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BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Jim Weaver has announced that the school will start a women’s golf program, which will begin to compete as a team in the fall of 2015. Women’s golf will become the school’s 22nd intercollegiate sports program.

“I believe that adding women’s golf at Virginia Tech is a natural progression in our athletics department,” Weaver said. “Our new women’s golf program will fit nicely into the scope of our other teams and will only enhance the overall unit. Women’s golf in the Atlantic Coast Conference is played at the highest level in the nation and we aim to have this program among the best in the league in the very near future.”

The school will immediately begin a national search for a head coach. It is hoped that the new coach will be named by July 1, 2013. The coach will begin work in the summer of 2013 and will take the 2013-14 academic year to recruit student-athletes and build the program.

“We have been working toward this day since joining the ACC, but wanted to make sure that eveything was in place for this program to succeed before starting this process publicly,” Weaver said. “Our men’s golf program has proven that golf at Virginia Tech can be highly successful.”

Recruited student-athletes will start in the fall of 2014 and will redshirt in the 2014-15 academic year. The Hokies will commence team play in the fall of 2015 and become eligible for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship that spring.

“This program will start with all the advantages available to top-level student-athletes,” Weaver said. “The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech is one of the truly great courses on college campuses in the nation and the included practice facility, with its state-of-the-art components, is the finest in the country.”

The women’s golf program will share the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech and the included Virginia Tech Golf Team Complex with the men’s team. The practice facility already includes a women’s golf locker room and it features indoor hitting facilities, outdoor covered and heated tees and a full practice range. The facility also includes state-of-the-art video equipment and other modern instructional modes.

Women’s golf will be the first new sport added by the Hokies since the school joined the ACC in the 2004-05 academic year and the first new sport at Tech since softball was added in the 1995-96 academic year. Virginia Tech will become the 12th ACC school to compete in women’s golf.

For updates on Virginia Tech women's golf, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_WGolf).