Sept. 17, 2015
Schooner Fall Classic
Dates: Sept. 19-21, 2015
Format: 54 holes (18 holes daily)
Tee Times: 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET each day
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Course (Par/Yardage): Belmar Golf Club (par 71/5,901 yards)
Tournament Field (in order of final 2014-15 Golfstat ranking): Texas A&M (12), Mississippi State (17), Oklahoma State (18), Florida State (29), Notre Dame (33), Oklahoma (54), Kansas (60), Kansas State (62), Troy (84), Texas State (89), UTSA (101) and Tulsa (103).
Notre Dame Lineup (2015-16 stroke average): Talia Campbell (72.67), Isabella DiLisio (73.67), Emma Albrecht (75.00), Maddie Rose Hamilton (75.33), Jordan Ferreira (75.33), Kari Bellville (76.00 ââ’¬” competing as individual)
Live Scoring: BirdieFire.com
Twitter: @NDwomensGolf and @schoonerfc
Tournament Web Site: schoonerfallclassic.com
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Nearly 900 miles separate the University of Notre Dame’s award-winning Warren Golf Course from the Belmar Golf Club in Norman, Oklahoma. Yet, as the Fighting Irish women’s golf team arrives on the Plains for this weekend’s Schooner Fall Classic, it will find one key thing in common between its home course and Belmar – the value of a strong short game.
Notre Dame will be making its second consecutive appearance in the 12-team Schooner Fall Classic, which features single rounds teeing off at 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET) Saturday through Monday at the Belmar Golf Club (par 71/5,901 yards). The tournament debuted in 2013 as the University of Oklahoma’s new fall event, partnering with the Toby Keith Foundation (created by the legendary country singer and songwriter) to support the OK Kids Korral, a facility that houses pediatric cancer patients receiving treatment in nearby Oklahoma City.
Last year, the Fighting Irish tied for eighth place in the 17-team tournament and posted the lowest gross tournament score in school history, and tying the fourth-lowest mark with relation to par (846/+6) while playing on a par-70 layout. Notre Dame also carded below-par scores in the final two rounds (277/-3 in second round; 279/-1 in third round), the two lowest single-round gross totals in program annals, with the three-under score tying the third-lowest round relative to par since the Fighting Irish program debuted in 1988-89.
“We are really looking forward to returning to Norman this weekend,” Notre Dame head coach Susan Holt said. “(Belmar) is a fun course to play and low scores can be posted. Our wedge games and putters will need to be hot. The field has some top teams in it, so we have the opportunity to pick up some quality head-to-head wins.”
As was the case last year, Notre Dame will come into this weekend’s Schooner Fall Classic on the heels of a season-opening win at Michigan State’s Mary Fossum Invitational. The Fighting Irish led from the opening tee shot to the final putt last weekend in East Lansing, registering a 14-stroke win over tournament host Michigan State. It was Notre Dame’s largest margin of victory in a tournament since a similar 14-shot spread at the 2013 BIG EAST Conference Championship, while last weekend’s 54-hole total of 887 (+23) matched the 15th-lowest mark in school history.
“We should have a confident team coming off the win at Michigan State,” Holt added. “We’re looking forward to watching some more great golf this week.”
Senior captain Talia Campbell (Dallas, Texas/Ursuline Academy) led the way for the Fighting Irish by firing a 218 (-2) to finish second in the 70-player field. It was Campbell’s best showing since sharing medalist honors at the 2013 BIG EAST Championship and a performance made even more remarkable by the fact she had not played a competitive round in four months, dating back to last spring’s NCAA South Bend Regional.
Campbell also was Notre Dame’s top finisher in last year’s Schooner Fall Classic, tying for 13th place with a career-low score of 209 (-1), the second-lowest individual gross score for 54 holes in school history.
However, Campbell won’t be alone in attacking the Oklahoma greens this weekend. Freshmen Isabella DiLisio (Hatfield, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) and Emma Albrecht (Ormond Beach, Fla./Father Lopez) made a solid first impression last week at the Mary Fossum Invitational, with DiLisio tying for fifth place (221/+5) and Albrecht sharing ninth place (225/+9) while playing as an individual competitor.
Both rookies will be in the Fighting Irish lineup at the Schooner Fall Classic, along with a third Notre Dame freshman, Maddie Rose Hamilton (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart Academy), who tied for 11th place in her college debut at the Mary Fossum Invitational with a score of 226 (+10).
Junior Jordan Ferreira (University Place, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) is coming off her best outing in two years, tying Hamilton for 11th place at 226 (+10) even with a triple bogey on her final hole at the Mary Fossum Invitational.
Sophomore Kari Bellville (Granger, Ind./Penn) will fill Notre Dame’s individual participant spot this weekend at the Schooner Fall Classic. Bellville turned in the best finish of her young career last weekend with a 15th-place tie at 228 (+12) in the Mary Fossum Invitational.
Oklahoma will offer live scoring of the Schooner Fall Classic through the BirdieFire web site (BirdieFire.com), with in-progress updates also provided through the Fighting Irish women’s golf Twitter feed (@NDwomensGolf) and the tournament’s official Twitter feed ( @schoonerfc.
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.
– Chris Masters, Athletics Communications Associate Director