Sept. 11, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
The 2008-09 Notre Dame women’s golf season will get underway at the Cougar Classic in Hanahan, S.C. on Sunday, September 14. The tournament will run through Tuesday, September 16. The Irish will square off against 22 teams including the College of Charleston, who is hosting the tournament. Yeamans Hall Golf Club is a par 72, 6,159-yard course.
FORMAT: 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 each day featuring one 18-hole round of play. Sunday and Monday will begin with 7:40 a.m. (ET) tee times. Tuesday’s third and final round will commence with a shotgun start at 8:45 a.m.
FIELD: A field of 23 teams will take to the Yeamans Hall Golf Club. The teams participating are Alabama, College of Charleston, Charleston Southern, Florida State, Furman, Georgia, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Mississippi, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Richmond, South Carolina, South Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Tulane, UNC Greensboro, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The tournament will include five of the top-25 ranked teams according to the Golf World/NGCA preseason Coaches’ Poll, including #6 Georgia, #10 Alabama, #16 LSU, #22 Texas and #25 Tennessee. Also helping to comprise the field are five teams who received votes, lead by Notre Dame with 49 votes. The other four schools that received votes are North Carolina (31), South Carolina (22), Furman (19) and Florida State (10).
NOTRE DAME LINEUP: The five players comprising the Irish lineup include senior captain Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Parkside Collegiate Institute), juniors Annie Brophy (Spoakne, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) and Kristin Wetzel (Middletown, N.Y./Hilton Head Prep), sophomore So-Hyun Park (Seoul, South Korea/Bradenton Prep) and freshman Becca Huffer (Denver, Colo./Littleton HS).
LAST YEAR: The 2007-2008 squad was the most successful in varsity women’s golf history. It achieved so by fielding a young scoring lineup that consisted of two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior. The lineup lead Notre Dame to its highest ranking of all-time, as they peaked at No. 12 according to Golfstat. The squad also won the BIG EAST Championship, leading the seven-team field wire-to-wire for Notre Dame’s third BIG EAST title, and first since 2004. The squad then advanced to the NCAA Regionals as a ninth seed, but it was unable to advance to the NCAA Finals, finishing 16th out of 21 teams.
The Irish opened the 2007-08 season with a win at the Cougar Classic, establishing a school-record as they posted a team score of 870 (+6). Notre Dame was lead by Maunu, who shot a school-record three-round score of 210 (-6) to take medalist honors. Maunu also shot a six-under 66 in the first round for another school-best mark.
IRISH BIRDIES: Golfweek lists the Irish at #22 in the country, while Golf World ranks the Irish at #27 … Golf World has listed sophomore All-American So-Hyun Park as one of the top-50 female players to watch this season … Golfweek has listed Becca Huffer as a Notable Newcomer for the 2008-09 season … the Irish have previously played in the Cougar Classic on three occasions: 2007 (1st), 2006 (12th) and 2003 (1st) … in six rounds of competitive play in the Cougar Classic, Lisa Maunu has posted 72.0 scoring average (432 cumulative strokes) … www.golfdigest.com has tabbed Becca Huffer as the preseason choice for BIG EAST Rookie of the Year honors.
RESULTS: Live hole-by-hole scoring of the Cougar Classic is available through Golfstat. To access the site go to http://www.golfstatresults.com. Full results will also be posted at http://www.CofCSports.com.
NEXT UP: Notre Dame will travel to East Lansing, Michigan to take part in the Mary Fossum Invitational, hosted by Michigan State. The invitational will take place on September 20 and 21 at Forest Akers West G.C.