Kentucky Women’s Golf Prepares for SEC Championship
TAMPA – The University of Kentucky women’s golf team will take on the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championship, this time a 16-team conference field, at The Pelican Golf Club in Tampa, Florida, on April 14-18.
Kentucky will tee off in the first round Monday beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET off No. 10, paired with Alabama, Georgia and Missouri.
The course, also the site of the annual The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at the Pelican, will play as a par 70 at 6,254 yards. This is the second straight season the SEC Championship will be held at the Pelican, while UK turned in one of its best performances at an SEC Championship in program history at last season’s inaugural iteration at the golf course.
Kentucky’s lineup this week features sophomore Cathryn Brown, freshman Karlie Campbell, freshman Anastasia Hekkonen, senior Marta López Echevarría and sophomore Brooke Oberparleiter.
It will mark Brown’s and López Echevarría’s second SEC Championship and their second at the Pelican. It is Campbell’s, Hekkonen’s and Oberparleiter’s first conference championship for the trio of underclassmen.
Last season, Brown and López Echevarría helped UK earn fifth place out of the 14 teams in stroke play. It marked the program’s best finish at the SEC Championship since tying for fifth place in 2012-13 and finishing in solo fifth place in 1992-93. With that, UK improved to the match-play quarterfinals for the first time since the inception of the NCAA Championship format seven seasons ago.
There, Brown went just 6-over across the three days to earn T25, while López Echevarría went just 4-over during stroke play for T20.
This season’s SEC Championship is unique in that it will feature 16 teams for the first time in its tournament history, with the expansion of the league in welcoming Oklahoma and Texas.
The 16 teams will compete in a 54-hole, stroke-play format Monday through Wednesday, with the league utilizing both stroke play and match play for the seventh year. The top eight teams will advance to match-play quarterfinals Thursday morning, then the top four teams will improve to match-play semifinals Thursday afternoon. From there, the top two teams will battle for a conference championship Friday.
The Wildcats are currently averaging a 291.8 scoring average through eight tournaments and 24 rounds in 2024-25. If the season ended today, that 291.8 would stand as the fifth-best team average in program history, with all five of the top five coming in the last five seasons under Borst.
The Wildcats have finished inside the top eight in four tournaments – half of their tournaments – this season, a feat they’ll need to accomplish just once more to advance to match play this week. Senior López Echevarría is leading the team with a 72.9 scoring average through 21 rounds, while eight of her rounds have been par-or-better. Sophomore Brown actually paces the team with nine rounds of par-or-better in 2024-25.
Meanwhile, it has been a lead-by-committee season for the young group, with four of the five Cats in this week’s lineup having led the team in at least one event this season. López Echevarría paced the Cats at the Charles Schwab last fall; Brown co-led at the Paradise Invitational and led at the Spartan Sun Coast Invitational this spring; Campbell co-led at the Paradise Invitational and the Darius also this spring; while Hekkonen co-led at the Darius and outright at the Charles Schwab this spring.
This week, the team can expect sunny skies and temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s in Tampa.
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.
