UK Women’s Golf Announces Strong 2015-16 Schedule

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coming off a school-record fifth straight NCAA
regional performance, the Kentucky women’s golf team has unveiled an exciting
2015-16 schedule that head coach Golda Johansson Borst is confident will
provide the necessary tests to prepare her team for another postseason run this
season.

“I am really excited about our tournament schedule this year,” Borst
said. “We always strive to play in the best events in the country, and I
believe we accomplished that goal this year. We’ve got a nice balance of
tournaments that will test our girls and prepare them for another great
season.”

In a changeup from recent years, the Wildcats will head north to start
the season on Sept. 14-15 at the Minnesota Invitational, hosted by the
University of Minnesota. It will mark the program’s first appearance at the Minnesota
Invitational in school history.

The Wildcats will waste no time for a break when they play in the
Mercedes-Benz Championship the following week, Sept. 21-22, in Knoxville, Tenn.
UK last played in Tennessee’s annual tournament in 2011.

Both the Minnesota Invitational and the Mercedes-Benz Championship will
feature 36 holes of competition on day one, followed by 18 holes on the second
day.

On Oct. 9-11, Kentucky will return to the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel
Invitational for the first time since the 2012-13 season.  Annually one of the best tournaments of the
fall season, last year’s Tar Heel Invitational featured 12 teams ranked in the
top 25, as well as 16 ranked in the top 40.

The Wildcats will end the fall portion of their schedule Oct. 23-25 with
an equally challenging task at the Landfall Tradition, hosted by UNC
Wilmington. Like the Tar Heel Invitational, the Landfall Tradition is
consistently one of the top stops of the fall, as 15 of the 18-team field from
last season made NCAA regionals.

“We start off strong in the fall with four good events, but our two
toughest events will be the two in North Carolina,” Borst said. “UNC and UNC
Wilmington host two of the best tournaments in the fall, and we are looking
forward to playing against other strong teams there. The UNCW event will be a
new tournament for our team and they play this tournament at a championship
golf course at the Country Club of Landfall Dye Course. It should be a really
good event for us to finish up our fall season.”

The Wildcats will resume in the spring with a one-day matchup
vs. Louisville on Jan. 31 in the Battle of the Bluegrass. Last year marked the
inaugural Battle of the Bluegrass. A location for the 2016 version is still to
be determined.

For the third straight season, Kentucky will return to the
Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., for the UCF Challenge. This season’s
version will be played Feb. 7-9.

After a month-long break, the Wildcats will make an
appearance in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate for a second straight season on March 4-6. Held at the beautiful but difficult Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C.,, not a single team in the field last year shot below par.

Hoping to replicate the strong late-season run of 2015, the
Wildcats will cap the year with the same two tournaments of a season ago before
postseason play begins. First will be the LSU Tiger Classic at LSU’s University
Club, March 20-22, followed by the Bryan National Collegiate at the Bryan Park
Golf Course, April 1-3. Not a single team shot under par at last season’s Bryan
National Collegiate, though UK played well at the Champions Course, finishing
in sixth place, the best of the spring season.

“We are excited about going back to the Bryan,” Borst said. “That
was one of my favorite courses as a player, and the team really enjoyed that
event this past spring. This tournament will again give us an opportunity to
play against the best teams in the country as we prepare for the SEC
Championship and the NCAA Tournament, so it is a great fit for our schedule.”

Postseason play begins April 15-17 at the SEC Championship in
Birmingham, Ala. As always, the SEC Championship is expected to be one of the
top conference tournaments of the season, as 11 of the league’s teams made NCAA
regionals last year.

Should the Wildcats make a school-record sixth straight NCAA
regional appearance – which started in Borst’s first season at the helm – they
will head to one of four regional sites on May 5-7: Palo Alto, Calif.; Baton
Rouge, La.; Bryan, Texas; or Shoal Creek, Ala.

This year’s NCAA Championships will be held out west at the
Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore. Rising sophomore Isabelle Johansson
qualified for the 2015 NCAA Championship, the first Wildcat to qualify for the
NCAA Championships since Heather Kraus in 1998.

“Our team will be familiar with a lot of these tournaments in
the spring as we are going back to UCF, LSU and the Bryan,” Borst said. “LSU is
one of the host sites for NCAA regionals, so the more we can play that golf
course the better in case we get sent there for the regional play.”

Kentucky is coming off another NCAA regional season, its
fifth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats came within mere
shots of securing the program’s first NCAA Championships berth since 1992,
finishing in seventh place at the South Bend Regional. It was the best
postseason finish of the Borst era.

Borst will return all but one player from a season ago,
including Johansson, seniors Sarah Harris and Cylia Damerau, and sophomore
Grace Rose.

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.