Postseason Play for UK Women’s Golf Begins at SEC Championship
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The postseason is upon the Kentucky women’s golf team this weekend at the Southeastern Conference Championship. A 10-event, seven-month regular season will give way to the annual conference tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, for the league title.
The tournament will tee off Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET with the first of three rounds of stroke play, scheduled for Wednesday through Friday.
For the first time in SEC Championship history, the tournament will feature match play. The top eight teams from the 54-hole, three-day stroke play will advance to the weekend. The quarterfinals and semifinals will take place Saturday with the championship match scheduled for Sunday.
The format reflects the NCAA Championships format.
“We are looking forward to another great championship week here at Greystone,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “The format is a little different this year and I believe it’s one that our team will really enjoy. We have an experienced and motivated group with us and I know that they are itching to compete again on Wednesday. The key for us will be hitting greens in regulation. The golf course is in great shape and the greens are firm and fast. Perfect conditions for a championship. Our goal will be to stay calm, aggressive and confident. If we do that, the results will follow.”
The Wildcats’ first tee time is Wednesday at 10:10 a.m. ET. Live scoring will be available throughout the week at Golfstat.com.
Hoping to further their season, a strong showing at this week’s annual competition at the Greystone Golf & Country Club would go a long way in making NCAA postseason play for the seventh time in Borst’s eight seasons at UK.
Ranked No. 62 by Golfstat heading into this week, Kentucky will likely need to move up a handful of spots to earn an at-large berth when the NCAA regional field is announced next week. The good news is, in a conference as difficult as the SEC, there will be plenty of opportunities to do just that.
Annually in the mix as the nation’s best conference, this year’s SEC Championship features three teams ranked in the top 10, six in the top 25 and 10 in the top 50. If UK can slide past some of those teams and get into match play, the Wildcats like their chances of making some noise on the weekend.
Case in point: last month in match play vs. Kent State. The Golden Flashes were ranked No. 16 in the country and coming off an NCAA Championships appearance, but Kentucky defeated the perennial power 3-2.
The same lineup that defeated Kent State and placed third at last month’s Clover Cup will take on the Legacy Course at Greystone and the SEC field this week with junior Leonie Bettel, seniors Isabelle Johansson and Grace Rose, sophomore Sarah Shipley, and redshirt senior Ale Walker.
Few players are playing better in the league right now than Bettel. She’s posted back-to-back top-10 finishes in tournament play and clinched the match-play victory over Kent State with a clutch putt on the second playoff hole. She leads the Wildcats with four top-10 showings and is tied with Johansson with two top-10 finishes.
Johansson is looking to extend one of the most decorated careers in UK women’s golf history. Already the owner of the second-most rounds of par or better in school history (with complete records dating back to 1987), Johansson is hoping to return to her early spring form when she placed fifth, 21st and 19th in consecutive tournaments in January and February. She’s tied with Bettel with a 74.5 stroke average.
Likewise, UK is hoping Rose can regain the form that saw her tie for first at the Bettie Lou Evan Invitational in the fall and place in the top 15 in consecutive tournaments at the Florida Challenge and the Florida State Match-Up.
Shipley has showed signs of going low recently. She tied for 39th with three consistent rounds at the Florida State Match-Up and tied for ninth at the Clover Cup thanks to a career-low 54-hole score of 219 and a second-round 68.
Walker has actually been UK’s best golfer in terms of stroke average this season with a 74.4 mark. An injury took her out of play for several events midseason, but she’s played in each of the last three events for UK, including a 13th-place showing at the Clover Cup.
The Wildcats boast three top-five tournament finishes overall, plus the match-play win over Kent State. UK has 21 rounds of par or better this season with four team rounds of 290 or less.
The tournament will return to the Greystone Golf & Country Club’s Legacy Course, a par 72 that plays at 6,253 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. Designed by world-famous architect Rees Jones, each hole is an inviting yet demanding contest. The Zoysia fairways and Bent Grass greens found at Legacy provide golfers with surfaces that are both challenging and rewarding.
Kentucky has finished as high as second in the SEC Championship but has never won it. The Wildcats’ highest finish in the Borst era is fifth. UK’s 885 in last year’s tournament was its best 54-hole score in the event’s history.
Florida, the No. 1 team in the country, won the 2017 SEC Championship.
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.
