Sophomore Kari Bellville is coming off the best outing of her career, a tie for fourth place (216/E) at the Chip-N Club Invitational on Oct. 5-6 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

From The First Tee: Irish at Cardinal Cup

Oct. 18, 2015

by Chris Masters

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. — With mid-term exams and papers completed, it’s back to business on the course for the University of Notre Dame women’s golf team, which opens its two-event fall break road trip at 9:30 a.m. (ET) Monday with the first two rounds of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Cup at the University of Louisville Golf Club (par 72/6,132 yards) in Simpsonville, Kentucky.

Cardinal Cup

Dates:
Oct. 19-20, 2015
Format: 54 holes (36 holes Monday, 18 holes Tuesday)
Tee Times: 9:30 a.m. ET Monday; 9:15 a.m. ET Tuesday (shotgun starts both days)
Location: Simpsonville, Kentucky
Course (Par/Yardage): University of Louisville Golf Club (par 72/6,132 yards)
Tournament Field (in order of latest Golfstat ranking): Louisville (19), East Carolina (26), Notre Dame (30), Florida State (33), Illinois (41), Indiana (51), Virginia Tech (66), Chattanooga (68), Wisconsin (92), Columbia (123), Richmond (127), Cincinnati (131), Bradley (160), Ball State (211).
Notre Dame Lineup (2015-16 stroke average): Isabella DiLisio (72.13), Talia Campbell (71.75), Maddie Rose Hamilton (74.13), Kari Bellville (73.50), Jordan Ferreira (74.00), Emma Albrecht (73.13 — competing as individual)
Live Scoring: Golfstat.com
Twitter: @NDwomensGolf

Here’s a look at five things you need to know before Notre Dame steps to the tee at the University of Louisville Golf Club on Monday morning:

  • The Fighting Irish are playing in the Cardinal Cup for the second time, having won Louisville’s tournament back in 2007. Notre Dame led virtually wire-to-wire in that victory, holding off the host Cardinals down the stretch to win by three strokes at 878 (+14). So-Hyun Park, who went on to earn honorable mention All-America status that season, earned medalist honors at the 2007 Cardinal Cup, carding a 213 (-3) to pick up her first win in her second college tournament.
  • Notre Dame also took part in the Canes & Cards Classic in the spring of 2008, a tournament co-hosted by Louisville and another current Atlantic Coast Conference member, Miami. The Fighting Irish shot 886 (+22) to finish fourth in that event, which was won by Louisville at the Don Shula Golf Resort in Miami Lakes, Florida. Park finished as the runner-up at the tournament with an even-par 216.
  • This is the first of two tournaments Notre Dame will play this season that are hosted by a fellow ACC member. The Fighting Irish are slated to take part in the Bryan National Collegiate, hosted by Wake Forest University, April 1-3 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
  • Freshman Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy) makes her first return to her hometown early in her college career with this week’s Cardinal Cup. Hamilton, the 2013 Kentucky Miss Golf and three-time all-state selection, graduated from Sacred Heart Academy earlier this year and is the first Kentucky native to join the Fighting Irish women’s golf program since another Louisville resident, Lauren Fuchs, played two seasons for Notre Dame (2000, 2002).
  • Speaking of freshmen, Notre Dame’s three-player rookie class (which also includes Emma Albrecht and Isabella DiLisio, along with Hamilton), has compiled the third-lowest stroke average of any freshman group in the country this season with a 72.63 mark. Only the University of Georgia (72.03) and another ACC school, Clemson University (72.17) feature freshman classes with lower stroke averages that the Fighting Irish trio.
  • For more information on the Notre Dame women’s golf program, visit the women’s golf page of the official Fighting Irish athletics web site (UND.com/ndwomensgolf), sign up to follow the Notre Dame women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the “Fan Center” pulldown menu on the front page at UND.com.

— ND —

Chris Masters, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2001 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s golf and women’s basketball programs. A native of San Francisco, California, Masters is a 1996 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, earned his master’s degree from Kansas State University in 1998, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).