Busy Summer Week Lies Ahead for Kentucky Women’s Golfers
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A busy week for a number of Kentucky women’s golfers will present several opportunities for the Wildcats to build positive momentum heading into the 2017-18 season.
Six Wildcats are in action over the next few days at major amateur and professional tournaments – not only across the country, but also across the globe.
Senior Isabelle Johansson and junior transfer Leonie Bettel will compete this week in the prestigious European Ladies’ Amateur Championship at the Golf Club de Lausanne in Switzerland. Starting Wednesday, Johansson and Bettel will begin the first or four rounds of stroke play against some of Europe’s top competition.
Both Johansson and Bettel have significant international experience, including at last year’s European Ladies’ Amateur Championship. Johansson tied for 37th last year with a four-round total of 3-over par. Bettel missed the cut in 2016, but this will be her fourth appearance at the tournament, including a 15th-place finish at the 2015 tourney in Austria. Johansson will be representing her home country of Sweden while Bettel will play for Austria.
Sophomore Sarah Shipley has earned an exemption spot at a professional tournament on the Symetra Tour. Shipley will play alongside her sister, Gabrielle Shipley, at the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek Michigan. That tournament, featuring 145 players – most of them professionals – will tee off Friday at the Battle Creek Country Club.
The Symetra Tour is considered one of the most established development tours in the world. Every year, the top 10 Symetra Tour players earn automatic membership to play on the LPGA Tour.
Shipley has already had a busy summer. She teamed up with teammate Josephine Chang in May at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The sophomore duo not only qualified for the tournament by winning a local qualifier, they advanced to the round of 16 before falling in a playoff hole.
Seniors Ale Walker and Grace Rose and incoming freshman Sarah Fite tee off Wednesday at the 19th Golf Capital of Tennessee Women’s Open. The two-round tournament will take place at the Stonehenge Golf Club in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. The field is a mix of amateurs and professionals.
Walker and Rose are coming off strong junior seasons that helped Kentucky advance to the NCAA Columbus Regional. Walker returned from nearly a year-and-a-half absence due to injury and appeared in five tournaments, while Rose posted the second-best stroke average on the team, behind only Johansson. Fite, the 2016 Golf House Kentucky Junior Girls Player of the Year, is one of two talented freshmen expected to bolster an already strong roster for the 2017-18 season.
The other freshman, Claire Cameron, was also in action this week at the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. Although she missed the cut, it was the fifth time she had qualified for the tournament, including a 2015 medalist finish.
Regardless of how this week goes for the Kentucky women’s golfers, 2017-18 – from a roster standpoint – is expected to be a strong season. UK will lose just two seniors from a team that that made it to the postseason, posted four top-five finishes in 10 stroke-play tournaments and won the Battle of the Bluegrass in a dual match vs. Louisville. The Wildcats’ team scoring average of 298.13 in 2016-17, aided by a school-record 277 (11-under par) in the final round of the Ron Moore Women’s Intercollegiate, was the second best in school history.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
