Sept. 26, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern returns to the course for the third-straight weekend, making the short trip to Madison, Wis., for the 2009 Lady Northern Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 27 and Monday, Sept. 28. Hosted by Wisconsin, the tournament will be held at the University Ridge Golf Course, which will serve as the host for the 2010 Big Ten Championships.
The 54-hole tournament gets underway with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, with competitors playing in threesomes on the par 72, 6,246-yard course. The final 18 holes get underway at 8 a.m. Monday morning. 15 teams are competing in this year's Lady Northern, including all 11 Big Ten schools.
Northwestern, which is ranked 34th in this week's Golfweek Sagarin ratings, meets up with seven schools who boast top-50 rankings, with Michigan State (No. 9), Purdue (No. 12) and Ohio State (No. 13) finding themselves in the top-15. Indiana (No. 32), host Wisconsin (No. 38), Iowa State (No. 45) and Illinois (No. 46) should all provide a challenge as well. College of Charleston, Georgetown, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State and SMU round out the field of 15.
The Wildcats will look to improve upon their 13th-place finish at last year's Lady Northern in West Lafayette, Ind. NU has been impressive in the first two tournaments of the year, finishing fourth at the Mary Fossum Invitational Sept. 13 and seventh at last weekend's Dick McGuire Invitational.
It has been a pair of young golfers that have set the pace for Northwestern this season. Freshman Lauren Weaver (Scottsdale, Ariz./Cactus Shadows), NU's Female Athlete of the Week, is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Dick McGuire Invitational and leads the squad with a 73.33 scoring average. Sophomore Alexandra Lederhausen (Hinsdale, Ill./Central) has been equally impressive with a 73.50 average of her own.
Juniors Innapha Tantanavivat (Bangkok, Thailand/David Leadbetter Academy) and Rebecca Lederhausen (Hinsdale, Ill./Central) and sophomore Kylie Fuller (Temecula, Calif./Chapparal) have all had strong fall starts for the 'Cats and look to continue their strong early season play. Junior Kelsey Lindenschmidt (West Chester, Ohio/Ursuline Academy) will also see her first action this season after finishing 10th at last year's Big Ten Championships.
Live scoring of all 54 holes of the Lady Northern will be available at Golfstat.com.