UK Women’s Golf Begins Busy Stretch at Florida Gators Invitational
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Kentucky women’s golf team resumes its spring season on Sunday at the Florida Gators Invitational Presented by VyStar for the first of three rounds at Mark Bostick Golf Couse in Gainesville, Florida.
The tournament will begin UK’s busiest stretch of the 2020-21 year, with four tournaments over the next seven weeks.
“We are looking forward to competing again this weekend in Gainesville,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “This team is highly motivated and have had some very focused and disciplined practices over the last week. We are continuing our focus of hitting more greens and converting more of our opportunities on par 5s. If we stay true to that and stick to our process, then I know good things will come for this team.”
The three-day, 54-hole tournament begins Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and will feature 14 teams, including eight in the Golfstat top 25. Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament at Golfstat.com.
UK will take on a difficult field with sophomores Jensen Castle and María Villanueva Aperribay, freshman Laney Frye, senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen, and sophomore Marissa Wenzler, which reflects the order of finish at Kentucky’s last tournament, the UCF Challenge, three weeks ago.
It will mark the third straight tournament UK has used a combination of those five Wildcats. Four of the five – all but Villanueva Aperribay – have played in every tournament in the 2020-21 season.
UK is coming off its best showing of the season at the UCF Challenge. The Wildcats opened their spring slate with a seventh-place finish in a 17-team team field in Orlando, Florida. Thanks to its two lowest 18-hole rounds of the season, Kentucky posted a 14-over-par 878, a season best.
The Wildcats got off to a great start to the spring despite difficult conditions on the final two days of the tournament. The UK players overcame gusty conditions with Castle and Villanueva Aperribay tying for 19th place.
Kentucky will try to ride that momentum into the heart of the 2020-21 schedule. UK will remain on the road after the conclusion of the Florida Gators Invitational and return to action the following week (March 1-3) at the Gamecock Intercollegiate.
All of UK’s next four tournaments will be hosted by Southeastern Conference opponents, following COVID-19 safety guidance by the conference to only play in tournaments hosted by other league schools or that have similar testing protocols.
The Florida Gators Invitational is nearly 50 years old, but this will mark Kentucky’s first appearance in the event since 2012. The Mark Bostick Golf Course, a Donald Ross design, will play at 6,002 yards, a par 70.
Castle is coming off her best finish of the season with one of her best scores. With rounds of 72, 74 and 73, the sophomore finished at 3-over par – one off her season best – and placed in the top 20 at the UCF Challenge for the first time this season after doing it five times in six events in 2019-20 when she set the school’s single-season stroke average record.
Villanueva Aperribay will be making her third appearance in Kentucky blue after transferring from Augusta. She has made the immediate the impact the coaching staff hoped she would after tying for 19th at the UFC Challenge at 3-over par. She fired a career-low 69 in the second round.
Frye has been UK’s most consistent performer to this point. She leads the Wildcats in scoring average at 74.0 and owns Kentucky’s only top-10 finish of the season, a sixth-place showing at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational. Frye has shown the consistency not seen in many freshmen with all four 54-hole totals at 223 or lower.
Svejgård Nielsen remains UK’s most experienced and veteran presence in the lineup with plenty of talent to be a difference maker. The upcoming appearance at Florida will mark her 21st collegiate event. She has posted four top-10 showings and seven top-20 finishes in those events.
Wenzler rounds out the lineup this week for Kentucky. She tied for 70th at the UCF Challenge but the final showing was a bit misleading. She opened the tournament with a 1-under-par 71 and followed with a 73 to remain near the top of the leaderboard but ultimately undone but an uncharacteristic 85 in the third round.
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.
