April 7, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team will head to the Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. for the Indiana Invitational on April 9-10. A field of 17 teams will tee it up at the par 72, 5,924-yard course just outside of Indianapolis. The Irish are coming off a top-10 finish as they placed eighth of 15 teams at the Betsty Rawls Longhorn Invitational (March 16-18). This will mark the final event for the Irish prior to the BIG EAST Championship, which will take place April 22-24.
TOURNAMENT: Indiana University will serve as the host of the two-day event. Each team’s lineup will be comprised of five golfers with the lowest four scores for each round counting towards the overall team score. The tournament will consist of 54 holes with 36 holes being played on Monday and the final round of 18 holes will take place on Tuesday. All three rounds will begin with shotgun starts at the par 72, 5,924-yard Crooked Stick Golf Club.
FIELD: The Irish should be very familiar with the competing teams since they have faced 14 of the squads so far during the 2006-07 season. The Big Ten Conference will be heavily represented with eight teams, while several other teams from the Midwest will be participating. Michigan State enters the tournament as the highest-ranked team in the field. The Spartans are ranked 23rd according Golfstat.
Here is the list of teams joining Notre Dame at the Indiana Invitational (Golfstat rankings in parenthesis): Michigan State (23), UNLV (31), Northwestern (33), Michigan (44), Indiana (48), Oregon (66), Texas (82), Iowa State (83), Iowa (90), Illinois State (100), Western Michigan (108), Penn State (113), Illinois (114), Kentucky (119), Minnesota (120) and Ball State (160).
The only teams in the tournament that the Irish have not faced yet this season are Ball State and Oregon.
NOTRE DAME LINEUP: Notre Dame will send out the same lineup that has competed in all three events so far this spring. Senior co-captain Noriko Nakazaki (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates) will play from the No. 1 position in the lineup. Nakazaki leads the Irish with a 75.04 scoring average. All 23 of her rounds this season have counted towards the team score, while she also has the team’s top round (70) and 54-hole total (219).
Freshman Annie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) will play from the second spot. Brophy has competed in all seven tournaments this season and carries a 77.83 scoring average, which ranks her third on the team. Her low round of the season is a one-over par 73 and her top 54-hole total is a 229 (+13). She has had 19 of her 23 rounds scored for the team.
Brophy’s classmate Julie Kim (Bayside, N.Y./Bayside) will be third in the Irish lineup. She has a 77.78 stroke average through three tournaments this spring season. Her top round is a one-over par 73 and her top 54-hole total is 229 (+13). She has had six of her nine rounds scored for the team. Kim did not compete during the first semester due to an injury.
Kristin Wetzel (Middletown, N.Y./Hilton Head Prep) will be the third freshman in the Notre Dame lineup as she will occupy the fourth position. She owns a 79.00 stroke average. Wetzel’s best three-round score of the season is a 16-over par 232, which included her top round of 72 (E) at the Lady Irish Invitational (Sept. 23-24). She has participated in all eight tournaments with 19 of her 23 rounds counting towards the team’s score.
Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Collegiate Parkside Institute) rounds out the Fighting Irish lineup from the No. 5 spot. The sophomore has a 77.91 season scoring average. Her top round is a one-under par 71, which she achieved twice. Maunu’s low three-round score of the season is a 222 (+6) at the Cougar Classic (Sept. 11-12). Her rounds have counted towards the team total on 20 of 23 occasions.
LAST TIME OUT: Notre Dame finished eighth of 15 at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational (March 16-18) with a three-round score of 937 (314-315-308). Nakazaki posted a seven-over par 223 (75-75-73) to lead the Irish and finish in a tie for sixth among the 86-golfer field. Brophy made it two Irish golfers in the top 20 as she recorded a three-round score of 233 (78-79-76) to finish in a tie for 20th. That marked Brophy’s top 54-hole score and placing of the season. Kim rebounded from back-to-back rounds of 82 to post a five-over par 77 during the third round to finish with a 241 and in a tie for 48th. Wetzel concluded the event with a 242 (80-79-83) and in a tie for 54th, while Maunu rounded out the Irish lineup with a 245 (81-82-82) and tied for 61st overall.
IRISH THOUGHTS: Notre Dame head coach Susan Holt discusses the Indiana Invitational …
“Since the tournament is being played at Crooked Stick they were able to attract a good field. It’s another opportunity for us to play against teams that we need to be playing against. Crooked Stick is a great course and it’ll be a treat to get out there.”
“We just need to get some consistent scoring. We need to shoot in the mid-70s instead of the high-70s. We’ve been able to get outside and play about six times since we came back from our spring break trip and there have been some good scores produced. However, there is a difference between practicing and actually getting out there and competing, but we’re hoping to play well.”
RESULTS: Live scoring and full results of the Indiana Invitational can be found at Golfstat.com.
NEXT UP: Notre Dame returns to the course on April 22-24 at the 2007 BIG EAST Conference Championship in Louisville, Ky. The event will be held at the Cardinal Club.
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