Women's Golf Preps for Regular Season Finale at Illinois
EUGENE - After a week off from competition, the No. 41 University of Oregon women’s golf team will wrap up its spring regular season this weekend at the Illini Spring Classic.
The two-day, two-round tournament will be held on the par 5,864-yard 72 course at Stone Creek Golf Club in Champaign, Ill., Fri.-Sat., April 14-15. Rounds will start at 8:30 a.m. Central Time both days.
The make-up date will serve as a replacement on the Duck schedule after flight delays forced UO to miss its spring opener, the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 20-21.
This weekend’s 16-team tourney features four teams ranked top-100 ? No. 41 Oregon, No. 56 Michigan, No. 78 Iowa and No. 92 Illinois. The rest of the field is composed of Ball State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Eastern Illinois, Grand Valley State, Illinois Wesleyan, Indiana, Indianapolis, Northern Iowa, Southern Indiana, Truman State and Western Michigan.
This year’s tournament is also the final home event for Illini head coach Paula Smith, as the 28-year mentor and U.S. Golf Coaches Association Hall of Famer will retire after this season.
Overall last year, the host Illini bested the 11-team field on the par 72, 5,842-yard course by 12 shots with a two-round score of 616. Illinois entered the final day tied for the lead after a first round 314, then posted a tourney low 302 second round. UI featured three top-10 finishers, including then-freshman Kristine Cook who won the tournament with a six-over 150 (78-72). Cook carded the tourney low in the final round (72), and edged Ball State’s Carmen Bodine on a tiebreaker based on the best final round score.
The Ducks come off a busy swing in late March and early April that featured six rounds in two tournaments over a seven-day period.
Two weekends ago in the Ping ASU Invitational in Tempe, the then-No. 34 Ducks finished 16th at 931 (307-316-308). Freshman Cathryn Bristow led UO all three days and finished 14th overall at 221 (72-76-73). Other Duck scorers included senior Erin Andrews (45th-tie, 231, 74-76-81), redshirt junior Therese Wenslow (79th, 243, 83-75-85) and senior Michelle Timpani (91st, 249, 81-89-79). Sophomore Victoria Wenslow could not score for the Ducks after she was disqualified for a second-round scorecard discrepancy, and shot an 80 the first day, and 75 final round. Complete tournament statistics are available at the www.golfstatresults.com and www.TheSunDevils.com websites.
Earlier that same week, UO hosted its only home stop of the season, the Oregon Duck Invitational, Mon.-Tue., March 27-28 on the par 72, 6,191-yard Emerald Valley Golf Course in nearby Creswell, Ore.
The Ducks again played without two others players due to injury and still took sixth with a score of 933 (318-306-309). Freshman Cathryn Bristow carded the team’s low score of the second (74) and third rounds (72) to tie for ninth overall at 933. UO also claimed three other top-30 finishers - senior Erin Andrews (21st-tie, 235, 80-77-78), sophomore Victoria Wenslow (24th-tie, 236, 79-76-81) and redshirt junior Therese Wenslow (26th-tie, 237, 80-79-78). Senior Michelle Timpani also played for UO and tied for 47th (245, 79-84-82).
Looking ahead past this weekend, the Pac-10 Championships follows in two weeks, and will be hosted by the University of Arizona at Oro Valley Country Club in Tucson, Ariz., Mon.-Wed., April 24-26. More tournament information will be available at the www.Pac-10.org and www.ArizonaAthletics.com websites.
In this week’s Golf Week rankings, the No. Ducks stood 41st ? their first week outside the top-40 this season. All 10 Pac-10 teams were ranked top 50 nationally for the first time this spring, and their rankings follow: No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Arizona State, No. 6 USC, No. 13 California, No. 19 Arizona, No. 20 Stanford, No. 25 Washington, No. 43 Washington State and No. 49 Oregon State.
In the national individual rankings, Duck freshman Cathryn Bristow (105th, 74.46 rating) climbed 37 spots last week. Junior Kim McCready stood 157th (74.96 rating) last weekend but was unranked this week because she has missed much of the spring season with an injury.
A link to current national women’s golf GolfWeek / Sagarin team and individual rankings is available at the http://www.golfweek.com/college/around_campus/index.php URL address.
UO head coach Shannon Rouillard is in her sixth season at the helm and guided Oregon to 11th place in the 2000 NCAA Championships, and top-12 West Regional finishes in 2001 (ninth), ?04 (eighth-tie) and ’05 (10th). As a player, she was a 1995 Pac-10 honorable mention all-conference honoree for UO and in 1993 took seventh and 29th in the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships, respectively. After her collegiate career, she was a 1999 Women's U.S. Open qualifier after she claimed medalist honors in the Lake Merced (Calif.) qualifying tournament.
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