UK Women’s Golf Set to Host Bettie Lou Evans Invitational
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coming off two individual championships last month, the Kentucky women’s golf team will host the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational this weekend at the University Club of Kentucky.
Twelve teams will compete Friday through Sunday at the U-Club’s Big Blue Course. Now in its 29th year of play and named after longtime UK head coach (1979 to 2001) and former director of operations (2002 to 2018) Bettie Lou Evans, the tournament is being played for the second straight year after a five-season hiatus.
Admission is free and fans are encouraged to attend. Current weather forecasts for this weekend show highs in the lows 80s with only a slight chance for rain Friday night and Saturday morning.
“We’re very excited to be hosting,” Kentucky head coach Golda Borst said. “It’s always fun to have a home tournament. The girls are pumped. We just finished qualifying yesterday and now we can focus ahead on the challenges of this weekend. All of our girls want to be in those five spots competing for Kentucky but fortunately we’ll have all eight competing this weekend. The good news is we had some good golf come out of the competition and hopefully we’ll continue with that this weekend.”
This weekend’s tournament will follow a Friday-Saturday-Sunday format with 18 holes slated for each round, plus a practice round Thursday. Play will begin each day at 9 a.m. ET with a shotgun start slated for Sunday’s finale.
Live scoring will be available throughout the weekend at GolfStat.com.
UK has won the tournament 11 times, the last of which was in 2011, but Grace Rose shared individual medalist honors last season as a senior. Previously known as the Wildcat Fall Invitational before dedicating it to Evans, the tournament has been in existence since 1979. It was played every year until a four-year break from 1998 to 2001. There were also one-year breaks in 2007 and 2010 before a gap from 2012 to 2016.
“Bettie Lou means so much to this program,” Borst said. “She’s been with us from the start. She’s taken this program to new heights. She’s done things in this program that other coaches haven’t, so she’s immensely important. She is Kentucky women’s golf. We continue to honor her with the best way we know how. And she’s still around. She still comes around and watches the girls. She wants to be in it and wants to be helpful and wants nothing else than for our team to be successful. I feel thankful that we’re able to do this for her.”
This year’s field features Akron, Columbia, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Indianapolis, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Toledo, Western Kentucky and, of course, UK.
Notre Dame won the tournament a season ago and Memphis won it in 2006, but Borst is hoping to keep both the team and individual trophies in Lexington year. With the way UK has competed in its opening two tournaments, there’s a great opportunity to do that.
The last time out, in mid-September, senior Leonie Bettel and sophomore Rikke Svejgård Nielsen pulled off history by winning two tournaments on the same day – just minutes apart from one another. Bettel’s record-setting final round at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in Knoxville, Tennessee, propelled her to her first college tournament championship. Just minutes earlier, about 200 miles away in Lexington, Svejgård Nielsen was tapping in for a runaway victory at the Morehead State Greenbrier Invitational.
The duo not only became the first Wildcats to win separate tournaments on the same day, it was the first time Kentucky players have won two tournament championships in the same season since Kate Rogerson won four tournaments by herself in 1987-88. UK won two events in 2016-17, but one of them was a dual match.
With all eight players in action this week for Kentucky – five playing for the team and three competing as individuals – they’ll both look to build off that momentum.
After a competitive week of qualifying, Bettel, freshman Casey Ott, Svejgård Nielsen, and juniors Sarah Shipley and Josephine Chang earned their way into the team lineup. Senior Claire Carlin, sophomore Claire Fite and freshman Ryan Bender will play as individuals.
Just about every Wildcat has formed a strong building block to grow from for the rest of the season.
Bettel, playing the best golf of her career, is off to the best start. Not only did she win the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship, she did so in dominating fashion.
At 5-under par, she came back from a two-shot deficit in the final round to cruise to victory thanks to a final-round 65. That not only tied the now 22-year-old Mercedes-Benz record she set the season earlier, it was just one stroke off from tying the school record. Her 54-hole total of 208 was a career best and followed a top-10 showing in the season-opening Minnesota Invitational.
Svejgård Nielsen’s showing at the MSU Greenbrier Invitational was not only her first career title, it took place in her first college tournament. She won by a staggering 11 shots with two of her first three collegiate rounds in red numbers. Her 215 was the best 54-hole debut by a Wildcat since Haley Mills in the fall of 2013.
Of course, UK has other players who expect to compete for this week’s title.
Shipley tied for 22nd at the Minnesota Invitational and is coming off a strong spring for Kentucky and a strong summer back in her home state of Michigan. Fellow junior Josephine Chang looked like she found her freshman magic when posted eight rounds of par or better with a strong showing at the Minnesota Invitational.
Freshmen Bender and Ott both exhibited their promising potential at the Minnesota Invitational with each posting under-par numbers in the second round of that event.
Fite tied for fifth at the MSU Greenbrier Invitational with a score 229. Both the finish and her score were career bests.
And senior captain Carlin won the Marion Miley Invitational over the summer and had some strong moments at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship.
The Wildcats will hope to capitalize on the home-course advantage. The U-Club, which will play as a par 72 at 5,947 yards, is in magnificent shape despite record rainfall in September.
“The big challenge with this weekend is going to be the greens and the bunkers around them,” Borst said. “The water hazards here do come into play. No. 7 is a tough hole, No. 8 is tough with an island green and No. 12 played tough last year. Again, it’s those water hazards. If the wind picks up at all, that’s going to be hard for these teams. The good thing is we’ve played in the wind a lot out this year. If it’s coming, we know what to do.”
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.
