March 10, 2016

By Chris Masters

MESA, Ariz. – The 20th-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s golf team will have the chance to reach a pair of milestones when the Fighting Irish tee off Friday in the fifth annual Notre Dame Clover Cup at 10 a.m. ET (8 a.m. MT) at the Longbow Golf Club (par 72/6,184 yards) in Mesa, Arizona.

The Fighting Irish enter this weekend’s event seeking a third tournament win this year, something they last achieved during the 2010-11 season. Notre Dame also is aiming for its first victory in five tries at the Clover Cup, having finished second twice and in the top five during each of the first four years it has played host to the Arizona-based event, which is co-sponsored by Longbow Golf Club and Visit Mesa.

Freshman Maddie Rose Hamilton owns a 74.53 stroke average this year, one of five Notre Dame golfers with a sub-75 stroke average for the 2015-16 season.

Notre Dame Clover Cup
Dates:
March 11-13, 2016
Format: 54 holes (18 holes Friday-Sunday)
Tee Times: 10 a.m. ET/8 a.m. MT Friday-Sunday (split-tee starts on Friday-Saturday; shotgun start Sunday)
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Course (Par/Yardage): Longbow Golf Club (par 72/6,184 yards)
Tournament Field (in order of latest Golfstat ranking): Notre Dame (20), SMU (37), TCU (43), Oklahoma (53), UNCW (78), Penn State (81), South Florida (87), FIU (102), Ole Miss (106), Columbia (108), Nebraska (115), Central Arkansas (122), Cincinnati (126), Tulsa (131), IUPUI (198), UNCG (205) and Central Michigan (241).
Notre Dame Lineup (2015-16 stroke average): Talia Campbell (72.76), Isabella DiLisio (72.47), Emma Albrecht (73.24), Maddie Rose Hamilton (74.53), Jordan Ferreira (74.71), Kari Bellville (75.94 — competing as individual), Alison Snakard (making season debut — competing as individual), Janie Fineis (making season debut — competing as individual)
Live Scoring: BirdieFire.com
Twitter: @NDwomensGolf (#CloverCup)

Here’s a look at five things you need to know as Notre Dame steps to the first tee at Longbow on Friday morning:

  • For the third time this season, the Fighting Irish will field a lineup featuring senior captain Talia Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy), junior Jordan Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) and a trio of freshmen – Emma Albrecht (Ormond Beach, Fla./Father Lopez), Isabella DiLisio (Hatfield, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) and Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy). This quintet helped Notre Dame place second at the Landfall Tradition (866/+2) back in October in Wilmington, North Carolina, as well as fifth at the weather-shortened Schooner Fall Classic (567/-1) in mid-September in Norman, Oklahoma.
  • Notre Dame rose to No. 20 in the latest Golfstat rankings that came out Wednesday. That marks the highest the Fighting Irish have been ranked during the spring season since February 11, 2013, when they were No. 15 entering their spring opener at the Seminole Match-Up in Tallahassee, Florida.
  • Notre Dame currently has three players with season stroke averages lower than 74.00 – DiLisio (72.47), Campbell (72.76) and Albrecht (73.24). Entering this year, the Fighting Irish had only three players in the program’s first 27 seasons combined shoot lower than 74.00 for a single campaign (Lindsey Weaver ââ’¬” 72.71 in 2012-13; Campbell ââ’¬” 73.43 in 2014-15; So-Hyun Park ââ’¬” 73.63 in 2007-08).
  • Campbell and Ferreira are no strangers to the Clover Cup. Campbell has posted a 73.78 stroke average with a pair of top-15 finishes in three appearances at the tournament, including a tie for fourth place last year at 217 (+1). Meanwhile, Ferreira has competed in the past two Clover Cups, registering a 75.67 stroke average, including a tie for 13th place last year with a nine-over par 225.
  • Since 2004, the Longbow Golf Club has played host to the Winn Grips Heather Farr Classic, a premier stop on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tour. Some of the more notable names to earn medalist honors at the tournament since it moved to Longbow 12 years ago are: 2010 U.S. Open champion Paula Creamer (2004), seven-time LPGA major champion Inbee Park (2005), and Alison Lee (2010), who joined Creamer on the victorious 2015 U.S. Solheim Cup team.

Notre Dame will offer live scoring of this weekend’s Clover Cup through the BirdieFire web site (BirdieFire.com), with in-progress updates also provided through the Fighting Irish women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf).

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).