ATHENS, Ga. – No. 4 Northwestern women's golf returns to the course on Friday at the 2016 Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, hosted by the University of Georgia.
This year's loaded field includes the No. 1 (Duke), No. 2 (Southern Cal), No. 3 (UCLA), No. 4 (Northwestern), No. 5 (Alabama), No. 6 (Georgia), No. 7 (Arkansas) and No. 14 (Kent State) teams in this week's Golfweek NCAA Women's Rankings. Purdue, Auburn, Oregon State and Denver round out the 12-team leaderboard, which features six teams that have combined to win 13 of the past 16 NCAA Championships.
LIVE RESULTS – 2016 Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic
Wildcats head coach Emily Fletcher has slated a lineup of sophomore Hannah Kim, the No. 1 golfer in the current Golfstat women's college rankings, freshman Stephanie Lau, junior Kacie Komoto, sophomore Sarah Cho and senior Suchaya Tangkamolprasert. The Wildcats will be paired with Duke in Friday's opening round.
Kim was honored as the Big Ten Golfer of the Week following a record-setting performance at Northwestern's last competition, the 2016 Hurricane Invitational, which the 'Cats won for the third straight year. Her final round 64 shaved two strokes off the program's previous 18-hole record en route to her first collegiate victory. Her 199 total was the first sub-200 tournament in Wildcats history, besting the previous 54-hole Northwestern record by seven strokes, a 206 by freshman Stephanie Lau in September.
"Hannah was absolutely dominant," said Fletcher. "She was in complete control of every aspect of her game, every step of the way. She works tirelessly and was poised for a breakthrough win like this, I am not surprised in the least. To do it in record-breaking fashion, I'm just so happy for her."
The University of Georgia Golf Course is a Par-72, 6,307-yards layout, one that Northwestern navigated expertly two years ago in setting a tournament scoring record with an 11-under 277 at the 2014 event.
The Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic is one of the oldest continuous sporting events in all of women's intercollegiate athletics. The tournament began in 1973 as the Georgia Invitational before becoming the Women's Southern Intercollegiate Championship from 1977-94. In 1995 the event was named in honor of Liz Murphey, UGA's Hall of Fame golf coach.
Two years ago the LMCC moved to a combined stroke play/match play format in advance of a similar move by the NCAA Championships. The event begins with 18 holes of stroke play on Friday, with the team scores used to seed two brackets of match play competition on Saturday and Sunday.
This year's loaded field includes the No. 1 (Duke), No. 2 (Southern Cal), No. 3 (UCLA), No. 4 (Northwestern), No. 5 (Alabama), No. 6 (Georgia), No. 7 (Arkansas) and No. 14 (Kent State) teams in this week's Golfweek NCAA Women's Rankings. Purdue, Auburn, Oregon State and Denver round out the 12-team leaderboard, which features six teams that have combined to win 13 of the past 16 NCAA Championships.
LIVE RESULTS – 2016 Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic
Wildcats head coach Emily Fletcher has slated a lineup of sophomore Hannah Kim, the No. 1 golfer in the current Golfstat women's college rankings, freshman Stephanie Lau, junior Kacie Komoto, sophomore Sarah Cho and senior Suchaya Tangkamolprasert. The Wildcats will be paired with Duke in Friday's opening round.
Kim was honored as the Big Ten Golfer of the Week following a record-setting performance at Northwestern's last competition, the 2016 Hurricane Invitational, which the 'Cats won for the third straight year. Her final round 64 shaved two strokes off the program's previous 18-hole record en route to her first collegiate victory. Her 199 total was the first sub-200 tournament in Wildcats history, besting the previous 54-hole Northwestern record by seven strokes, a 206 by freshman Stephanie Lau in September.
"Hannah was absolutely dominant," said Fletcher. "She was in complete control of every aspect of her game, every step of the way. She works tirelessly and was poised for a breakthrough win like this, I am not surprised in the least. To do it in record-breaking fashion, I'm just so happy for her."
The University of Georgia Golf Course is a Par-72, 6,307-yards layout, one that Northwestern navigated expertly two years ago in setting a tournament scoring record with an 11-under 277 at the 2014 event.
The Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic is one of the oldest continuous sporting events in all of women's intercollegiate athletics. The tournament began in 1973 as the Georgia Invitational before becoming the Women's Southern Intercollegiate Championship from 1977-94. In 1995 the event was named in honor of Liz Murphey, UGA's Hall of Fame golf coach.
Two years ago the LMCC moved to a combined stroke play/match play format in advance of a similar move by the NCAA Championships. The event begins with 18 holes of stroke play on Friday, with the team scores used to seed two brackets of match play competition on Saturday and Sunday.