UK Women’s Golf Closes Fall Season Ranked No. 22 by Golfstat
LEXINGTON, Ky. – One of the best starts in school history for the Kentucky women’s golf team was punctuated this week by ending the fall season with a ranking of No. 22 in the latest Golfstat ratings.
It’s the second straight week UK is ranked in the top 25 after appearing at No. 20 in the initial list release last week. UK is also ranked No. 20 by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and No. 29 by Golfweek
Kentucky’s standing – albeit very early in the season with an entire spring schedule to be played – is significant. Not only is UK in the top 25 for the first time since the 2013-14 season, the NCAA Tournament field generally mirrors the final Golfstat rankings, putting UK in an ideal position when it heads into the heart of its schedule in the next calendar year.
The rankings underscore what’s been a remarkable turnaround for Golda Borst and her team.
After missing the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, the Wildcats not only came back this season with a mission to return to the postseason in the spring, they’ve proven they can compete with the nation’s very best.
They have the results to prove it.
- Back-to-back championships at the Minnesota Invitational and Bettie Lou Evans Invitational
- First multi-win season since 1997-98
- First back-to-back titles in the same season since 1990-91 when UK would go on to win a school record four tournaments
- Runner-up finish at the Cardinal Cup
- Final-round lead in all four tournaments
- Nine individual top-10 showings
- 288.55 18-hole average, well ahead of the school record
- 28 rounds of par or better
“I’m immensely proud,” UK head coach Borst said after her team’s latest performance, a second-place finish at Louisville’s home tournament. “I don’t think we’ve had as strong of a fall as we just had. Really proud of their work ethic. They’re buying into everything we’re doing. They want this from within and that makes it really, really neat right now.”
Kentucky has done all this after losing two seniors, including one of the most decorated golfers in school history in Leonie Bettel, the school’s single-season stroke record holder and three-time winner in 2018-19.
Kentucky’s roster has improved from top to bottom, but the injection of talented youth can’t be overlooked. The most decorated signing class in school history – headlined by freshman sensation Jensen Castle, the highest-rated prospect in program history, and Marissa Wenzler, the 2018 Ohio High School Athletic Association state champion – has made a major impact.
Castle, ranked No. 26 in Golfstat’s individual player rankings, leads the team in stroke average (71.3) and top-20 finishes (four) while Wenzler has been solid with four starts and three top-20 showings.
Their presence has forced everyone to step their games up, but veterans like senior Sarah Shipley (two top-20 showings), junior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen (two top-20 finishes) and sophomore Casey Ott (team-high three top-10 finishes and 18- and 54-hole career lows) showed renewed focus this offseason after signs of success in previous seasons.
“Everybody is pushing each other,” Borst said. “With the ending we had last year, the returners have really been pushing each other really hard. They did not want to have a year like we just had. With the freshmen, (assistant coach) Brian May and I have had a lot of conversations with them about what happened last year and what we wanted to do this year.
“It was really a good match (with the newcomers and the returners) because as soon as the freshmen got on campus, the returners took them under their wings, said this is who we are, this is what we want to accomplish and what we want to do at Kentucky at a competitive level, and what we did last year wasn’t good enough and we need everyone moving in the same direction. It’s really been a group effort and it’s a good balance of returners and freshmen egging each other on.”
The competitive culture has resulted in incredible fall numbers. It’s still very early in the season with the majority of the Wildcats’ meaningful schedule still ahead of them – including some of the toughest courses and most difficult opponents UK will face – but six golfers have sub-74.0 stroke averages at this point, all of which would rank among the top five averages in school history if the season ended today. Bettel set a new school record last season with a 73.16, which Castle is ahead of by a couple strokes.
Also falling under the impressive-but-early category, Castle owns eight rounds of par or better. Bettel set the new standard last season with 14.
UK’s current 18-hole team scoring average of 288.55 is well ahead of the 2016-17 record mark of 298.13, but the Wildcats’ spring schedule features some of the toughest in stops in golf. The Lady Puerto Rico Classic (Feb. 9-11), Moon Golf Invitational (Feb. 17-18), Clover Cup (March 13-15), Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic (March 20-22) and Rebel Intercollegiate (April 7-8) will feature a steady dose of some of the best teams in the country and difficult-to-navigate layouts. Those, of course, are in addition to the Southeastern Conference Championship at the Greystone Golf & Country Club’s Legacy Course in Birmingham, Alabama, an incredibly tough track.
For now, UK will turn its attention on practice and building on the successful start until resuming the season in early February in Puerto Rico.
The Wildcats are proud of their early success but are very much aware the bulk of the season is out in front of them.
“The girls are going to compete over the break,” Borst said. “We’ve really encouraged them to compete in tournaments as amateurs over the break. Most of them are going to do that, so it won’t be as long of a break (as the schedule indicates). … That’s’ really going to help. We’ve just got to make sure they’re in the right mindset coming into the spring. I think this group, every tournament they’re going to want to go win it, so I’m not worried about where they’re going to be. We’ve just got to tighten up some things with our game to get them to the right spot.
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.
