Oct. 14, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team will head out West during the University’s fall break to compete in the TaylorMade Aztec Fall Classic on Oct. 16 and 17 in Chula Vista, Calif. The 36-hole tournament, which is being played at the par 72, 6,259-yard Salt Creek Golf Club (formerly known as The Auld Course), will get underway with 8:00 a.m. (PT) tee times on Monday.
TOURNAMENT: This will mark Notre Dame’s second trip to the San Diego State Classic. The Fighting Irish placed in a tie for eighth at the event during the 1996-97 season. The Aztecs are the defending champions of the tournament. Sacramento State’s Margaux Sheehan earned individual medalist honors one year ago by shooting a one-over par 217 and returns to defend her title this season.
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.
FIELD: A field of 19 teams will take to the Salt Creek Golf Club. Denver appears to be the favorite as the Pioneers enter the tournament No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, while BYU is 14th. The Irish are No. 62 in the rankings. Rounding out the field will be Cal Poly, CSU Northridge, CSU San Marcos, Fresno State, McLennan CC, Montana, North Texas, Northern Arizona, Portland, Portland State, Sacramento State, San Diego State, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Xavier and Wyoming.
Notre Dame has faced, and topped, three of the teams already this season. The Irish have bested North Texas, Xavier and Wyoming.
NOTRE DAME LINEUP: Sophomore Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Collegiate Parkside Institute) will be playing from the No. 1 spot in the lineup for the first time in her Fighting Irish career. She carries a team-best stroke average of 75.89 in nine rounds. Senior co-captain Noriko Nakazaki (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates) will tee it up from the No. 2 position. She is second on the team with a 76.11 stroke average and is the only Irish player to have all nine rounds count towards the team score this season.
Junior Jane Lee (Atlanta, Ga./Peninsula (Calif.)) is No. 3 in the Notre Dame lineup and will look to improve on her 78.83 average. Her 77.91 career stroke average is second to Nakazaki on the Irish roster. Two freshmen will complete the Notre Dame scoring lineup as Kristin Wetzel (Middletown, N.Y./Hilton Head Prep School) will play from the No. 4 position and Annie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) tees it up from the fifth spot. Brophy is third on the team with a 78.22 average and Wetzel carries a 79.11 average, while they both have had seven of their nine rounds count towards the team’s score.
Senior Stacy Brown (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands) will be playing as an individual entrant in the tournament. She has an 82.67 average this season in three tournaments. As a team, Notre Dame has a 306.89 scoring average in nine rounds of play over the course of three tournaments. This will be the Irish’s first 36-hole tournament of the season.
LAST TIME OUT: Notre Dame collected its second straight second-place finish by firing a three-round total of 931 (316-309-306) at the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational in Lawrence, Kan. on Oct. 2 and 3. Maunu collected the first team-leading effort of her Fighting Irish career by firing a 13-over par three-round total of 229 (79-75-75) to tie for 6th out of the 88-golfer field, which was the best finish of her collegiate career.
Nakazaki (81-80-74) and Lee (76-78-81) both finished in a tie for 19th with identical 235 (+19) totals. Brophy registered a 240 (81-83-76) to place in a tie for 34th, while her classmate Wetzel shot a 241 (80-76-85) to finish in 38th-place. Brown, who was playing as an individual entrant, carded a 258 (87-87-84) and placed 75th overall.
IRISH THOUGHTS: Notre Dame head coach Susan Holt discusses her team at this point of the season …
Susan Holt – head coach …
“We need to start playing better. Our stroke average right now is 306 and our goal is 300 for the year. We obviously need to start chipping away at that. The more rounds we get into the year without maintaining that stroke average, we aren’t going to get where we want to be. Quite honestly, a 306 stroke average is going to make it tough for postseason play.”
“We’ve had some good individual efforts, but we just haven’t had that day where it’s all clicked. We need to have less of a gap between our No. 1 score and our No. 5 score. I feel we have people on our team that are all capable of being No. 1 and they all need to strive to be No. 1 and if they can do that, all of the scores will come together.”
“A key is for them is to start gaining confidence in their short game. It’s one thing to practice with 10 balls, where you don’t get penalized for a bad shot. It’s now important to take that confidence out to the course where you only get one chance to get it right. We’re not quite there yet.”
RESULTS: Results from each day’s action of the TaylorMade Aztec Fall Classic can be found at goaztecs.com.
NEXT UP: The Irish will conclude the 2006 fall season with a trip to the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, S.C. The tournament will take place Oct. 30-31 at the Oak Point Golf Club.