Cindy Mah-Lyford joined the Sacramento State coaching staff prior to the 2015-16 season. During Mah-Lyford's first two seasons, Sacramento State has recorded eight of the top 10 tournament scores in school history and won the Big Sky Conference championship in 2017.
Prior to joining the staff at Sacramento State, Mah-Lyford was a coach at St. Francis High School for six seasons, including five as the head coach. She led the Troubadours to a sixth-place finish at the CIF State Championships in 2012 and five consecutive postseason appearances as head coach. Overall, St. Francis won six section titles during her tenure with the program including four Division I North titles and two Masters wins. The Troubadours also won five league titles.
Mah-Lyford was named the 2013-14 Northern California Girls' Golf Coach of the Year by the California Coaches' Association. St. Francis finished eighth at the 2013 NCGA/CIF Girls Nor Cal Championship after advancing with a third-place finish at Masters. The Troubadours won the Sac-Joaquin Division I North and Delta River League titles during the season.
She coached five players at St. Francis who went on to play collegiately including Emily Laskin (Navy/San Francisco), Briana Mao (Virgina), Illeana Macdonald (Chico State), Ashley Noda (Santa Clara) and Victoria Vardanega (Pomona Pitzer). Mao as earned conditional status on the LPGA Tour in 2016.
Mah-Lyford played professionally on the Ladies European Tour for three seasons and posted two top 10 finishes. She recorded a career-best 26th-place finish in 1993 among two United States Women's Open appearances and was 40th overall in the 1991 British Women's Open. Although she shot a career-low round of 67 in the LPGA Tour School qualifying in 1994, she missed earning her LPGA Tour card by one stroke.
The Roseville resident began playing at the age of 17 and walked on to the Cal State Long Beach program. She had a strong amateur career, playing in seven USGA Championships. She reached the quarterfinals three times in the Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. She also earned three berths in the USGA Women's Amateur Championship and one in the USGA Women's Mid-Amateur Championships.
She is a two-time winner of the Vermont State Women's Amateur and was a semifinalist at the California State Women's Amateur.
The Stockton, Calif., native played Cal State Long Beach from 1981-83. She helped the 49ers to two WCAA titles during her career.
Mah-Lyford is married to Keith Lyford, a former PGA Tour player and current Director of Instruction at Old Greenwood Golf Club in Truckee, Calif., and the couple has two daughters.