April 19, 2003
Notre Dame, Ind. – Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course will be the site of the first-ever BIG EAST Women’s Golf Championship, Monday and Tuesday, April 21-22. This is the first year that the BIG EAST Conference has sponsored women’s golf as six teams now compete among the member schools. The conference champion will be eligible for an automatic NCAA tournament bid in 2005. Four of the six teams in the conference were selected by the BIG EAST Women’s Golf Selection & Seeding Committee to compete in the 54-hole, stroke play championship. The committee uses criteria such as head-to-head results, stroke differential, overall won-loss record, strength of schedule, results vs. common opponents and NCAA/Golfstat rating indexes to select the four participating teams.
Dates and Times: The 54-hole BIG EAST Championship will feature 36 holes of play on Monday, April 21 with scheduled tee times beginning at 8:00 a.m. The final 18 holes will be played on Tuesday, April 22 beginning at 8:00 a.m. The women’s tournament will tee off on the 10th tee both days.
The Teams: The four-team tournament features the University of Miami as the number one seed. Notre Dame is seeded second, Georgetown three and Boston College fourth in the tournament.
Irish Lineup: Coach Debby King’s lineup will feature three freshmen, one sophomore and one junior. Freshman Katie Brophy (Spokane, Wash.) will play as Notre Dame’s number one golfer. Junior Shannon Byrne (Arlington Heights, Ill.), who has played in every scheduled tournament in her three-year Notre Dame career, will play at number two. Sophomore Karen Lotta (Los Angeles, Calif.) is number three and will be followed by Suzie Hayes (Fr., Dublin, Ireland) and Lauren Gebauer (Fr., Columbus, Ohio) in the four and five spots respectively. The Irish last played in the Indiana Invitational on April 5-6 where they finished seventh. Brophy was Notre Dame’s top finisher in 14th-place with a 223. Byrne tied for 27th with a 242, Hayes tied for 40th with a 249 and Lotta tied for 48th with a 251.
Irish Leaders: Notre Dame has two golfers shooting under 80.00 for the entire season. Katie Brophy owns a 78.65 average after playing in all 11 tournaments in 2002-03. That is the best single-season average for an Irish golfer, .30 better than Karen Lotta’s 78.95 average set last season. Lauren Gebauer has played in eight tournaments on the season and has an 80.55 mark. Shannon Byrne is fourth among Irish golfers with an 80.84 and is followed by Lotta with an 81.04 and Hayes with an 81.15 average.
Tournament Results: Results will be available on the Notre Dame website at und.com after 9:00 p.m. on each day of tournament play. Livestats will also be available via www.golfstat.com. Player totals will be updated throughout the day.
Next For The Irish: The BIG EAST Championship is the final tournament of the 2002-03 season for the Notre Dame women’s golf team. –