April 27, 2015
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky women’s golf team is headed back NCAA Regionals for the fifth consecutive season under head coach Golda Johansson Borst. The Wildcats were part of the 72-team NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship field announced Monday evening on the Golf Channel.
UK will participate in the South Bend Regional at the Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Ind., May 7-9. Kentucky made the tournament for the 20th time in program history and for the fifth straight year, the most in school history.
“I am beyond excited that we made it to the Notre Dame Regional,” Borst said. “All our team wanted was to have a chance to finish strong this season at the NCAA Tournament. Even though it’s been a challenging year, the team found a way and we now find ourselves playing in the NCAA Tournament. We can’t wait to get back on the road to continue to find a way to the national championship.”
UK is the only Southeastern Conference team in the 18-team South Bend Regional, but 11 SEC teams made the NCAA Championship field overall, a sign of the league’s strength. The South Bend Regional boasts eight conference champions in Arizona, UC-Davis, Pepperdine, Kent State, Harvard, Troy, Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State.
The NCAA Championship is made up of 29 automatic qualifiers and 43 at-large bids. With a strong close to the season, especially on the final two days of the SEC Championship, the Wildcats snagged one of the automatic bids.
Kentucky is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Bryan National Collegiate and an 11th-place finish at the 2015 SEC Championship. Junior Cylia Damerau carded her best 54-hole score of the year in Birmingham, Ala., with a 218 and finished the SEC Championship in a tie for 12th place, her first top-20 finish of the year and the best of the 2014-15 season. Sophomore Haley Mills owns a team-best 74.0 stroke average with a team-high nine even- or under-par rounds and six top-20 finishes. Junior Sarah Harris has two top-20 finishes. As a team, the Wildcats have four top-10 finishes on the season.
The NCAA Women’s Golf Championship is made up of four regionals — a change from the previous three-regional format — that consist of 18 teams and six individuals each. The three other 2015 regional sites include the St. George Regional at Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club in St. Georgia, Utah, the San Antonio Regional at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas, and the Raleigh Regional at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C.
The four regional sites are preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championship. Six teams and three individuals from each regional will advance to the championship’s finals, to be held May 22-27 at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.
In UK’s previous NCAA Regional experience under Borst, the Wildcats placed 19th at the 2014 East Regional, 12th in the 2013 East Regional, 17th at the 2012 Central Regional and 20th in the 2011 East Regional.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow @UKWomensGolf on Twitter and on the web at UKathletics.com.
Teams
1. Arizona
2. Duke
3. Oklahoma State
4. Wake Forest
5. UC-Davis
6. Pepperdine
7. Tulane
8. Notre Dame
9. Purdue
10. Kent State
11. Louisville
12. San Jose State
13. North Carolina
14. Kentucky
15. Harvard
16. Troy
17. Eastern Kentucky
18. Youngstown State
2015 NCAA Championship — South Bend Regional
South Bend, Ind.
May 7-9
Warren Golf Course
