UK Women’s Golf Opens Season at Blessings Collegiate Invitational
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Nearly seven months ago, the Kentucky women’s golf team walked off its practice round at Longbow Country Club in Arizona unsure of what the immediate future had in store.
Like everyone else across the country when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there was an initial feeling of devastation. Uncertainty followed and anxiety quickly ensued.
The Wildcats knew there were more important issues going on nationwide, but it was a bitter and sudden end for a team that was in the middle of a breakthrough season, having already won two championships while moving into the top 25 of most of the major rankings.
Fast forward to this week and there is hope. Even as the pandemic endures, the Wildcats will begin a modified fall season on Monday at the inaugural Blessings Collegiate Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Wildcats – represented by senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen, sophomores Jensen Castle and Marissa Wenzler, freshman Laney Frye, and senior Casey Ott – will play in the mixed men’s and women’s three-day, 54-hole nationally televised (the Golf Channel) tournament in the first of three conference-based events this fall.
“I don’t think I can put into words just how thankful we all are to be able to get back to competing,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “These last several months have been challenging for all of us. It’s tough when there are so many unknowns, so many things that change from day to day, and to now be in a spot where we get the opportunity to tee it up with the rest of our conference, it’s just a great feeling.
“We are grateful for the patience, steadiness and determination of our leadership, both from a campus level and from our conference to allow us this opportunity to compete.”
After careful consideration from health officials, the Southeastern Conference deemed it safe for league membership to participate in three team events in the fall. Competition could take place no earlier than Oct. 1 and teams are limited to events involving only SEC members or nonconference teams from the tournament host’s geographic region. The Wildcats will take advantage and play in all three allowable events, beginning this week at the Blessings Golf Club.
With a course rating of 80.9 and a slope of 155 off the longest tees, the Blessings, the site of the 2019 NCAA Championships, is considered one of the toughest tests in golf. The Robert Trent Jones layout will play at 6,171 yards for the women, a par 72.
Play will begin Monday at 9:58 a.m. ET with the Wildcats slated to tee off No. 10 at 10:35 a.m. ET. The Kentucky men will tee off No. 1 at 12:04 p.m. ET. To adhere to safety guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and limit contact with other teams, players will play exclusively with their own teammates. Tee times have been separated by 14 minutes to accommodate for the groups of five.
Team champions will be crowned for the men and the women as well as an individual male champion, an individual woman champion and an overall program champion for the 54-hole tournament.
All three rounds of the BCI, hosted by Arkansas, will be televised live on the Golf Channel with four hours of daily coverage from 3:30-7:30 p.m. ET. Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament at GolfStat.com.
“Our team is ready,” Borst said. “The girls have been preparing since our season ended back in March and they are just excited to get on the road and compete. This tournament will be a great kick off to our fall season and it will look quite different than most events. We will stay in our bubble and do the things we know we need to do to play at our best.”
The core of the 2019-20 team’s success that set a new team scoring record will start things off in 2020-21 with Svejgård Nielsen, Castle, Wenzler, Frye and Ott. With the exception of Frye, who will be playing in her first college event, the Wildcats will bring more than 120 rounds of college experience to the course on Monday.
Svejgård Nielsen will be among the most experienced of the bunch. Playing in all six team events in the shortened season in 2019-20, the senior averaged 73.6 strokes per round, among the best marks in single-season school history. She notched a career-best two top-10 showings to go along with three top-20 finishes. Svejgård Nielsen was second on the team with eight rounds of par or better, UK used her score in 14 of 17 rounds, and she is the only player on the roster with an individual championship, having won the MSU Greenbrier Invitational in 2018.
Castle and Wenzler, the then-freshman sparks that ignited Kentucky to a big season in 2019-20, are back for year No. 2 and poised to be among the conference’s best players.
In her first season of college golf, Castle put together one of the best years in UK women’s golf history. While setting the school’s new single-season stroke average record with a 71.88 mark, she made the All-SEC First Team, the Wildcats’ first All-SEC First Team pick since Cindy Mueller in 1989. Castle placed in the top 20 in a team-high five of six team events, including two top-10 showings. Eleven of Castle’s 17 rounds were par or better, the best mark on the team and the third-best mark in single-season school history despite the shortened schedule.
Wenzler was just as good in her first campaign. The Centerville, Ohio native played in a team-high-tying six events and posted a 73.18 stroke average, the third-best single-season mark in school history. She was among the team leaders with three top-20 finishes and a top-10 showing, and the team used her score in 15 of 17 rounds, tied with Castle for the team high. Wenzler enjoyed a sensational summer as well, winning two championships to go along with two runner-up finishes. She and Castle also played in the prestigious U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
Marking a sign of the depth and talent on this season’s roster, Frye beat out several talented veterans to qualify for her first collegiate tournament. It shouldn’t come as a surprise with her high school credentials. Frye was considered the top golfer out of Kentucky in the class of 2020 after winning the 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association state championship with a runner-up finish in 2019. She was the anchor behind back-to-back team state championships for Lexington Christian Academy in 2018 and 2019 and was a two-time Kentucky Miss Golf winner.
Ott has the ability to go as low as anyone. The junior led UK last season with a career-high-tying three top-10 finishes to go along with a career-high four top-20 showings. She was the Wildcats’ most improved player in 2019-20, having shaved off 2.2 strokes on her previous season’s stroke average. The 73.8 strokes per round ranked among the best single-season marks in school history. Ott recorded both the 18-hole (66) and 54-hole (213) low scores on the team last season.
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.
