Senior Katie Allare, a Phoenix, Ariz., native leads her teammates into action this weekend at the 2012 Clover Cup Tournament at the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz.

Irish Women's Golf Set To Host 2012 Clover Cup Tournament

March 15, 2012

Mesa, Ariz. – The Notre Dame women’s golf program, in conjunction with Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz., will play host to the 2012 Notre Dame Clover Cup golf tournament with the 54-hole tournament set to begin on Friday, March 16 at 8:00 a.m. (MT) and run through Sunday, March 18.

The 12-team field will play on the par-72, 6,209-yard Longbow Golf Club located in North Mesa in the inaugural event. This year’s field features teams from around the nation and includes nine teams that are currently ranked in the top 100 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings for the week of March 11.

Included in the field are: Colorado (#15), Texas Tech (#29), Oklahoma (#30), Iowa State (#33), Tulsa (#35), Notre Dame (#58), Michigan (#59), Florida International (#69), Furman (#84), Minnesota (#93), Southern Methodist (#101) and Cincinnati (#126).

The weather forecast for the tournament weekend looks promising: Friday, March 16 (Mostly sunny, highs in the mid 80’s); Saturday, March 16 (partly cloudy, highs in the upper 70’s) and Sunday, March 17 (Chance of thunderstorms, highs in the upper 50’s).

Tee times will be assigned for Friday and Saturday and begin at 8:00 a.m. each morning. Sunday will have an 8:30 a.m. (MT) shotgun start.

Live statistics for the 2012 Clover Cup Tournament will be available each day at Golfstat.com and at the Longbow Golf Club site – www.longbowgolf.com/clovercup. Results and information can also be found at UND.com following each day’s action.

The host course – Longbow Golf Club – often described as the “Essence of Arizona Golf,” – has hosted many prestigious local, regional and national tournaments and is the home of the AJGA Winn Grips Heather Farr Classic and has hosted the 2010 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship, the 2010 and 2011 WAC Women’s Golf Championship, the Golfweek Junior Series National Qualifying, U.S. Amateur qualifying, Gateway Tour events and many others.

The Ken Kavanaugh-designed course is constantly rated highly by leading golf writers and publications and has received numerous honors including being ranked among the Top 100 Resort Courses in the Country by Golfweek in 2009 and the Top 20 Best Public Access Courses in Arizona by Golfweek in 2010. Golf Magazine called the Longbow Golf Club one of the Top 25 Courses in Arizona and Golf Digest gave it Four Stars for Places to Play in 2009 and 2010.

For Notre Dame, this is the third consecutive week of action for the Irish as they opened the spring schedule on March 2-4 at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Hilton Head, S.C., finishing 13th in a rain-shortened tournament and then played last weekend in the LSU Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, La., finishing 10th in a 14-team field.