Coaching Staff

Kolton Lapa
Assistant Men's Golf Coach

Kolton Lapa was hired as an assistant coach at Mississippi State on June 13, 2022. A member of the PGA Tour Canada with caddying experience on that circuit and the Web.com Tour, Lapa brings a wealth of knowledge to Starkville.

He previously coached the women’s teams at Nebraska and Denver where he helped both programs set single-season school records for team stroke average and claim team tournament titles.

Most recently, Lapa served as the associate head coach at Nebraska. He helped the Huskers to a school-record team stroke average (298.96) in 2018-19 and three top-five finished including Nebraska’s first team tournament title since the 2013-14 campaign at the 2019 Westbrook Spring Invitational.

Lapa helped Kate Smith post the best individual stroke average in school history (73.52), while Vanessa Bouvet (3rd), Kirsten Baete (T-6th) and Megan Whittaker (11th) all posted some of the best season stroke averages by freshmen in school history that year. Lapa walked alongside Baete for all 18 holes of her then-career-low round (66).

In Lincoln, he was the team’s lead recruiter and secured commitments from a pair of international Top 1000 WAGR players.

Prior to his time in Nebraska, Lapa spent two seasons as the assistant coach for the women’s team at Denver. In 2017, the Pioneers won the Summit League title, and they finished as runners-up in 2018. In both seasons, Denver qualified for NCAA Regional play. In just two seasons at Denver, Lapa helped coach Pioneer golfers to seven All-Summit League honors, including four first-team awards and saw Denver set a school record for team stroke average at 296.06 in 2017-18.

From September to November 2017, Lapa stepped in as Denver’s interim head coach. Under his guidance, the Pioneers won the GolfWeek Invitational and the Ron Moore Invitational. They also opened the season by defeating four top-25 teams at the Dick McGuire Invitational before finishing fourth at the Maryb S. Kauth Invitational in San Antonio. The Pioneers climbed as high as No. 18 under his leadership.

On the recruiting front, Lapa assisted in the signing of a Minnesota High School state champion and a transfer who earned All-Summit League honors in her first season at DU. Denver’s 2018-19 freshman class included a pair of California golfers ranked among the top 50 nationally in the GolfWeek recruiting rankings.

He competes on the PGA Tour Canada and has also served as a caddy on the PGA Tour Canada and Web.com Tour. He won the Westminster Open and the SwingThought Tour in 2021 and has played in two Korn Ferry Tour events.

Lapa played his collegiate golf at Nebraska for one season before returning to his home state as a transfer to Arizona. He closed his career in 2015-16 with four top-20 finishes including a pair of top-10 performances on his way to a 74.81 stroke average for the Wildcats. Lapa was a team captain at Arizona as a junior and senior and was also a member of Arizona’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2015-16.

He was chosen to play in the PGA Tour Northern Trust Collegiate Challenge, representing Arizona while partnering with PGA Tour player Ricky Barnes. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona in 2016 after majoring in economy and industry.

As a freshman at Nebraska, Lapa set the school’s 54-hole scoring record by a freshman (211) at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate (Oct. 22-23, 2012). He captured Big Ten Golfer-of-the-Week honors on Oct. 24, 2012, and again on Feb. 27, 2013, after tying for fifth at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate. He also tied for 22nd individually at the 2013 Big Ten Championships. He led Nebraska with a 74.27 stroke average over 33 rounds as a freshman.

He joins his wife Lauren Whyte, the Bulldog women’s assistant coach, in Starkville. The two were married in December 2021.

Lauren Whyte
Assistant Women's Golf Coach

Lauren Whyte was hired as an assistant coach at Mississippi State on July 12, 2021. She came to Starkville from Indiana where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.

In her first season with the Bulldogs, State competed in 12 events as a team, placing in the top five four times while earning three top 10 finishes, highlighted by a team championship at the Westbrook Invitational, as well as a trip to NCAA Championships. Mississippi State concluded the year ranked 31st by both Golf Stat and Golfweek.

The Bulldogs brought two trophies from the same event home for the first time since 2014 as they captured both the team and individual titles in the 2022 Westbrook Invitational.

Mississippi State opened up the spring portion of the 2021-22 season with a bang, stringing together top-four finishes in four straight events (The Ally, Paradise Invitational, Westbrook Invitational and The Gator). The spring portion of the calendar opened with the 2022 Paradise Invitational. As a team, State broke the record for the lowest first round in school history with 15-under par (273). State's 15-under par is also the second-lowest round in team history (18-under par in 2020). MSU finished third shooting 23-under par (841) for the tournament. (23-under par is the second-lowest team score after 54 holes in school history.)

Upon the completion of the regular season, the Bulldogs punched their ticket to the postseason for the 11th time when they were selected as one of 12 teams chosen to compete at the 2022 Tallahassee Regional as the sixth seed. Down the stretch of the Tallahassee Regional, State scored an even-par on the last six holes as a team to build a five-stroke cushion and secure the fourth-place finish needed to advance to the NCAA Championships.

With the Hoosiers, Whyte oversaw all areas of recruiting including skill evaluation, on-campus visits, scholarship distribution and eligibility requirements. She also organized the program’s home tournaments, ordered equipment and apparel and coordinated team travel.

In the shortened 2019-20 season, the Hoosiers picked up four top-10 finishes. Whyte helped junior Priscilla Schmid earn WGCA All-America Honorable Mention and First Team All-Big Ten honors, as well as a pair of Big Ten Player of the Week accolades after posting a 71.18 average in 11 rounds. Schmid captured her first tournament title at the Landfall Tradition, besting the rest of the field by two strokes.

Prior to her time at Indiana, Whyte served as a graduate assistant coach at Mercer University during the 2018-19 season, where she helped the Bears achieve the best Golfstat team ranking in program history. She also helped guide the Bears to a pair of wins and two more runner-up finishes while helping freshman Carol Pyon to her first collegiate victory and a spot on the Southern Conference All-Freshman team.

Whyte (pronounced “White”) played collegiately at Baylor for two seasons (2014-15, 2015-16) and Denver for two seasons (2016-17, 2017-18). As a freshman, she helped the Bears to their first Big 12 Conference team title by finishing in a tie for 28th. The team then went on to win the NCAA San Antonio Regional, the first regional title in program history, and advanced to the match play portion of the NCAA Championship. Whyte went 1-2 in match play, but her one win was an important one as she defeated Lisa Maguire from Duke on the 24th hole to clinch Baylor’s spot in the championship match against Stanford.

Following her sophomore season at Baylor, Whyte transferred to the University of Denver for her final two years of eligibility. In her two seasons with the Pioneers, she posted a 75.06 scoring average and was the team captain. She helped improve Denver’s Golfstat ranking from 53 to 18 and garnered First and Second Team All-Summit League honors while also winning the 2017 Summit League Championship and finishing eighth individually. The Pioneers won back-to-back team tournament titles in 2017-18.

Her international experience includes being a member of the Scotland National U-18 Girls team for three years and captaining the team at the European Girls Team Championship from 2011-14. She also won the Scottish Girls U-18 Championship in 2012 and participated in the European Young Masters in 2011 and 2012 with Scotland. In 2013, Whyte played for Team GB at Youth Olympic Festival in Australia.

Whyte earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Denver in 2018 and her Masters in Higher Education Leadership in 2019 from Mercer University. She is joined in Starkville by her husband Kolton Lapa, who was hired as the men's program's assistant coach on June 13, 2022.

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