No. 5 UF Women's Golf Faces Possible NCAA Regional Preview At Betsy Rawls Invite
Sunday, March 16, 2008 | Women's Golf
The fifth-ranked University of Florida women's golf team makes its fourth stop of the spring season as the Lady Gators compete at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, March 17-19, at The University of Texas Golf Club.
The three-day event features 18 holes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tee times get underway at 9:15 a.m. ET. Live tournament scoring is available through www.Golfstat.com.
Three of the 17 teams in the field are ranked in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index Top 25, including No. 5 Florida, No. 9 Arkansas and No. 23 New Mexico. Most of the participating squads come from the Big 12 Conference. Host Texas is joined by Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
UF head coach Jill Briles-Hinton said the Lady Gators will use the tournament as a possible preview of an NCAA Regional. The University of Texas Golf Club, which plays to a par-72 6,344 yards, is one of three host sites for NCAA postseason play next May.
“There are a lot of Central region teams here,” Briles-Hinton said. “Everyone will be getting used to the golf course kind of like a preview for NCAA Regionals, but we will go wherever they send us.”
The quick turnaround comes after UF posted fourth-place showing at the UCF Challenge last Tuesday. The Lady Gators finished at 1-over 865 behind a final-round 289. Freshmen Hannah Yun (Bradenton, Fla.) and Jessica Yadloczky (Casselberry, Fla.) each tied for 14th place with identical scores of 216.
“They had some time off,” Briles-Hinton said. “They put in the time and rest they needed to be successful this week. There is something different about this group. I trust they will do whatever it takes to be successful.”
Briles-Hinton will go with her usual lineup of Yun, Yadloczky, senior Tiffany Chudy (Miramar, Fla.), senior Whitney Myers (East Berlin, Pa.) and junior Ornella Jouven (La Ciotat, France).
Myers, who leads the squad in scoring average at 72.76, is the No. 14 ranked player in the nation according to the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Individual Performance Index. Yadloczky is second on the team in scoring average at 72.90, and she is tabbed the 23rd best player in the nation by Golfweek.
UF is the only school in the Southeastern Conference to have two players in the individual scoring average top five with Myers and Yadloczky ranking third and fourth, respectively.
