Feb. 18, 2011
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the ninth in an ongoing series on UND.com, spotlighting the 2011 Notre Dame spring sports season with both written and video previews. Today, we take a look at the Fighting Irish women’s golf team, which is looking to reach new heights this season, having already risen to No. 15 in the nation as it opens its spring campaign next week.
The 15th-ranked Notre Dame women’s golf team opens its spring schedule on Monday, Feb. 21, at the Central District Invitational at the River Wilderness Country Club in Parrish, Fla. Michigan State will play host to the two-day tournament. The tournament includes rounds one and two on Monday, followed by the final round on Tuesday. Each day commences with a shotgun start.
The 15-team field includes, Michigan State (18), Ohio State, Texas A&M, Arkansas (13), TCU, Kent State (22), Northwestern, Iowa State (16), Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Baylor and LSU (4). Notre Dame produced a 14-4 record in the fall against the Central District field. The Irish were 3-0 record versus Michigan State and 2-0 against Ohio State.
The Irish lineup at the Central District Invitational features seniors So-Hyun Park (Seoul, South Korea/Bradenton Preparatory Academy) and Katie Conway (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) as well as junior Becca Huffer (Denver, Colo./Littleton) and freshmen Kristina Nhim (Cypress, Calif./Cypress) and Nicole Zhang (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll).
The Irish enter the spring schedule after a bountiful fall season. Notre Dame concluded the season with the highest ranking in program history (17, golfstat.com) and now have climbed two spots to No. 15 according to the Feb. 16th rankings. Individually, Zhang is ranked 20th, making her the No. 1 freshman in the country.
“From the fall season the team needs to continue to play solid golf,” says head coach Susan Holt. “The success we had in the fall has given us a great deal of confidence heading into the spring. The spring schedule is much more challenging than the fall schedule due to the strength (rankings) of the teams we compete against. I think the competitive schedule will get us prepared for the BIG EAST Championship and NCAA’s.”
The Irish closed out the fall season in third place (out of 14 teams) at the Alamo Invitational and were led by Zhang, who placed third and carded a 215 (-1) in the three-round tournament. The freshman finished in the top 10 at four of the five fall tournaments, including a first-place finish in her collegiate debut at the Mary Fossum Invitational, where she carded a nine-under-par 207. Her 54-hole total was the lowest in program history and broke the previous tournament record of 214 (-7).
“While we played well in the fall, we need to do a better job of finishing off good rounds and making them great rounds” says Holt. “Many times in the fall our players were in position to really go low and more times than not we just could not maintain and picked up strokes closing out the round. If we want to get to the next level and be a top-10 team, we need to be able to go low for 18 holes. If we can do this on a more consistent basis we will be competitive with anyone in the country.”
Following the Central District Invitational, the spring schedule continues with two events in March. Notre Dame travels to the University of Hawaii to tee it up at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course on March 14-15 with power programs such as Arizona, Arizona State, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt.
Next on the schedule is the John Kirk/Panther Intercollegiate (March 21-22), which is hosted by Georgia State at Eagle’s Landing Club course. Notre Dame closes out the regular season at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic (Apr.1-3) at the University of Georgia Golf Course. The event will be a solid late-season test for the Irish as they prepare for the league tournament. The 2011 BIG EAST Championship will be held April 17-19 at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla. Notre Dame placed third at the conference championship last season.
“Coming into each year one of our main goals is to win the BIG EAST Championship”, says Holt. “We are in a good position to achieve this goal but we will have to show up and play well. Louisville is a good team and will be ready to play. We played them once in the fall and came out on top. We did have home-course advantage on this occasion. We are playing the same course as we did last year for the BIG EAST Championship. We did not play well and Louisville did. They have the confidence advantage over us from last year but we are a different team than last year (two new players in the line up) and I think come April we will be poised to bring home the BIG EAST Championship.”
The drive towards the BIG EAST Championship begins with the Central District Invitational, which can be followed on golfstat.com. Complete results and a recap will be posted to und.com concluding each day’s play.
— ND —