Kentucky Women’s Golf Unveils Challenging 2020-21 Schedule
UPDATE: The Southeastern Conference has established new start dates and formats for the SEC cross country, soccer and volleyball seasons as well as the fall golf and tennis seasons, as the 14 members of the SEC continue to monitor developments related to COVID-19. UK women’s golf will be permitted to begin play Oct. 1 with three fall tournaments. An updated schedule will be released soon.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Arguably the most talented, deepest and most experienced team in Kentucky women’s golf history will take on a difficult 2020-21 schedule that’s filled with familiar stops and some of the nation’s best competition.
UK will play in eight regular-season events this upcoming season before the Southeastern Conference Championship and NCAA postseason play.
Entering her 11th season at Kentucky, head coach Golda Borst assembled what she felt was the ultimate test for a team that has grand goals in 2020-21. The Wildcats will return nine of 10 players from the record-setting 2019-20 team – plus two newcomers – that won two team championships, set a new team scoring record and posted 10 top-10 individual finishes before the COVID-19 pandemic ended a breakthrough season.
“This year’s schedule will definitely be one of the strongest we have put together in the last couple of years and we are very excited to be competing against the best teams in the country on a consistent basis,” Borst said. “With that, we also have a strong and competitive team coming back to campus and this schedule will be a great test for us as we prepare for our postseason run in the spring. It’s a strong and balanced schedule and we can’t wait to get back on the road and compete.”
This season’s schedule is broken up into four fall stops and four spring tournaments before the postseason begins. It starts Sept. 11-13, just down the road at the U of L Golf Club in Simpsonville, Kentucky, one of four NCAA regional sites this season and a place the Wildcats would love to return to the in spring. It will be UK’s third appearance in Louisville’s annual fall tournament in the last four seasons. The Wildcats placed second in 2019 with top-10 showings from freshmen Jensen Castle and Marissa Wenzler.
Two weeks later, Sept. 25-27, Kentucky will make its first appearance since the fall of 2014 in the stacked field at the Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee. The Wildcats played in the tournament in three straight seasons from 2012 to 2014. Vanderbilt’s tournament draws some of the top teams in the land on an annual basis.
The same can be said for the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational, hosted by North Carolina. That’s where the Wildcats will be Oct. 9-11. UK had its sights set on the title last season, which would have been Kentucky’s third straight championship to start the year. The Wildcats had the 36-hole lead before a rainy and windy final round foiled the historic start to the 2019-20 campaign.
UK will conclude its fall slate Oct. 23-25 at the Landfall Tradition at the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, North Carolina. The tournament is annually one of the top stops of the fall. The field in 2017, Kentucky’s last appearance at the Landfall Tradition, featured 13 teams in Golfstat’s top 50, nine in the top 25 and five in the top 10.
UK will not host the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in the fall for the first time since 2016. The Wildcats had won their home tournament in each of the last two seasons.
Nearly four months will separate the fall and spring competitions. Kentucky will resume action in the Feb. 14-16 at the Moon Golf Invitational. It will be the Wildcats’ second straight appearance at Louisville’s spring tournament at the Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida. UK placed seventh a season ago with two top-20 individual showings.
Perhaps the toughest layout the Wildcats will face all season will be March 5-7 at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. Consistently ranked among the top golf courses in the country, it annually delivers big numbers for teams willing to test its might. Kentucky last appeared in South Carolina’s home tournament in 2016.
The most familiar stop on schedule will be what UK anticipates as the first of two trips to Arizona. (The second, the Wildcats hope, are the NCAA Championships in May in Scottsdale.) The March 12-14 tournament will be a return to the Clover Cup at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa. The Wildcats have enjoyed prior success at Notre Dame’s annual spring tournament with top-five showings in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2018 and back-to-back third-place finishes, including an individual championship for alumnus Leonie Bettel in the last edition of the tournament. UK was in the middle of its practice round at the 2020 Clover Cup when the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Grove Cup, UK’s fourth and final regular-season tournament of the spring, was also a casualty of last season’s abrupt ending. The Wildcats were scheduled to play in the 2020 tournament at Ole Miss Golf Course in Oxford, Mississippi, but UK will get its chance to next spring on April 6-7. Kentucky posted fifth- and seventh-place showings in 2013 and 2014, respectively, in its two previous stops at the previously named Rebel Intercollegiate.
The SEC Championship, slated for April 14-18, returns to the Legacy Course at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Hoover, Alabama. As always, the SEC Championship is expected to be one of the top conference tournaments of the season, as 12 of the league’s teams made the 2018 NCAA Regionals with six moving on to the NCAA Championships.
For the third straight season, the SEC Championship will mirror NCAA Championships format with three rounds of stroke play followed by two days of match play. The top eight teams will advance to match play.
UK will try to return to NCAA Regionals seventh time in 11 seasons under Borst. Regionals will take place May 10-12 at one of the four following sites: Simpsonville (Louisville); Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State); Baton Rouge, Louisiana (LSU); Palo Alto, California (Stanford).
Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale will get another chance to host the NCAA Championships, May 21-26. The course was slated to host the national finals in three straight seasons from 2020 to 2022.
Kentucky will try to build on what was the historic, albeit bittersweet, 2019-20 season. Chief among the highlights: two championships, a new team scoring record, a new individual scoring average by Castle and a top-25 ranking to end the season.
In addition to the school-record marks, this group blazed a new trail for future teams to follow. Of the school’s single-season top 10 scoring averages, five of them – all of whom will return in 2020-21 – belong to players on the 2019-20 team. The Wildcats also posted 10 individual top-10 finishes with 20 top-20 showings.
Nearly all that production will be back this season, plus the additions of freshman Laney Frye, the 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association state champion, and Augusta transfer María Villanueva Aperribay, who posted a 73.6 stroke average in her first season in college.
Kentucky has enjoyed an impressive summer so far with five individual championships (two by Wenzler and one each by Castle, Frye and Janika Rüttimann) and several other top-five showings.
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.
