LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky women’s golf program has signed transfer Isabella Johnson, the 2025 Tennessee Women’s Player of the Year, head coach Golda Borst announced Wednesday.
Johnson, a Murfreesboro, Tennessee, native who recently completed her sophomore season at Middle Tennessee State, will join the Wildcats as a junior in the 2026-27 season. She set the Blue Raiders’ single-season stroke-average school record at 72.23 after spending her freshman year at Tennessee in 2024-25.
During her standout sophomore campaign at MTSU, Johnson competed in all 12 events across 34 rounds, recording 19 par-or-better rounds—another school record—and five top-five finishes. She led her team in nine of those 12 events and shot a career-best 18-hole round of 67 (-5) and a career-best 54-hole tournament score of 212 (-4).
Johnson’s NCAA tournament performance proved particularly impressive, earning a top-15 finish at the NCAA Louisville Regional in May, marking the best result ever by an individual qualifier in Middle Tennessee history. She was also selected as a First Team All-Conference USA pick and earned All-Academic First Team honors.
Her accomplishments extended beyond college competition. Johnson was named the Tennessee Golf Association Women’s Player of the Year in summer 2025 after winning the Tennessee Women’s Amateur at Chattanooga Golf & Country Club. She finished sixth at the Tennessee Women’s Open and represented Tennessee at the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes. She also won the 2024 TGA Girls’ Junior Player of the Year.
The addition of Johnson bolsters a Kentucky program that recently posted significant success. The Wildcats’ entire core that powered a dramatic NCAA postseason run in 2025-26 has announced its return for 2026-27, including juniors Cathryn Brown and Samantha Paradise and sophomores C.A. Carter, Karlie Campbell and Raleygh Simpson.
“We are beyond excited to add Isabella to our team,” Borst said. “She’s a great player and a fierce competitor, who is going to bring a great deal of experience to our team, and she also is a terrific student in the classroom.”
Johnson expressed enthusiasm about joining the Wildcats, saying in a statement: “I’m excited to join Kentucky women’s golf this fall. I fell in love with Lexington and can’t wait to get started.”
Under Borst’s leadership, the Kentucky women’s golf program has earned 10 NCAA Regional appearances and eight team championships, including a breakthrough NCAA Championship Finals berth in 2021—the program’s first since 1992.
This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from UK Athletics, enriched with 3 web searches. The original source is available at https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/06/10/kentucky-womens-golf-signs-2025-tennessee-womens-player-of-the-year-isabella-johnson/.
