April 16, 2015
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Playing its best golf of the season and in the mix for another NCAA regional bid, the Kentucky women’s golf team will head to Birmingham, Ala., this week for the Southeastern Conference Championship. The three-day, 54-hole tournament begins Friday at Greystone Golf & Country Club and will conclude on Sunday.
The Wildcats, coming off their best tournament of the spring, are seeking their fifth straight NCAA regional appearance. Currently ranked No. 55 in the country, UK will look to solidify its postseason status against a field that features eight top-20 teams, including four in the top 10 and last year’s SEC champion, No. 17 Vanderbilt.
“This spring has certainly flown by and I can’t believe it’s postseason time,” head coach Golda Johansson Borst said. “I look forward to this week all year as we compete against some of the best teams in the country in the SEC.”
UK is less than two weeks removed from a sixth-place finish at the Bryan National Collegiate, where the Wildcats were in second place on the final day of competition and just a few shots removed from first place. Kentucky finished ahead of six teams ranked in the top 50 in Greensboro, N.C., including then-No. 9 Northwestern.
Sophomore Haley Mills and junior Sarah Harris led UK at the Bryan National Collegiate, finishing in 10th and 14th place, respectively. Mills fired her team-leading ninth even- or under-par round of the season while Harris notched her second top-20 finish of the year.
This year’s tournament will take place at the Legacy Course at the Greystone Golf & Country Club. Playing at par 72, 6,190 yards, the Legacy Course is carved naturally from a visually dramatic landscape of placid lakes, meandering streams and the undulation of Alabama’s Appalachian foothills.
Weather permitting, play will begin Friday with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. ET.
“We are playing at a different course this time and I think it will really suit our team,” Borst said. “The course will play a bit longer due to all the rain they have been getting and I believe that will work in our favor as well. The green complexes are similar to what we saw at the Bryan, so that was a good prep tournament for us.”
Borst will use the lineup of Mills, Harris, junior Cylia Damerau, and freshmen Isabelle Johansson and Grace Rose.
Damerau led the Wildcats to an eighth-place finish at last year’s SEC Championship, shooting a three-over 75 on all three days of the tournament. Mills and Harris also have experience in the annual tournament.
“Overall we had a really solid week of practice,” Borst said. “Everyone has been very focused and worked hard on every part of their game. We have an exciting weekend ahead of us and we will continue to focus on ourselves and the course. Once we do that, it’s just a matter of time before everything comes together.”
Fans can follow along all weekend with live scoring at golfstat.com. The SEC Network will televise highlights from the tournament on April 29 at 10 p.m. ET.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow @UKWomensGolf on Twitter and on the web at UKathletics.com.
Lineup
1. Haley Mills
2. Sarah Harris
3. Cylia Damerau
4. Isabelle Johansson
5. Grace Rose
Greystone Golf & Country Club (Legacy Course)
Birmingham, Ala.
April 17-19
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,190
