UK Women’s Golf Wraps up Regular Season at Clemson Invitational
SUNSET, S.C. – The Kentucky women’s golf team will take a veteran lineup to Sunset, South Carolina, this week for the fourth annual Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee.
Junior Sarah Shipley, seniors Leonie Bettel and Claire Carlin, sophomore Rikke Svejgård Nielsen, and junior Josephine Chang will head to the Reserve at Lake Keowee for the final regular-season tournament of the season.
Play will begin Sunday and continue through Tuesday with 18 holes set for each day. Live scoring will be available at GolfStat.com.
The tournament will conclude a regular-season slate that’s included nine team tournaments, two individual tournament showings and a dual match. After the Clemson Invitational, UK will turn its focus on the postseason and the Southeastern Conference Championship, which will take place April 17-21 in Birmingham, Alabama.
But first up is UK’s first appearance in the Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee, which will feature arguably the toughest field Kentucky has seen all season. An 18-team field stocked full of Southeastern Conference, Big 10 and Atlantic Coast Conference schools features 10 teams in the top 50 of Golfstat’s latest rankings, including five teams in the top 25 and two in the top 10.
The challenge also presents an opportunity for the Wildcats as they make a final push towards at-large berth in the NCAA regionals field, which would be UK’s seventh selection in the nine-season Golda Borst era. UK checks in at No. 63 in the latest rankings, which on the border of past seasons’ at-large selections.
“We are looking forward to getting back on the course this week for the Clemson Invitational,” said assistant coach Brian May, who is filling in this week for Borst. “We have had a good, focused week of practice and the girls are eager to tee it up again in competition. This is a new golf course for us this week but we have a pretty veteran lineup and hopefully our experience will play in to our favor.”
The Wildcats will look to make their final push with their most veteran lineup of the season. Four of the five Kentucky players in action are juniors or seniors. The lone sophomore, Svejgård Nielsen, has appeared in eight events this season with a championship at the MSU Greenbrier Invitational on her résumé.
Shipley will headline the lineup for the Wildcats after finishing in a tie for 33rd a week ago at the Bryan National Collegiate. Shipley, as she did a season ago, is playing her best golf down the stretch. She owns the team’s second-best stroke average in the spring at 75.3.
Of course, the best average in the spring and this season belongs to Bettel, a three-time champion. She finished outside the top 20 last week for just the second time in eight tournaments this season. She’ll try to return to familiar territory as she winds down what has been one of the best single seasons in school history.
With a 72.5 stroke average, she’s still on pace to beat Isabelle Johansson’s single-season school record of 73.4 set during the 2016-17 season.
Carlin is also entering the final stages of her Kentucky career. She tied for 67th at the Bryan with her 74 in the first round tying for the second-best round of the weekend in Browns Summit, North Carolina.
Svejgård Nielsen is behind only Bettel with four top-20 showings. She recently tied for 20th at the Clover Cup last month.
Chang will be competing for the team score in a tournament for the first time since the Trinity Forest Invitational in the fall. The junior from Rancho Cucamonga, California, played her way into the lineup with her brilliant individual play last weekend at the Colonel Classic.
While the team was competing at the Bryan, Chang was in Richmond, Kentucky, and took home silver medalist honors, her best career finish. Chang recorded her 54-hole career best with an even-par 216 and took the second-round lead with a 5-under-par 67.
Kentucky’s appearance in the Clemson Invitational will mark its first.
The course will play as a par 72 at 6,250 yards. The course winds through and around the emerald waters of Lake Keowee with the soaring views of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
