No. 23 Cats Take On Elite Field at the Televised Darius Rucker Intercollegiate
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – The No. 23 University of Kentucky women’s golf team will participate in another esteemed tournament this week, competing at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Long Cove Golf Club (par 71, 6,220 yards) in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, from Feb. 27 – March 1. The event will be broadcast on GOLF Channel for the second straight year, Monday through Wednesday from 2:30-5:30 p.m. ET.
Seventeen teams makeup the elite field, which features 12 teams ranked in the Golfstat Top 25 and six teams ranked in the top 10. Those programs include Alabama, No. 12 Arizona State, Arkansas, No. 15 Auburn, No. 9 Baylor, Duke, Furman, Georgia, No. 23 Kentucky, No. 6 LSU, No. 19 Northwestern, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 South Carolina, No. 8 Texas, No. 20 Vanderbilt, No. 13 Virginia, No. 2 Wake Forest and Howard.
Kentucky has a 9-10 record against the field this season, while it has not yet faced Arizona State, Arkansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Howard.
The Wildcats are in the midst of a record-setting season, with two tournament titles, one medalist honor, and two of the three best team scorecards in school history. The Cats are also boasting a 286.5 scoring average per round, which is three strokes lower than the best scoring average in program laurels (289.53, 2019-20). Two Cats are also hunting down the individual scoring average record, with Jensen Castle pacing the team on a 70.4 scoring average (15 rounds / 1,507 strokes) and Laney Frye narrowly trailing with a 70.5 scoring average (18 rounds / 1,269 strokes).
Big week ahead for these 23rd-ranked Cats. ⚒️😼#KWG pic.twitter.com/IH4NkIhfN7
— Kentucky Women’s Golf (@KentuckyWGolf) February 27, 2023
Kentucky has had a veteran lineup all season to help earn those highlights.
Castle, a senior from West Columbia, South Carolina, is at the top of the lineup this week, with Frye, a junior from Lexington, Kentucky, listed right behind her. Graduate Ivy Shepherd, senior Marissa Wenzler and senior María Villanueva Aperribay complete the fivesome.
Kentucky has used that pairing in five of six tournaments in 2022-23.
UK competed at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate just last season, finishing in 11th place out of 16 teams on a 24-over-par 886. Frye, a then-sophomore, came in a tie for 16th place on the individual leaderboard, after overcoming a first-round 81 with a second-round 69 and a final-round 68.
If Frye is able to revisit her success from the tournament just a season ago and record at least one round of par-or-better this week, she will break her own school record for rounds of par-or-better in a single season. It’s a school record that she set just last season at 14.
Kentucky will tee off in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate on Monday beginning at 9:20 a.m. ET, paired with Arizona State and Duke. The Wildcats can expect mostly sunny skies all three days of the tournament, with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 70s.
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.
