third consecutive top ten finish for the Blues, who have been ranked in the top 15 nationally six of the last seven years.
The Women's Golf Coaches Association honored four Blues with selections to the 2017-18 NCAA Scholar All-America Team, which requires a minimum of a 3.5 GPA while playing in at least twelve collegiate matches: Phoebe Nguyen ‘18, Shiyang Fan ’19, Ally Collier ’20 and Jhunam Sidhu ’21. Collier and Fan made the list for the second time, while Nguyen was named an All-American scholar-athlete selection for the third time in her storied career.
Molitor, who came to Whitman in 1994 as its men’s basketball coach, relinquished that post in July 2008 to become assistant athletic director in charge of development, community relations and club sports. To keep one foot in the coaching world he also took the reins of the women’s golf team.
It didn’t take him very long to guide the program to what then would be the most successful season in school history. A young Whitman squad, stocked with Molitor’s first two recruiting classes, turned heads in April 2011 when it won the NWC Spring Classic, the program’s first conference major. Three weeks later Whitman finished second at the conference championship tournament to nail down second place in the season-long standings. Only one year later Molitor and his players found themselves on the national stage. They ended the 2012 season with a 12th-place finish at the D-III national tournament after capturing the leagues AQ with a victory in the NWC League Championship Tournament.
A native of Ephrata, Wash., Molitor earned his bachelor’s degree in English and Education in 1974 at Gonzaga University, where he was a two-year starter as a point guard on the basketball team. He also played four years of varsity golf for the Bulldogs.
While finishing his master’s degree in guidance counseling at Gonzaga, he coached the Bulldogs’ men’s golf team. Later, he led a Montana girl’s high school team to a state golf title.
Before coming to Whitman to coach men’s basketball, Molitor was an assistant coach at five NCAA Division I schools – Gonzaga, Washington State, Colorado State, Santa Clara, and the University of Montana. He was also the head boy’s coach for five seasons at Gonzaga Prep and for three years at two Montana high schools.
Molitor and his spouse Amy are blessed with two daughters, Denali and Kiana.
