The most decorated female golfer in Austin Peay history, Chelsea Harris is among the most consistently high-level performers to ever tee off for an Ohio Valley Conference school.
Since the OVC began handing out all-conference and all-tournament honors in 2001, only two student-athletes in conference history have been named All-OVC and All-OVC Tournament all four years of their respective careers—Harris and Jacksonville State’s Mercedes Huarte (2005-08).
The Massac, Ill., native burst onto the scene with a stellar freshman season in 2008 that saw her earn the first of four consecutive All-Ohio Valley Conference and All-OVC Tournament accolades—she concluded the campaign with a third-place 234 (77-80-77) at the OVC Tournament, three shots behind Huarte in the only OVC Championship the pair would meet in.
As a sophomore, Harris would earn a place on the All-OVC first team and equaled the program-best round of 69 at the Great Smokies Intercollegiate—a mark no Lady Govs golfer has reached since Harris’ Sept. 15, 2008 outing at Waynesville Country Club.
Harris’ junior season was one for the record books. In addition to becoming just the second player in APSU history to earn OVC Player of the Year, Harris became the first player in six years to take home individual medalist honors at the OVC Championship in the same season; she won the conference tournament by five strokes with a 180 (71-74-35); that margin of victory wouldn’t be surpassed met again until 2014. Her 72.00 average stood as the tournament record until 2014.
The OVC title was one of two individual wins for Harris during her junior campaign; she also took medalist honors at the NewWave Communications Classic, where she shot 155 (76-79) to lead the Lady Govs to a second-place finish.
Harris put the bow on an exemplary career with a program-record 75.85 scoring average as a senior. She picked up another medalist honor at the SIUE Intercollegiate with a 149 (77-72) and set the program 54-hole record in her penultimate tournament at the EKU Lady Colonel Classic with a 221 (78-72-71). As was her habit, she was named first-team all-conference and earned a spot on the all-tournament team again as a senior.
After senior season, TGA selected Chelsea to represent Team Tennessee in the Southeastern Women’s Amateur Team Championship (SWATC), a Solheim Cup/Ryder Cup version event against teams from Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and Alabama. She also was APSU’s Female Legends Award recipient in 2011.
Off the course, Harris was a seven-time member of the AD’s Honor Roll, featuring two semesters on the Dean’s List. She was a three-time member of the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
She was an assistant for APSU women’s golf coach and worked at LPGA Headquarters in Daytona Beach from 2012-13. She married Justin Phillips in 2015; the couple resides in Metropolis, Ill.
