Oct. 25, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The No. 19 Notre Dame women’s golf team will take to the par-71, 5,963-yard North River Golf Club in Tuscaloosa, Ala. for the Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate this coming Friday through Sunday (Oct. 26-Oct. 28). This will mark the fifth and final tournament of the fall season for the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame has collected three event titles and one runner-up finish so far this season.
FIELD/FORMAT: A strong 18-team field will tee it up for the 54-hole event. Five of the schools are ranked in the top 25 of the latest Golfstat rankings. Florida headlines the group at No. 5, while Arkansas is sixth and Auburn is the third top-10 team at No. 7. Alabama, the host school for the tournament, is ranked 15th and the Fighting Irish are 19th. LSU lies just outside of the top 25 as the Tigers are No. 26.
Rounding out the field is (rankings in parenthesis): Texas (33), South Carolina (35), Florida State (37), Louisville (38), Kentucky (43), Central Florida (54), Kansas (58), Furman (65), Northwestern (66), Mississippi State (68), Mississippi (85) and Samford (146).
The tournament will feature 54 holes of play, with one round taking place each day. Friday and Saturday’s action gets underway with tee times at 8:00 a.m. (CT) from holes No. 1 and 10, while Sunday’s third and final round begins with a shotgun start at 8:40 a.m. (CT). Each team’s lineup will be comprised of five golfers with the lowest four scores for each round counting towards the overall team score.
NOTRE DAME LINEUP: Freshman So-Hyun Park (Seoul, South Korea/Bradenton Prep (FL)) will take her team-leading 72.75 scoring average and play from the No. 1 position in the Notre Dame lineup. Park has finished in the top seven of all four tournaments this season. She captured a victory at the Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup and was the runner-up at the Cougar Classic. Park possesses a top round of 69 (-3) and a top 54-hole total of 213 (-3) this season.
Fellow freshman Katie Conway (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) will play from the second spot, which is her highest starting position this season. Conway carries a 76.00 scoring average with a top round of 73 (+1). Her best three-round total is 226 (+10). She has finished ninth and 11th, respectively, in the past two events.
Kristin Wetzel (Middletown, N.Y./Hilton Head Prep (SC)), a sophomore, is going to tee it up from the third position in the Notre Dame lineup. Wetzel has a 76.08 scoring average and her top round this season is a career-best one-under par 71. Her best 54-hole total of the campaign is a seven-over par 223, which is also a career-low mark. Wetzel’s top finish this season occurred at the Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup where she tied for 13th.
Junior Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Parkside Collegiate Institute) will start the tournament from the fourth spot in the Irish lineup. Maunu has three top-six finishes this season, including a victory at the Cougar Classic. She carries a 73.67 stroke average, which ranks her second on the squad. Maunu carded a school-record round of 66 (-6) at the Cougar Classic en route to winning with a program-record 54-hole total of 210 (-6).
Annie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) brings a 76.67 stroke average into the final event of the season. The sophomore will play from the fifth position for Notre Dame. Her top round this season is a one-over par 73, while her top three-round mark is a 222 (+6). Brophy’s top finish this season came at the Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup where she tied for 21st.
LAST TIME OUT: Notre Dame fired a 294 during the third and final round of the Lady Paladin Invitational on Sunday, Oct. 21 to finish second at the 18-team tournament with a 910 (311-305-294) total. Park notched her second team-leading effort of the season for the Irish as she finished in a three-way tie for seventh with a nine-over par 225 (80-72-73). TCU captured the team title with an 896 at the par-72, 6,288-yard Furman University Golf Course in Greenville, S.C.
UNC-Wilmington’s Carmen Perez-Narbon took the individual crown as she made up a four-shot deficit on Laura Jansone from East Tennessee State by posting a tournament-best three-under par 69 on Sunday. Perez-Narbon finished with a one-over par 217, while Jansone was second out of the 96-golfer field with a 219.
Notre Dame entered play on the final day tied for fourth, 19 shots in back of TCU. The six-over par total from the Fighting Irish during the third round was the low round of the tournament from any team in the field. Park and her classmate Conway both paced the Irish with one-over par 73 totals during the final round. Conway finished in 11th place with an 11-over par 227 (75-79-73).
Wetzel carded a two-over par 74 on Sunday to finish with a 54-hole total of 230 (81-75-74) and among a three-way tie for 17th for the Fighting Irish. Maunu concluded the event with a 16-over par 232 (75-80-77) and among a four-way tie for 23rd. Maunu shot a five-over par 77 during the final round.
Brophy fired her best round of the tournament, a two-over par 74, on Sunday. The sophomore finished the event tied for 49th with a 237 (84-79-74).
UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS: Notre Dame opened the 2007-08 campaign with wins at the Cougar Classic (Sept. 9-11), Napa River Grill Cardinal Cup (Sept. 17-18) and at the Wolverine Invitational (Sept. 29-30) before registering a runner-up finish at the Lady Paladin Invitational (Oct. 19-21). This season signifies the first time in program history that Notre Dame has ever won three straight tournaments. It also marks just the fourth time in the 20-year history of the program that the Irish have captured three events in a season. Notre Dame won four times during both the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons. The Irish won three tournaments during the 2000-01 campaign.
RESULTS: Live scoring of the Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate is available through Golfstat. To access the site go to http://www.golfstatresults.com. Full results will also be posted at www.RollTide.com.
NEXT UP: Notre Dame will open the spring slate at the Central District Classic in Parrish, Fla. The tournament, which is hosted by Michigan State, will take place Feb. 18 & 19, 2008 at the River Wilderness Country Club.
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